To celebrate the recent release of the remake of Resident Evil 3 on consoles and PC, we had the absolute privilege of chatting with leading lady Nicole Tompkins who portrayed S.T.A.R.S member Jill Valentine 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 her and working in mocap.

STARBURST: Congratulations on the game. I loved it – as someone who considers the original Resident Evil 3 to be one of my favourite games of all time, you and the rest of the team did an amazing job on capturing the spirit of the original whilst also being its own thing.

NICOLE TOMPKINS: Thank you so much! That means the world to me. We thought of it as a reimagining in a way too when we shot it. We weren’t going in to copy or mimic anything, we were looking at these iconic characters and a story that is riveting and exciting and adding our own ideas – and clearly everything that Jill goes through before we see her in RE3 is something we were privileged to draw on as a backstory. In this game, I felt that we were able to explore the characters emotionally in a way that may not have been seen before.

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

I feel so grateful for being on the receiving end of so much enthusiasm and love for this game. I was warned that the Resident Evil community was pretty darn awesome and it’s definitely exceeded my expectations. I’ve just received such a warm welcome and so many comments on social media expressing how much this game and my performance means to them. I love that, you can’t ask for more than that as a performer really. I’m really proud of everything we did, it’s so rewarding. I love talking with people about it [laughs].

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?

I started at a really early age, I loved performing and storytelling from day one pretty much. I was a musical theatre nerd and did lots of shows and sang constantly. As much as I was an entertainer, I was also very introverted in some ways. I found performance was a way for me to connect with people and really get to know them through exploring the inner workings of someone else – acting provides the opportunity to live so many lifetimes in one and it’s really a study of humanity which something that I love. I’m fascinated with people and how they work and communicate with each other.

So as someone who loved narratives like that it was an easy transition into film and TV – I’m from Texas originally and I moved to LA because I decided at one point that this is what I wanted to do. When I got out to LA and had had some booth experience doing local commercials and being a singer, so I auditioned for a few voiceover jobs and someone clued in that I was good at it and I loved doing it – so I started developing the craft and I was very lucky to have my first video game role with voice and mocap in Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, and I was thrown in with the amazing talent of Troy Baker, Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey – all of these incredible voice actors who are big in the industry with a wealth of experience so I had amazing mentorship with all of them. It set the standard of video gaming acting super high for me and I was definitely up for the challenge. The mocap stage was such a wonderful blend of everything I’d done up to that point so it made a lot of sense to me and I loved it.

Have you always been a video game fan? If so, what were some of your favourites over the years?

I’ve always played games at some level – I have a very techy family; we love exploring all kinds of entertainment and narrative devices in some way. Recent I’ve played through the Uncharted series – it’s amazing and so much fun, also Horizon: Zero Dawn and I think that Ashly Burch is just awesome in it. And I’ve definitely been hitting it hard on Animal Crossing [laughs].

Back onto Resident Evil 3 Remake, you play the badass Jill Valentine. What drew you to the character and what was the casting process like?

Jill is such an iconic character that almost everyone knows because she was one of the early female characters that took the world by storm in gaming. I feel grateful that I had the chance to come into this character as Jill and step into those shoes of such a badass woman and be trusted with this beloved character that is such a strong woman but also a woman – she gets into a multitude of scenarios that shows so much of her character (she gets thrown around, A LOT!) yet keeps getting back up [laughs]. Being in survival horror, it really allows the audience to see who people can become in these horrible scenarios too which is amazing to be able to play around in and help tell the story of Jill.

In terms of the casting process, it was a pretty standard audition process – they were looking for something specific as they had a strong vision for Jill was going to look like. I knew the character and I knew the game, so I got to come in and give my version of how I see Jill on the basis of the script and that’s where a lot of the character was, in the writing. The script was so strong which was such an advantage, a great story that was handed to us – so it was super easy for me to pick up the character based on that. I was very lucky to hit it off so early with the creative team and with Steve Kneibhily, our cinematics director – we had a shared vision on what everything was going to look like. I read with tons of other actors during the early process too but I knew early on that they were happy with my version of Jill. I also thought straight away that Neil (Nicholai) and Jeff (Carlos) were the obvious clear choices for those roles too.

You also did the mocap for Jill too? How much fun was it to take that extra step to get into the character?

Technology has advanced so much which allows us to add so much to a character compared to days gone by. With mocap, it’s such a great tool to pick up those subtle moments that you feel when on the stage performing – from body language or a slight raise of the side of your mouth – and that just really lends itself so perfectly to this medium. It makes everything feel so natural – it’s very exciting from a performance perspective.

You did an amazing job as Jill and your performance really elevated the character to new heights even though she’s been around in the franchise since Day One! Do you see much of yourself in Jill?

Everything is coming out my body so I don’t think I can’t say that I see much of myself in Jill [laughs]. When performing I put myself in the moment and add how I would react to these situations. The reason it feels so natural is because we are working with what’s in front of us and using our imagination. I would love to say I see all of myself in Jill in terms of characteristics and strengths – don’t we all strive to as resilient as Jill Valentine? [laughs]. I’m nowhere near as cool as Jill but I sure as hell can pretend to be [laughs].

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?

Neil, Jeff and everyone else were just absolute pros – we got together and had instant chemistry and ended up becoming a family by the end of it all rather than just co-workers. Jeff Schine is a total gem – he does such a great job of taking lines that if you just read them on the page you’d be like “sorry, what?” and he makes them seem so charming and lovable the way he delivers them. And Neil, oh Neil, he is such a legend, one of the best ever.

Favourite line of dialogue for Jill? Ours was either the iconic “You want STARS, I’ll give you STARS” or “Next time, take the fucking hint”.

Nooo, don’t make me do it! [laughs] That’s such a difficult question! [laughs] She’s got so many good one-liners, I’d actually pick a Carlos line instead, as that’s easier to pick [laughs] – “a cold cruel Carlos-less word” is an instant favourite of mine. If I had to pick a Jill line, a lot of people love “Bitch, can’t even swim” – that’s definitely been made a meme already [laughs]. Jill is just incredible and her dialogue with Carlos is the best.

Jill recently joined the survivors in the 4v1 online game RESIDENT EVIL RESISTANCE – how was it returning to the character for that fun role? Did you get to improvise any lines?

We recorded the dialogue for that not long after wrapping the main game – it was a slightly different process. I remember getting in with that dialogue and being like “oh, they are having so much fun with this” – we had a blast with that.

If given the opportunity to portray Jill in the new set of live-action adaptations of Resident Evil that are currently in development, would you love to return to the role? What about if they do a RE-Remake of Resident Evil 1?

I’m so excited to see what they do! And of course, yes! Absolutely, 100% – I love Jill so much. I’ve been told my face matches one of her original looks so yeah, directors give me a call! [laughs]

RESIDENT EVIL 3 is out now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.