Resident Evil: Extinction: Star Oded Fehr
By: Mr. Disgusting

Alice (Milla Jovovich), now in hiding in the Nevada desert, once again joins forces with Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps), along with new survivors Claire (Ali Larter), K-Mart (Spencer Locke) and Nurse Betty (Ashanti) to try to eliminate the deadly virus that threatens to make every human being undead... and to seek justice. Since being captured by the Umbrella Corporation, Alice has been subjected to biogenic experimentation and becomes genetically altered, with super-human strengths, senses and dexterity. These skills, and more, will be needed if anyone is to remain alive.

BD: So how does it feel to be back for another Resident Evil?

OF: Great. Very good. I’m a lot more excited about this one than I was on the last in the sense that I just think this is going to be a better movie than the last one. I enjoyed doing the last one but when I read the script and coming into Mexicali where we shot the dunes and all the rest of it, and seeing it, seeing stills of what the movie will look like. The feel of what the movie will look like. It’s beautiful. I think heast, desert, sand, all these earthy colors are very adventure-like. They give a different dynamic to a movie.

BD: Sitting in a truck all day on a soundstage, how hard is it to keep the excitement up?

OF: Well, you can see. You guys saw. It’s very different because, obviously, you’re on a soundstage, there’s a blue screen. You’re doing all these scenes of reacting to things you’re seeing outside of the truck and all that so it’s harder. It’s funny. You don’t have anything to look at so you have to really imagine it. And the conditions were so extreme over in the desert that it’s kind of hard reproducing that, bringing that back. It was the most extreme conditions I’ve ever worked in when we were in the desert.

BD: We actually couldn’t hear the dialogue so what were those two scenes in the truck today?

OF: Basically, we’re discussing that this is a post-apocalyptic so there’s a scene where we’re talking, Alice and I, that I feel like that’s it. Maybe we’re the freaks. Maybe we’re the ones who don’t belong here anymore. Maybe it’s their world now. That kind of stuff. We’re arriving in Las Vegas and we’re talking about that, how it looks so different.

BD: Now you’re the veteran of doing genre movies in the desert. For the actors that weren’t used to those kinds of conditions look to you for any sort of advice?

OF: Well, I probably did better than most but again I got to say, this was the highest temperature I ever worked in and the hardest conditions I’ve ever worked in so I was in the same boat as everybody else really. I was equipped with the emergencies, electrolytes and all the rest of it. Grapefruit extracts against the stomach bugs, things like that. So a little bit helped people out.

BD: How would you say your character’s changed or evolved in this one?

OF: I think the main thing is how the world around us has evolved. The fact that it’s the end of the world. The last movie, the infection was in a city and we were fighting to keep it in there and in this one, we’re just trying to survive. It’s a world where we’re trying to find food, find gasoline, find water and anything else we need to survive on and we’re literally picking the smallest things we could survive from anywhere, you know? So we’re just trying to survive in this movie and the last movie we were just fighting an enemy kind of thing. I think that’s where it’s quite different.

BD: Milla seemed to be keeping things very loose during the shooting today. Is that how she normally acts?

OF: Yeah, I think we all do. The thing is also that you have to remember is that you guys have come to visit us toward the end where everybody is all very exhausted and we’re all very silly. But it’s never really been tense. We’ve never really had tense moments other than if somebody fainted because of the heat or things like that. Other than that it’s a relatively fun set to be on.

BD: You did not seem silly today. Do you have silly moments?

OF: Did I not seem silly today? You missed it. We’re all very, very silly. I find I’m the biggest klutz out there and I’m very opposite of the kind of cool, fighting here that I’m playing. I’m a total klutz.

BD: What’s it been like working with Russell [Mulcahy]? How’s that different from the last one?

OF: Great. Russell, obviously, has a lot of experience under his belt and has been around for a long time. He’s got good vision, he’s very good at working with the actors and getting performances and all that so it’s been great. It’s been very good.

BD: The producer told us that they’re already working on the fourth one. Is there a chance your character survives and could be in the fourth one?

OF: Can’t tell you, can I? [laughter] Don’t think I can. Uhhhh, nope, can’t.

BD: If you did survive and they asked you to come back, would you?

OF: Yeah, I love these movies. It’s great.

BD: The second season of Sleeper Cell is coming up. Can you tell us anything about that?

OF: Just that I’m extremely excited. I really, really, really love the show. I’m very, very proud of the show and I’m really excited to be going back and doing another season. As far as dramatic acting, it’s the stuff I’m most proud of. It’s my best work to my feeling. It’s wonderful.

BD: How do you like having the regular schedule of a TV show?

OF: I don’t think there’s anything regular about the schedule of a TV show. If you’re suggesting that you’re working in Los Angeles and you drive to work and you go home, it’s wonderful. It’s fantastic to go home and sleep in your own bed and spend the weekends t home. But the TV schedule’s the most grueling schedule out there. You start off at six o’clock or five o’clock in the morning on a Monday and you finish Saturday morning at four. So it’s extremely grueling on the one hand. On the other, I do love it. When it works well … what’s so important about TV is that you try to cram as much as you can in eight days. With a movie you get a little bit more of a longer time. You get to do more takes, you get to do more set-ups and different angles and so on. On TV you really have to make each take happen. And when you have a cast and a crew that work seamlessly together, that’s when you get great performances and I really have to slay that on Sleeper Cell, it’s been so smooth. The scripts came in very early, the pre-production was wonderful, the crew was amazing, all the actors were well-prepared and ready and worked very well with each other.

BD: Will the second season address any of the recent developments address what’s happening in the real world? Like killing Zarqawi?

OF: I’m sure it does, you know? So far I’ve read only two of the scripts. I’m sure it will. It does already in what I’ve read but yes.

BD: Do you go straight into that after this wraps?

OF: Yes. I literally finish this, fly back and start working, which is great. To be an actor, it’s great to work.

BD: I know you’re always asked about a third Mummy film but are you interested in coming back? I remember reading an interview with you where you said you were looking forward to cutting off the hair and all that.

OF: Yeah, The Mummy movies are what turned me into a working actor. I love them. I think they’re great adventure, fun movies. I would love to do another one if they did one I’m in but from what I know, I spoke to Stephen Sommers about six nonths ago or whatever. He called me and he said the writing – he’s not involved in the writing process I don’t think – they’re writing one that is very different. That’s a totally different time. Rachel and Brendan are in it, I think, but it’s a totally different style. I think it takes place in a different place and I think they’re the only they plan to come back. But I have no idea what’s happened since. But I love The Mummy movies and would have done another one, of course. I feel like I owe The Mummy movies my career.

BD: The producer and special effects guys have told us this is a lot bloodier and gorier than the previous two films. Have you noticed an elevated level of blood and guts on the set?

OF: That is an excellent question. I have not. We have new kind of super undead in this that are much faster and much scarier and more disturbing than the last ones. The movie is elevated in a certain way in its action so probably it will end up being like that if that’s what they’re saying. But on the set itself –

BD: You haven’t gotten wet, have you?

OF: I got a little blood here, sprayed there. Little bit this, a little bit that. But I couldn’t tell you I’ve noticed [more].

BD: Have you kept track of Carlos’ personal bodycount of victims in this?

OF: Yes, you know I have my little helmet that I go and – no, I think I lost count by that point.

BD: They told us that the zombies are a step-up from the last two films. Is it a lot easier to react to them?

OF: Yes. The first scene we shot with the super zombies, they kind of burst out and come at us. This is the first time we see them and it was very easy to react because on the last one, they kind of diddle-daddled towards you. There’s just a lot of them. On this one we’re standing there with the guns and all of a sudden, these things just run right at you and you’re like, “Whoa!” And you try to get away. So, yeah, it’s definitely helped. I mean, they’re very fast. The stunt guys that they use are amazing. If you think of the conditions of running in 130 degrees with all the masks and the make-up and the heavy things they’ve got on, and they have to run in deep sand, and still they ran so fast and they attacked us so fast. These guys were amazing. Amazing.

BD: Do you find working on Sleeper Cell more rewarding as an actor simply because you’re not reacting to things happening off-screen?

OF: It’s a totally different genre. This movie is a made-up movie. It is not reality. You’re not confined so much by the real world. On this movie you can overact or over-react to all kinds of things because there’s all these creatures jumping at you and all these things. The fighting and you’re really cool and all of that. Whereas Sleeper Cell’s a much grittier, very realistic, it’s all very small. So as far as an actor, I love that. This was my first opportunity in drama to play somebody real time, very heavy drama, bad guy. All of that was a great challenge as an actor because the character of Farik is so different from who I am. So it’s been very rewarding and really wonderful.

BD: What do you look for in directors?

OF: I’ll tell you what the most important and enjoyable thing for me is getting notes. A director that enhances my performance by seeing things onscreen and then telling me, “Why don’t we do that? Why don’t we do this?” Directors who understand a little bit more of the psyche of what he’s looking for and can put that in words. I work great with notes. I really am able to elevate with getting notes from other people and hearing other people’s opinion and I think that’s for me the best thing about working with a great director.

Other Set Reports:

Click here for full set report
Click here for an interview with Oded Fehr
Click here for an interview with Ali Larter
Click here for an interview with Milla Jovovich
Click here for an interview with Producer Jeremy Bolt