Resident Evil Requiem has some of the most convincing performances in the entire series, with Angela Sant'Albano's work as Grace Ashcroft being a personal standout, and, according to the actor herself, a lot of that comes from Capcom giving performers the freedom to re-do otherwise perfect scenes to their liking.
During a recent interview between GamesRadar+ and Sant'Albano, she stresses just how much Capcom pushed for a "collaborative" environment between the creative leads and the actors. She tells me Capcom really wanted "cinematic" performances to elevate the series alongside recent improvements to RE Engine, but she also explains that actors were given the agency to scrap and re-do takes that they weren't personally happy with, even if they were technically perfect.
"Capcom really did know what they wanted for Grace, but they were very respectful and excited by us actors coming in and giving our own sort of interpretation or touch to them," says Sant'Albano.
"They were so excited about us adding all those layers to the performance," she adds. "And whenever we would film, if we did a scene and technically it was great, like, for their tech, it was great, sound was great, movement was great, all of that. But we as actors were like, 'We didn't quite get there. Like, I didn't quite feel it,' they were really up for it. They're like, 'OK no, if you didn't feel it, we need to do it again, like, go again.'"
Resident Evil Requiem is a masterclass in blending two different genres into a cohesive whole, with the Grace sections, in particular, being among the scariest levels I've ever played, and I really do think a substantial part of that can be attributed to Sant'Albano's performance. As someone who struggles with anxiety, her behavior and mannerisms are incredibly authentic and make the experience feel all the more real... of course, until you're back to roundhouse kicking zombos to death as Leon, a cathartic release by that point.
