To close up last week, Remedy shared a new interview with Control's leading actor, Courtney Hope, about what it was like to step into The Oldest House in her role of Jesse Faden.
The interview was recorded before the launch of the game but looks to be quite deep in development as many of the twists and details about the protagonist had been finalised. The video is four minutes long and made a debut on the ControlRemedy social media channels and YouTube channel.
You can also see the interview in its entirety below, with a transcript of Courtney's answers...
What's your approach to playing Jesse?
The biggest thing for me, with Jesse, is connecting to... knowing in your heart that there's something that you intuitively believe or know and seeing that through. Even though there are all these obstacles of people or things saying "what you're saying is wrong", "what you're saying is untrue", "you're crazy", you're this or that. And really being in touch with your intuition, because I feel like that is a huge driving force of Jesse. Like, she knows what she sees, she knows what she believes, she knows these visions that she's been having since she was younger. She knows her history and what she's seen to be real and I feel like that was my initial connection with Jesse going "okay, I can relate to somebody that understands and has enough confidence to know, and seeing where she is and just persuing that. Pursuing that vision that she sees, and pursuing what she knows is right. This entity that is... literally taking people over and she's like "no, I will not be defeated by that thing. I'm going to defeat that." So it's been cool, I've really have fallen in love with Jesse a lot. I liked her a lot from the beginning when I first heard who she was. But I feel like I'm falling in love with her more and more, every single day.
Can you compare playing Jesse in Control and Beth in Quantum Break?
It's interesting! I think the beginning approach to both of them have been different. Since this is my second time around, I kind of know more about what goes into it. I feel like the first time I came to it, it's like... I did mostly film and TV, and fleshing out what a character is, as opposed to understanding, really truly, the arc of the game. That there are obstacles in the game and, as a player, you want to be somebody that somebody wants to play. As so with Jesse, I feel like, because she's the lead, there's been a lot of that, of going "okay, what is the most relatable, and what is the most playable". Because, as I said, with Beth, I think it was she is who she is by herself, she can stand alone, but who is she also in relation to Jack. And I feel like this is who is Jesse in relation to the world and to the Oldest House, and so, it's been fun!
What kind of hero is Jesse Faden?
I've read a couple of things like "she's not your badass" but she is, in her own way. She's ruthless in the sense of- in the pursuit of her dreams, but she's not ruthless in disregard to humanity. That's the biggest difference. I feel like a badass comes in a plethora of ways, y'know? That confidence. And she has that, but... her humility never strays too far from her. She's not too scared to point out the realities of the situation, which comes through in humour. When people do things and she's *pulls a face*, the things people don't usually point out, she's "really, did no one else see that? Okay, cool." And I think that's what makes her human.
What do you think about Jesse's relationship with the paranatural?
Because she's seen so much weird in her life; she's seen Polaris, she hears Polaris, she interprets Polaris. And that to her is normal. So when she speaks to other people about it, and they don't see it, or hear it, or interpret it, or anything like that... and then when she walks into the Oldest House and sees that it's was all there, it was a build-up to this very moment... I think there's a sense of relief and that's where the "at home" feel comes in, where she's like "okay, now I see it all had a purpose leading up to this point". And so I think she embraces the weird even more because there's weirder things that happen in this house than happened outside. And so I think that gives her the ability to embrace this paranatural world that has all these twists and turns and weird Objects of Power that are doing weird things and breaking things down, and there's an excitement to it because she's like "okay, I'm not crazy. This is cool" and also "this is different, let's figure out how to solve it."
