Interview with Silent Hill: Revelation 3D’s Adelaide Clemens

2012/10/26 00:06:34 +00:00 | Jonathan James

During the New York Comic Con, I took part in a few interview opportunities for Silent Hill: Revelation 3D. For the first feature, I have my interview session with Adelaide Clemens, who told me about being cast as Heather and acting opposite the Red Pyramid:

Fans of the Silent Hill video games are happy because you look just like Heather. Can you tell me how you became involved with the movie?

Adelaide Clemens: It was the most insane experience. I was at the Sundance Film Festival and it was my first time there. My mom was with me and this strange French man comes barreling down the street at us, saying "I want you to be in my film". He followed me around the festival and pulled up a photo of Heather on his Blackberry. It was scary, because my hair was done the same way and I was wearing similar clothes. It was absolutely bizarre and quite creepy. Then we got to talking and he's just the most charming man.

A couple of weeks later I was in LA, read the script written by Michael J. Bassett, and thought that it had a wonderful story. Essentially, it is a girl looking for her father and I could relate to doing anything for my family... even going to Silent Hill.

Before being cast in the movie, what was your familiarity with the movie and the game series?

Adelaide Clemens: I had seen the film and it was scary [laughs]. I thought the aesthetic was amazing and I had never seen anything like that. I have two younger brothers, so the Silent Hill video games were always on our living room floor. It's funny that I'd walk over those games going to my bedroom and now I'm in the movie. Life is weird...

After I read the script, I talked to my brothers because I needed to have their seal of approval. My younger brother, Felix, is fourteen and said "That's the scariest game there is... You have to be in it!" and I said "ok".

Did you have a chance to play Silent Hill 3 after signing on to play Heather?

Adelaide Clemens: We had a console there during production for everyone to educate themselves on the game. To be honest, it took me thirty minutes just to set up the profile. That gives you an idea of my gaming skill... I go back to the good old days of Nintendo 64 and Mario Kart. The game is petrifying, maybe because of the voices and psychology, but that's why they're so successful.

It seems like you do plenty of running around in this movie. Did you see this role as physically demanding? Do you enjoy getting involved in some of the bigger stunt and action scenes?

Adelaide Clemens: I love it! I'm a runner and I played water polo, basketball, hockey, and everything I could growing up. I thought the physicality of this role would be a piece of cake, but it wasn't [laughs]. We were shooting in -16 degrees in Toronto and I'm from Australia, so it was especially brutal. The stunts were incredible and I became immersed in the role of Heather and felt what it was like to be on the run, literally...

We had one particular scene that we shot toward the end of production. I decided on that day to not wear my contacts because it was a midnight shoot. We were on this big platform we had to wet down and then there was a ring of fire around the platform. Red Pyramid was double my size, wielding an axe, and I had to run past these stunt people blind and on a wet surface with fire around. I was just so happy to reach the other side and thought it was just insane [laughs].

Did it make it feel more real to you having to work with actors playing most of the monsters instead of computer generated versions?

Adelaide Clemens: There's only one CGI monster in the film. Red Pyramid was performed by this incredible man and the nurses were all contortionists and dancers. They all had personalities and could up their performance on every take. You can't do that with CGI and it brings a life to these characters that you can't do from a computer. I was genuinely petrified the whole time.

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Missed out on our recent coverage of Silent Hill: Revelation 3D? Catch up by visiting the following links: