To celebrate the recent release of the remake of Resident Evil 3 on consoles and PC, we had the absolute privilege of chatting with Jeff Schine who portrayed the charming U.B.C.S member Carlos Oliveira in this reimagining of the classic Survival Horror game. We talked about the amazing response of the RE community, how much the character means to him, working in mocap and his big upcoming superhero role.

STARBURST: Congratulations on the game. You and the rest of the team did an amazing job of capturing the spirit of the original whilst also being its own thing.

JEFF SCHINE: I’m so glad to hear that – as a performer that is so wonderful to hear.

How has the response been from the very vocal and passionate Resident Evil community?

I think as fans of anything, when there’s a project when you love the original, anytime you hear that they are going to be revisiting that story or property there’s always that moment of doubt because you are equally excited but worried, so I’m glad to hear that people loved it. The overall response has been really pleasing and gratifying because you put a lot of work into these projects that you love and then throw it out to the world and you never know what the reaction is going to be – you are always hopeful and it’s been so nice to get the feedback from the fans who seem to universally enjoy it. They’ve also been so welcoming to me into the Resident Evil family – I call it a family because the Resident Evil fans are incredibly passionate and very dedicated, they are simply awesome. I particularly love the massive amount of fan art that’s been sent my way. I try to engage with the community as much as I can as a way of repaying their generosity. The game also came out at a perfect time to allow people to escape from reality.

Before we get onto the RE3 Remake, let’s talk a little about your history as an actor. Where did your passion and love of acting begin?

Right from a super early age, I had an interest in performing and telling stories. When I was younger I would torture my family doing funny voices and things like that, you know, trying to make them laugh [laughs] – and I remember when I started watching movies that I wanted to keep a list of every single movie I watched. So I started the list and it got to something like five or six hundred at a very young age – I just loved the ability to escape into these worlds that could feel so real. But I didn’t realise that this was something you could do for a living until much later when I was in high school – that’s when I started taking it seriously. I just really enjoyed it and that’s where it really began.

Have you always been a video game fan? If so, what were some of your favourites growing up?

I’ve been a gamer since I was very young – I was always fascinated and just obsessed with games. I remember we used to go to our local video store called GoVideo just to rent a SNES. We used to have a babysitter that used to bring over his consoles and we would spend hours playing them. My mum and dad would restrict the amount of time I could play so I would cherish the time I would get with games. I loved so many games as a kid – Jackal, Contra, the original Zelda – one of my favourite games of all time is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye, Bump ‘n’ Jump, Burger Time – all of these games were incredible. And then when I got hold of Street Fighter, it just blew my mind when it first came out. As I got older, I got super into shooters – Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six was a personal favourite and then Ghost Recon. Halo was another moment when I realised that gaming is getting better and better. I’m a huge gamer. I actually took a stab at playing semi-professionally at one point too! Games have not only become a great vehicle for storytelling but also a demonstration in ability and skill and dedication. It’s a great art form in visual design and performance design. It’s an incredible medium.

Back onto Resident Evil 3 Remake, you play the charming Carlos Oliveira. What drew you to the character and what was the casting process like?

My agent got the audition for me – I believe the first part of that was a self-tape that I did at home. And then after that, we went into some producer sessions before going in with the director Steve. I liked Carlos immediately on the page. There was something about him that I identified with very quickly. The first of which is that I felt that he was very capable – but I also liked that amongst this capability was that he also didn’t take himself too seriously, I think he’s got this nice roundness to his character – he has a great sense of humour and is a shameless flirt but he’s not even particularly good at it [laughs]. I also liked that he was a good guy – he was doing things for the right reason. It was those attributes that I connected to and allowed me to play him how I wanted to. The team really allowed us to put our own spin on the characters which really helped everything flow naturally and ultimately it was a collaborative effort, but that freedom really helped.

You also did the mocap for Carlos too – have you ever done mocap work before? How much fun was it to take that extra step to get into the character?

