[Interview] ‘Control’ Star Courtney Hope on What Scares Her, the Game’s Horror, and How Vera Farmiga Inspired Her Performance

Control is one of the summer’s biggest (and best) games.

While the game certainly has performance issues, The Bold and the Beautiful actress Courtney Hope’s turn as heroine, Jesse Faden, isn’t one of them. Earlier this week, we had a chance to chat with Hope about her favorite horror films, what gamers have in common with soap opera fans and her interesting habit of getting caught talking to herself.

Bloody Disgusting: Hi Courtney! So, Control has been getting really good reviews! Congratulations!

Courtney Hope: Thank you!

BD: What’s it been like for you and the rest of the team to see the game get such a positive reception?

CH: It’s really satisfying. It’s really wonderful. Everyone worked so hard, and blood, sweat and tears went into this. And, it’s been so nice to see such a positive reception to it. And, I’ll even say when I played it — I didn’t see it all [during development] because they were doing a lot of stuff behind-the-scenes and putting it together — I was like, “Wow, this looks really good!” I didn’t want to stop playing it, and so I was so excited to see what everybody else thought. And, it just kind of went above and beyond. And so I know we’re all really excited.

BD: Yeah! How long have you been working on it?

CH: I’ve been working on Control for about two years. Maybe just a little over.

BD: And it was revealed, a little over a year ago at E3. What was it like being in it and not being able to talk about it? Was it exciting when it finally got revealed?

CH: Oh yeah! I kind of had a little bit of a taste of that during [Remedy Games’ last game] Quantum Break, ‘cause we couldn’t say anything. But, this was a little different because it was like, “This is such a big thing!” And also, too, because I was going to film it in the midst of me working. And people were like, “Where are you going?” And I’m  like, “I can’t tell you!” I couldn’t say where I was going, because I’d been in a Remedy game before which obviously was in Finland, so we all felt like, if I said I’m in Finland again, people would be inquiring, “Oh my god, why are you there again?” So, yeah, it was hard, but it was so rewarding, when we finally could say something.

BD: So Remedy’s known for making compelling mysteries. Was there stuff that even you didn’t know as you were working on the game? Is there stuff that as you play it you’re surprised to find out? And as an actress how do you deal with that? Where maybe there’s part of the story or something about your character that you’re not completely aware of?

CH: I mean, there wasn’t anything majorly monumental, or anything where I was like, “Oh my god! I wish I’d known that.” There definitely was stuff, like all of [Jesse’s brother] Dylan’s stuff, there was stuff in there that, I didn’t really get to hear some of it. Some of it I obviously did, and I knew the story. They’re really good at relaying the backstory to me, but like, the details of certain things, it was… Even [when I’m] playing it, I was like, “Wow, this is so cool!” And, I’d be like, “Go over here! Let’s see what’s over here!” Because we shot so much. There were even conversations where I was like, “Oh, I forgot I had that conversation! I forgot that conversation went that way.” So, as an actor, it’s kind of fun for me, because I kind of forget that it was me that did it. And, I was like, “I’m really entertained by this.” But, there were a lot of things that I did hear because having conversations with people, they would play them back to me, tell me what was going on if they didn’t have the actual recording. So, there was a lot that I knew. Quantum Break, on the other hand, obviously, was different. So, this one I definitely knew a lot more. This one I was excited to go into, being the hero, because I was like, “Oh my gosh!” Like, I knew this was going to be different. And they were both wonderful, but I just had so much fun doing this.

Courtney as Jesse Faden in Control

BD: So, you’re in Control and on The Bold and the Beautiful right now. So, I’m curious, video games and soap operas both have passionate, niche fan bases. I’m wondering: how do your interactions with fans differ if they know you from your work with Remedy or if they know you from your work on The Bold and the Beautiful?

CH: Both of them obviously, like you said, are very passionate, very excited. It’s just different in the sense that. Well, with Bold and the Beautiful, a lot of people feel like they know me, or they think I am my character. So, they’ll have conversations about that. And, the gamer fans, it’s kind of like they’re excited about the game, they’re excited about the character. So, it’s sort of like a more well-rounded excitement. I will find, what I think’s hysterical is, I get a lot of, from Bold and the Beautiful, “Oh my gosh! My boyfriend walked in the room and was like, ‘Wait a second. She was just in my game.” Or, I’ll get, like the guys going, the flipside, the gamers they’re going, my wife walked in and said, “Oh my gosh! I think she’s on my TV show.” Actually that happened today. I walked into work and one of the security guards was like, “Hold up, hold up. I just saw this trailer for a new game I was going to buy yesterday. And I was like, ‘She looks familiar.’” And he was like, “That was you, wasn’t it?” And, I’m like “yeah.” So, it’s funny how that kind of mixes. Like, I think I’ve been really surprised at how widespread the fanbase really goes for both sides.

