Lance Reddick’s Resident Evil parent-teacher conference scared him too

To be called down to the principal’s office is, objectively, a nightmare even when you didn’t do anything wrong. Billie Wesker (Siena Agudong), reveals in Resident Evil, it’s not any less nerve-wracking when you’re falsely accused — it might even be worse when your dad goes out of his way to terrify your bully, her dad, and the principal into submission.

The scene is a standout from the pilot of Netflix’s Resident Evil series, with Lance Reddick’s performance as Albert Wesker, dad and Umbrella Corporation super-scientist, striking the perfect balance of menacing and mannered. Albert is quickly able to control the space after he was summoned by Billie, his daughter who has been accused of attacking her bully with a costume made from raccoons. Albert’s parental instincts take over, even though his corporate big-bad mode is not on full blast. He cuts through the bullshit with a knife like butter.

That intimidation factor was something that Reddick relished — and, eventually, got a little anxious about himself.

“It’s interesting because when you read a scene like that, it reads so well, that you think, It’s gonna be awesome, man!” Reddick says. “Because it’s so clear when it’s written, you think it’s gonna be easy. And then when you start working on it you realize: There’s so many layers, and so much nuance in order to make it work. It gets difficult. Then you get scared.”

Image by Netflix

Still, we’d be hard-pressed to say Reddick — who’s the go-to voice of authority in Fringe and as Charon in the John Wick franchise, not to mention a handful of other video game adaptations — didn’t nail it (because of course he did). Agudong was intimidated simply by being in that room with him.

“I got goosebumps reading that scene,” Agudong says. “I wanted to cry watching him, because I was like, Yeah, Dad, you go! It is, however. Was so scary.”

All it takes to make her happy is to hear some gentle but firm threats from her dad. But the scene is a pivotal shift for a character that Resident Evil fans no doubt thought they’d never see getting called down to the principal’s office. And in a way, the show hinges on Reddick landing the multitudes of Wesker’s character in that moment.

“I just remember [Agudong]Come to me, and be like Lance can be really frightening” Tamara Smart, who plays older Jade in the show, laughs. “I think also, it’s like the first time Billie sees her dad like that — they know that he works. But they don’t know how important he is until then.”

They — and the audience — certainly know after he’s done making mincemeat of his fellow PTA members. But no one is happier it came out than Reddick: “I was so excited to play that scene, and I was so glad when we were done shooting it. Because it was nerve-wracking.”