I’ve had a number of mocap experiences prior to this – I worked on various Call of Duty titles and Mafia 3, so being on a mocap stage is very comfortable to me, but I think where a lot of that comfort comes from is that it’s not too dissimilar to film and television which is my background. The only real difference is that mocap is kind of a blend of theatre and tv where takes are long but it’s different that you can just play in this huge space. Getting into character for me never feels different whether I’m in the booth or on stage or on a volume doing mocap – I’m always using my body to move around when performing, well, as much as I can without causing issues if I’m in a small booth for example [laughs].

One of our favourite aspects of the story is Carlos’ relationship with Jill – can you tell us more about the development of that relationship over the course of the production?

What was really nice about the production is that we were all on location in Japan. There was a connection between myself, Nicole and Neil at the audition process – none of us knew each other but we managed to instantly find our chemistry even at that early stage. So during call-backs, we would be out in the parking lot and Nicole would come up to me and say “Hey, there’s some weapon handling stuff in our next scene, could you give me a couple of pointers” and stuff like that which was super cool. The same we Neil, he and I had a long conversation outside whilst we were waiting to go in about upcoming scenes – so we all found that early connection. By the time it got to actually shooting the game, we all knew each other so well that everything fell neatly into place and felt organic from the first take – being in Japan also helped our relationship grow as an acting family. All of that helped too with elevating Carlos and Jill’s relationship on screen. One of the big things when thinking about their connection is Jill never occurs as and therefore should never be treated as incapable – Carlos is a capable guy and after their first encounter, he begins to see how capable she is and that resonates with him.

You did an amazing job as Carlos and your performance really elevated the character to new heights! Do you see much of yourself in Carlos?

I think there’s some for sure. I think in a lot of ways, a lot of the characters you get to play over the course of your career, they all have bits and pieces of your personality that you get to play around with – some of that playful sarcasm that Carlos has, that’s definitely me. If you ask Nicole and Neil what I was like on set, then they would definitely agree with that [laughs]. His easy-going nature and capability as well, there’s a lot of parallels with me.

How was it working as part of the Resident Evil family? What was your favourite moment on set when doing the mocap and working directly with them?

It’s nice when that kind of relationship with your fellow castmates happens organically. It’s not always the case but you always hope that you have at least a professional relationship during the job but it’s so great when it turns out to be more than that and Neil and Nicole are like family to me now. The days when we looked at each other at the end of the working day and said “I think we did something special today” really stay with me and mean the world to me.

Favourite line of dialogue for Carlos?

“A cold, cruel, Carlos-less world” – I love that line. I also loved “Hey, fuckface” of course. I just loved whenever I got to say “supercop” to Jill – just the different ways I was able to say it throughout the story. What that word meant was different every time I said it – in the beginning, it was a bit of a jab, and by the end, it was a term of endearment. Just so many amazing lines.

Jill recently joined the survivors in the 4v1 online game RESIDENT EVIL RESISTANCE and Nicholai will soon be joining as a Mastermind. Is there any chance do you think that we will see Carlos make an appearance?

I would love for Carlos to make an appearance in the future, I can tell you truthfully though that I do not know if that’s going to happen as I haven’t been asked to record anything as of yet.

If given the opportunity to portray Carlos in the new set of live-action adaptations of Resident Evil that are currently in development, would you love to return to the role?

I’d be so happy to! Live-action is my true home, so getting the chance to get back into this world in any capacity would be truly awesome – it’s really a fun place to play.

Can you tell us about some of your upcoming projects including Marvel’s Avengers?

I did all of the mocap and performance capture for that role – that includes all body movements and facial movements, so the same as what I did on Resident Evil. I’m very excited and proud of it but I can’t say too much more than that, unfortunately. What I can talk about is that I’m involved in a game called Disintegration which is from Marcus Lehto who is one of the original creators of Master Chief from the Halo series – this is his first big game with his new company. It’s a cool story and universe and I’m excited for people to get the chance to see more very soon.