BD: So, I’m located in Illinois, but are there big billboards of your face out in LA?

CH: I haven’t seen any of the big ones. I do know that there have been some up at the bus stops, there have been a couple, because I’ve had some friends message me, like they’ll take a photo and be like this is in one of them I think was by the Grove, for Control, it was a Control poster. And, I was like, “Oh that’s really cool!” Yeah, so I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but people have taken photos, which was cool! But, they did at E3 put my body on the side of a building which was like the coolest thing ever. Oh my god! That’s me!

BD: I don’t want to stay on The Bold and the Beautiful too long… but I have another question for you about that. Both Bold and the Beautiful and Control exist in worlds with established mythology. Bold and the Beautiful has been on since 1987, so what is that like for you as an actor, when you know that there’s all this story to keep track of, there’s this established world, and you’re playing a character in a world where the story is so much bigger and more complicated than your own part of it?

CH: Yeah, I feel like, on The Bold and the Beautiful, it’s a little bit easier because it’s established in Los Angeles, so obviously it’s not like a whole fantasy world that I’ve never seen before. I was very fortunate because I got to come on as a namesake character. So, I wasn’t like some shows on soaps will like replace a character and then that’s like a whole bunch of backstory you’ve got to learn. I just had to learn what my great aunt was going to tell me. And then from there I took a big deep breath and was like, ‘Okay, whatever I don’t know someone will tell me.’ Which, I was very fortunate, all the actors on the show and the producers and the writers are very open with content going, if you don’t know anything, here’s what happened. And over time, I learned. And now, it’s like, I know things… And then there’s always things that people forget. Like, some characters have been married like 19 times, and they’re like, “Oh my god, I totally forgot I was married to that person.” It just keeps like coming back around. So, that’s something that I was very fortunate to come in and was new and was my own kind of character, ‘cause I’ve seen some people recently who have come on as other characters and there’s so much that you have to learn. But, it’s cool! It’s an honor to come in and the people that have been there since day one, since 1987, two of them specifically, and they’re just wonderful humans and they’re so helpful and so gracious and they really help everyone

BD: Do you guys shoot everyday?

CH: We shoot, normally, Tuesday through Friday, and sometimes we shoot Monday through Friday. And then obviously, depending on your storyline, you’re there everyday. Like, this week, I’m there everyday. But, then some weeks, I’m either not there or just there one day. It just depends.

Courtney Hope in Soap Opera The Bold and The Beautiful

BD: So as a fan of horror movies, what scares you? And what do you think scares Jesse?

CH: So, me personally, paranormal stuff really gets me, like really, really gets me. Paranormal and any sort of like serial killer. Like something that can be real. Like me, I believe in ghosts and I believe in all that stuff. Like, if I’m rounding a corner at night after seeing a horror film, I’m like, “Please God, don’t let anybody jump out.” So that stuff gets me. As far as Jesse goes, she’s been through so much. And, I think, obviously, anything weird doesn’t scare her. I think what scares her is losing her family and being alone and isolated. Because, her parents disappeared and she’s here to find her brother and what’s the reality if he’s not here, if he’s not okay, if he’s not alive. So many things, I think that’s her biggest fear. Things popping out at her? I think she might get startled, but that’s not a legitimate fear for her.”

BD: So, you’re a horror fan yourself, you’ve played Control, what do you think horror fans are going to enjoy about Control? And how do you think Control’s take on horror and on the supernatural is different from the work that Remedy has done in the past?

CH: I think it’s a lot deeper and a lot darker, personally — like, when it goes into the paranormal, supernatural, aspect of it — than they’ve ever done before. What really intrigued me, was also the aesthetics of it, the way that it looked. They did a really good job of creating characters that are very weird in and of themselves which I think is a little bit unnerving. Some of like the creepier aspects. I think they did a really good job with Dylan and how they displayed it. The quick cuts, they had a lot of quick cuts, things flying in. The biggest thing for me in horror films is those jump scares. The things where you’re expecting one thing and something else happens. So, for me, I feel like Remedy brought in a lot of that stuff. But, I really liked how everything was darker and a little more cryptic. That was something that I enjoyed watching.

BD: You spend a lot of time in the game talking to yourself. As an actor you make that work, but it would be really easy for it to be corny. How did you go about doing that?

