A Resident Evil Fight Gone Wrong Left Robbie Amell With A Nasty Scar
While "Resident Evil" is unquestionably one of the most popular brands across the globe, it seems as if it's impossible to adapt the games to the screen in a way that will appease the very vocal fandom. The most recent film attempt, "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" was such a blatant love letter to the games, featuring faithful recreations of iconic locations, dozens of undead Easter eggs, and some pretty perfect casting decisions. Robbie Amell ("The Flash," "The Babysitter") might as well have been built in a lab to play Chris Redfield, the "Resident Evil" franchise's resident boulder-punching hero, for better and for worse.
During an interview with Comic Book Resource, Amell confessed that the filming of "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" would stay with him forever ... literally. "I got a four or five-inch-long scar on my arm that has just faded now, a year later," he said. This interview took place back in 2021, so hopefully by now the scar is just a thing of the past. Ironically, the scar was earned during a scene he didn't anticipate an injury. Then again, no one anticipates an injury. That's why we call them accidents. Here's how he said it all went down:
"It wasn't even in the dark scene. It was when I'm by the stairwell and there are three zombies grabbing at my arms. I am trying to defend myself. We were all just going for it, but I got a fingernail through my arm. It took a full crater scrape. I had so much fake blood on my arm that you couldn't tell it had happened until I had washed up that evening. It was pretty solid for the first few months and then it was a scar for a little while after that."
Leave it to Chris Redfield to go at it so hard he injures himself.
Zombies are dangerous
Robbie Amell taking a fingernail to the flesh was an unfortunate accident, but it's ironic considering how often the character of Chris Redfield is thrust into hand-to-hand combat against the undead. It's a little bit of life imitating art. "It was finding that balance of, 'We want these things to feel dangerous and scary, but you still want them to feel like the video game,'" he said. This meant that the zombies weren't as stationary in the film as they were in the first "Resident Evil" game, which accounts for a little more intensity in the stage combat.
"It was great that it was always stunt players because they could give a little more and take a harder hit than most actors would be safely willing to do." Amell is right. Stunt performers are masters at their craft, so consider this another reminder that honoring stunts at the Academy Awards is long overdue.
"For instance, in that fight scene in the dining hall, they are all making me look way more badass than I should," said Amell. "Respect to all of them for what they did. It made everything feel authentic and scarier." If you've not yet seen "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City," every scene feels like a warm embrace of the game series, and that includes the adrenaline rush caused by zombies popping out of nowhere and attacking characters like Amell's Chris Redfield. Running from infected cannibals has never been quite so fun, and luckily for those watching at home, there's no risk of zombie-inspired scars on the arm.