Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Interview

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 fans rejoice – the PC version is out now! To celebrate, publisher EA took over Trafalgar Square as part of this year’s London Games Festival with a giant BattleDome and a televised Battlecast Primetime online event. VideoGamer.com braved the freezing cold to sit down with lovely ex-Hollyoaks star Gemma Atkinson, who plays Lt Eva McKenna in the game, and discovered that this is one celebrity who’s got quite a surprising gaming past…

VideoGamer.com: What was your first thought when the idea of starring in the game presented itself?

Gemma Atkinson: Excitement. I was really excited because I loved computer games as a kid. I get to act again which is what I love doing and I get to shoot in America. Everything was amazing.

VideoGamer.com: What kind of games did you play as a kid?

GA: I started on the GameBoy and I was into Tetris. Then I moved on to the SEGA Mega Drive and it was all Sonic and Knuckles. Mega Drive 2, Revenge of Shinobi. Then I got the PlayStation and it was PaRappa the Rapper, Point Blank and Tomb Raider. And now I like the Wii, Wii Fit, and I got a 360 because Command & Conquer is out on November 14 so I’ll be playing that on my 360.

VideoGamer.com: So you know what you’re talking about…

GA: Yeah!

VideoGamer.com: Command & Conquer has always had this sort of over the top, tongue in cheek tone to it. Did you know about that going in or was it a shock to you?

GA: The game itself has serious issues with wars and stuff and what’s going on but you are very right to say it is very tongue in cheek. It’s almost kind of camp. But yeah, as soon as you get in the costume you realise that when you see what everyone’s wearing. But I think that made it even more fun to do because it was completely different to anything I’d done before.

I mean my character, Eva McKenna, she’s very independent, very strong, she’s the commander’s right hand. But at the same time she has a bit of a crush on her commander, so that’s the tongue in cheek bit where she’s trying to be professional but when the camera’s gone she’s dreaming about her commander which is quite funny.

VideoGamer.com: It’s all looking straight at the camera. Was that weird for you?

GA: It was weird because obviously with acting on telly you react to somebody so it’s a lot easier. But with me I was just on my own. If it had been like on the Hollyoaks set with a director I’d known I would have been fine but it was in a studio in America, big names who are already established, a camera crew who are like, ‘come on we want to get home, let’s do this’. It’s like, ‘oh… OK’. Thankfully, God must have been looking after me that day because it went so well. I managed to get everything on the first takes, everyone was really pleased. By the end of it I was like, ‘yeah, I’m kinda cool!’

VideoGamer.com: So your experience has been positive enough that you would perhaps do something again in the video game world?

GA: Yeah, definitely. Command & Conquer invited me back to do more promotion for it about two months later, which was amazing because I thought it was done and dusted and finished and I’d hung up Lt Eva McKenna and I was a bit kind of, ‘aww’. But then they contacted us again and said ‘it’s been received so well in the States would you come back and promote it more?’. So I was like, ‘yeah, definitely’. So went back, got the uniform back on, did more photos and so yeah, I’d definitely be open to doing more stuff.

VideoGamer.com: Is there one video game franchise that you’d love to star in in the future or have an involvement in?

GA: I like motocross and I like Formula One.

VideoGamer.com: What could you do in a Formula One game?

GA: I could be the flag girl! Anything to do with cars or bikes is good. I could be the person with the headphones on, right turn! Giving all the directions in rally cars, that would be good!

VideoGamer.com: Tell us a bit more about your character in Red Alert 3.

GA: Basically she’s the commander’s lieutenant. So whenever the commander’s in trouble she pops up on screen, tells him what he’s doing wrong, who’s an ally, who’s not, who’s a spy, basically she just advises throughout the whole game. At the end of the game if you complete it there’s a split screen with me and Jenny McCarthy and we both invite the commander back. So it’s up to the commander who he chooses. Obviously it’s me. So it’s quite tongue in cheek as well, like we said in that respect. She’s just very strong, independent, she’s like the driving force behind it all. Well they do say behind every great man is a great woman.

VideoGamer.com: My girlfriend asked me to ask you if there was an opportunity for you to star in a Hollyoaks video game would you take it?

GA: Yeah. I can’t turn my back on Hollyoaks. That’s where I started so for me to say, ‘oh gosh no’… it would be a bit… but yeah I would always use Hollyoaks and help them in any way because that was my spring board.

VideoGamer.com: What kind of game would you like it to be?

GA: We could have zombies in HCC (Hollyoaks Community College). And Max and O.B. would be the baddies. They’d have to get bitten first. Zombies around HCC!

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is out now for PC and is due out for Xbox 360 on November 14.