What's It Like Playing Wesker?

This is entry #1 in a series of posts that will detail my insights to the characters I play in ASSIST ME!

Up first is my favorite of the bunch, Albert Wesker of Resident Evil, who makes far more appearances than any other character I play in the show. Wesker has a rich history of actors playing him. First voiced by Sergio Jones in the original video game, Wesker was made a fan favorite by Richard Waugh, who took the reigns in Resident Evil Code: Veronica. Waugh set the standard for Wesker's mid-Atlantic accent (sort of a midway point between an American and British accent and often attributed to Americans of a high social class). Waugh was eventually replaced by D.C. Douglas, who voiced him for his more recent video game appearances, including UMvC3.

In live action, he's been played by the likes of Jason O'Mara and Shawn Roberts. However another source of Wesker's character is Ken Lally, who did the motion-capture work for him in Resident Evil 5 and also portrayed him in the live action versions of the cut-scenes done by Reuben Langdon's studio Just Cause Entertainment.

What a boss.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ken (and several of the mo-cap and voice actors from RE5) at Fanimecon 2009. Ken got a kick out of my Wesker costume, and we talked at length about the character and his interpretation of Wesker's body language and martial arts background. It was a great source of character research that I did well before I expected to play Wesker in any videos. Ken helped me work on Wesker's posture, explained to me why Wesker often had his left arm tucked to his body and had his right hand free by loosely near his neck or upper torso. Wesker's left arm tucks down his holstered Samurai Edge so that if he needs to draw it, it's ready to go. His right hand is always loose and ready to draw if needed, but he also keeps it ready to block any incoming attacks to his head or neck. Cool stuff.

Ken also talked about one of Wesker's character traits that he wanted to implement, but didn't because in CG it looked weird. Wesker is always watching the ground - his combat arena, if you will - to be constantly aware of his surroundings, enemy movement, obstacles and potential traps. He may be superhumanly strong and fast, but he doesn't survive by being careless.

One thing I picked up from reading interviews with Richard Waugh was that Wesker always refers to people by their first name (this is why instead of "Doom" or "Dr. Doom" or anything, he calls Doom by the name Victor.) Waugh also liked to cut out abbreviations (his Wesker says "will not" instead of "won't" and so on) although this isn't a trait that survived into the D.C. Douglas era, and so it wasn't something I picked up on since my Wesker is based on RE5.

I try to implement the official actors' quirks when appropriate into my physical portrayal of Wesker. Of course, ASSIST ME! being a comedy allows lots of freedom for other character quirks.

Aside from making sure Wesker appears confident and ready for a fight, there are other things I do specifically as Wesker. When Wesker does take a seat, he relaxes. Not so much slouches, but just chills. I figured if Wesker would bother sitting with his enemies, he's going to at least make himself comfortable. (This is opposed to Deadpool, who sits forward facing and is always eagerly childish.)

Another source of inspiration comes from Tom Cruise's character Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder. In ASSIST ME!, Wesker's hot headedness and precise insults are a bit of a nod to Les. I try to avoid it being a knockoff as much as possible, but it seemed appropriate for the parody series.

In season 1 and Ultimate, Wesker being the villain made my job easy. I just took what he was like in the games and made it funny. But with season 2 and on, Wesker starts to get this really interesting character arc. Of course we first see him help Max and Doom survive Deadpool's attack, but that's more for his own gain than any other reason. In the Chris episode we see Wesker is living with Max and Doom, but tensions are still there. Ironically enough, the first real hints we see of his arc are in "Doom and Wesker Watch Resident Evil 6 Trailer #2", which takes place after the Chris episode and is alluded to in the "last time on ASSIST ME!" bit of the Phoenix episode. What seems like a one-off joke was actually integral to the plot, and it's the bit where Wesker finds out he has a son.

Now, Wesker (in the show) has always had daddy issues. He admits to them in his own tutorial episode, referring to the fact that his father never taught him to play baseball (before drinking a lot). Now that he finds out he's also a deadbeat dad, he panics. This, in addition to Doom's accusations of Wesker causing the zombie outbreak, cause Wesker to leave the apartment.

It's actually a way heavier character moment than the viewers may have realized, because Wesker just had his whole world turned upside-down by the revelation that he's just like the father he hated. And it was that that turned him around and made him start towards the good-side of the fight. You'll see it more in season 3 (assuming it's released) but you do see it at the end of season 2 when he comes back to help the guys fight Taskmaster. He didn't come back but for any other reason than that he's trying to right his wrongs.

These are the eyes of a man who hates himself.

It's one of my favorite things about playing Wesker in the series. He comes off as cocky, brutish and villainous, but he's actually a deeply delicate character who ultimately recognizes his own sins and starts to right them.

And probably, nobody noticed that til just now.