CH: Well, I actually talk to myself a lot, in general, as a human. My boyfriend catches me doing that all the time. He’ll round the corner and, he’ll be like, “Were you just…” “Yes, I was talking to myself.” So, obviously, she has someone that she’s talking to, as well, so I kind of played it with the sense that there is somebody there. Whether it’s her intuition or whatever it is. Working it out. Because Jesse spends so much time by herself. She’s searching to find something and people are telling her, psychiatrists, therapists, that she’s crazy or that what she believes isn’t right. And, I just really think that for her, her mind is her best friend. Her intuition is her best friend. So, I just really tried to find that comfortability in knowing that I, as Jesse, have spent a lot of time by myself. And, this is not weird. I have to imagine there’s nobody else around. Because I think people do it all the time. People talk to themselves. Even if it’s not out loud. Even if it’s just in their mind. So, I just kind of normalized it and I think that helped.”

BD: So, shifting gears a little bit. You are Remedy’s first female leading character. So, I wanted to ask, what’s it like to be the face for such a highly anticipated game? And, is it difficult to be a visible woman character in a space that has, historically, been aggressively marketed toward young men?

CH: I’ve said this before, but it is an honor. It also, just is really cool to be the one paving the way with a company like this. I really respect Remedy. I respect the gaming world. It is so intricate. The actors in it are just absolutely incredible, they work so hard. At Remedy and also throughout other games. And it’s cool. It’s cool to know that yeah, it has been mostly male dominated in a lot of different ways. There have been some incredible female characters as well. It’s cool. As an actor, I always want to do my best. But, even moreso, I really was like, “I need to do my due diligence on this.” Because, this is a woman who’s been through a lot. Who does have a lot to say. Who’s fighting for things that are important, that people relate to. That for me was something that I really wanted to make sure, that I did the best that I could and we could all work together and find out what it was to be a strong female. A strong female from a woman and a male’s perspective. I think that’s something that was huge for me. Because certain women have an idea of what it is to be a strong female, and then some men might go well, that’s not what I see, as well. And I think in the gaming world, there are men, there are a lot of men and there are women who play these games and I wanted it to be relatable to all genders. Whoever’s playing the game. So, that was something that I spent a lot of time with and Sam spent a lot of time with, as well. And, we were just trying to create the most accessible character that we could, and the most accessible female that we could. I’m proud of it.”

BD: As a fan of horror, do you have favorite female characters in horror? Did you have characters that you looked to for inspiration as your working on creating your version of Jesse?

CH: I love Vera Farmiga (in The Conjuring). She was very strong. She was calm. There’s something about her that I really enjoy. I did think about her quite often because when she is put up to a task or she’s’ put in front of a demon, there’s a calmness about her. It’s almost like you can feel her heart racing through the screen. But, if you were to listen to her speak, she sounds calm. She did a good job of having her heart race and being nervous, because you’re confronted with something that’s fearful or the circumstances are so high that if you fail it could be a catastrophe. That’s something that I really focused on… Women are portrayed in a multitude of ways in horror films, and there’s so many and it was like which one do I want to be? What is this story? Is this a broken woman that’s coming through and finding something through this? Well, yes. But, I also had to remember that Jesse’s from the streets and she’s not necessarily brittle, but overcomes that. I sort of pulled from a lot of different horror movie females and then found my own as Jesse. The biggest thing for me was reliving her own horror. Losing her brother at such a young age. And losing her parents and that reality of that horror before she even hit the Oldest House. It was kind of compounded.”

BD: Did you have a favorite moment from Control’s development? When you look back on the two years that you spent as Jesse, what stands out?

CH: There are so many good moments. I think something that I really, really enjoyed. The director of it, Hannah Price, is a female. And she’s phenomenal. She’s a European director. She’s done a lot of theater, she’s done some film. And, she’s just so good. And, I think being able to work with her and the whole team. And we just had so many laughs. We just had such a blast filming it. We were on such a time crunch, because I had to do it on my dark weeks from Bold and the Beautiful. So, I would finish on a Friday, fly out Saturday morning, shoot ‘til Friday, fly home Saturday, come back Sunday and have to start filming Bold again. And, to be able to have a communication that worked. And then we got to go out and see the town and have dinner one night, we had a cast dinner which was really cool. I think just anytime I spent over there. I just really enjoyed getting to work with Hannah, because I feel like it really, really helped with the female voice as well.

Every time I go over there, I have so much fun. I love Finland. I say that to people all the time, but it’s so true. I got to take my boyfriend one of the last times I went and it was the first time — I’ve been over there 10 times and it was the first time I got to take somebody, and I was so excited to show them around. Like this is where this is, and this is this famous sauna, and this is this great restaurant. So, all the little memories of it. I was proud of myself. No matter what was going on; jet lag, whatever it was. I got sick. I had the stomach flu one time when I went over there, which was terrible. And, I just really allowed myself to take what was the most enjoyable and focus on that. So, I think that meant the most to me was to be able to look back and be like, “I really enjoyed it.” And that when I watched the game, it was like, “No one would ever know when that was! No one would know I was sick! I was proud of that.”

Control is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.