We were joined on the Popternative show by Jeremy Irvine (Outlander: Blood of My Blood, War Horse) who stars as James Sunderland in Return to Silent Hill, the third installment in the Silent Hill film franchise. The new film is an adaptation of Konami’s acclaimed game, Silent Hill 2. Directed by Christophe Gans, who also directed Silent Hill (2006), Return to Silent Hill releases in theaters today, Friday, January 23.
The film also stars Hannah Emily Anderson (Smoke, Jigsaw) as Mary Crane/Maria/Angela and Evie Templeton (Wednesday, Lord of Misrule) as Laura. Return to Silent Hill follows James (Jeremy Irvine), a man broken after his relationship with the love of his life, Mary (Hannah Emily Anderson), ends. When a mysterious letter from her calls him back to Silent Hill, he finds a once-recognizable town transformed by an unknown evil.
While James desperately searches for Mary he encounters terrifying creatures and begins to unravel the mystery of what happened to the town. But as he descends deeper into the darkness the secrets he uncovers lead to a horrifying truth, and James finds himself struggling to hold on long enough to save his one true love. the challenges of acting alone for much of the film and the emotional toll of the dark subject matter.
Irvine recalls some of the challenges of having to act alone in scenes for much of the film and the emotional toll of the dark subject matter, “I got into this business because I liked actors, I found them really fun people. And the best thing about getting to be an actor is acting, but also hanging out with actors and having a laugh in between takes. So it was a bit lonely if I’m honest, and also it was quite depressing, dark, headspace to have to go to for this role so I was kind of just in that headspace for a long time. Whenever Hannah (Emily Anderson) and Evie (Templeton) and other actors came to set, I would be sot of manically excited.”
Irvine’s approach to portraying James from the video game relied on him having to look for more depth within the character: “I went back to the game looking for some things to use and in a way it sort of had the opposite effect on me. Because I was playing it and [realized] the character is quite, sort of bland, a bit of a blank canvas, because you as the player, you are interacting as him so you are feeling the emotions that the character is meant to feel. For a move, it is the other way around; you need to see the person going through what they’re going through and their reactions that you feel, so it’s different in that respect. So I went, ‘well how do i make this guy have a much larger emotional range, and much more depth and heighten those emotions so that that it is interesting to watch and people will believe it’s a real person?’ It was more about finding little moments rather than copy the character.”
Watch the full conversation with Jeremy Irvine below.
Return to Silent Hill is playing in theaters.
_