‘Ready’ to roll
Cooke game for Spielberg’s virtual reality adventure
LOS ANGELES — In Thursday’s futuristic “Ready Player One,” Olivia Cooke is a gamer with a reputation for fearlessness who enters the virtual reality world to win an Easter Egg hunt.
In reality, “I’m a technophobe. I had my first VR (virtual reality) experience on the set when I used my VR goggles to look around,” said Cooke, 24.
“When you wear them, you see the world we’re in. You take them off and in you’re in this huge white room which is where the motion capture footage took place.”
Familiar from movies such as “Ouija” and the “Bates Motel” TV series, the English actress plays Samantha, who has a port wine birthmark on her face and whose avatar is Art3mis, named after the Greek goddess of the hunt.
Being able to play two roles was “a huge challenge,” but just the beginning of the fun.
Cooke found Samantha “incredibly passionate and driven. She’s infamous in the Oasis” — the virtual reality playground — “for being a ruthless Egg hunter.
“Not only that, you meet her and there’s a bit of vulnerability with her birthmark.
“There’s vulnerability with a lot of these real world characters,” she added, “because they’ve only truly been able to connect through these virtual reality lenses, which I thought was an interesting aspect to play.”
Another was that red stain on her face. “The birthmark is something that defined her. She sees it as something huge, covering one side of her face. It’s something she’s been trying to hide for a long time and that’s what people are naturally drawn to look at.”
For an actress who “grew up watching his movies,” director Steven Spielberg was one legend who lived up to any preconceptions.
“He’s inspired — and such a generous human being. He could say, ‘Jump off the bridge,’ we all would.”
Spielberg is famously quick. “He just knows what he’s doing,” she said. “He creates these really dynamic shots. He’s the master of tempo. He gives you direction and you know exactly where he’s headed.
“Sometimes he comes up with things just on the day. You think he’s had months and months to plan — but there are moments in the film I don’t want to give away but he just came in the morning and said, ‘I have an idea!’ And it’s in the final version of the film.”