Although it is a standalone film, Resident Evil: Extinction picks up a few years after the deadly zombie-making biological disaster that was the focus of 2004's Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The star of all three films, Milla Jovovich, leads the way figuratively, but it's Claire Redfield who takes command and leads a convoy of hopeful survivors (among them characters played by Oded Fehr, Spencer Locke, Mike Epps and Ashanti) though the vast Nevada desert and the ruins of what was once a teeming, neon hot spot: Las Vegas.

Even though her role as Niki Sanders on the hit science-fiction drama Heroes, now entering its second season, takes up nearly every moment of her time, Larter did tell SCI FI Weekly that she would love to revisit her role as Claire if it's offered. "I hear whispers and rumors. I think everything will tell on Monday, don't you [laughs]? I love playing her."

There was some speculation on Friday about a Resident Evil spinoff movie, but for now Jovovich says she is simply enjoying living in the moment, and she told SCI FI Weekly that she feels this conclusion to the zombie saga is "the best of the bunch."Milla, you seem to be shifting away from the kind of movies you've been making. Is that deliberate?

Jovovich: Not really. I've always been very organic. It's funny because five years ago, before I did Resident Evil, six years ago, people would always ask me if I was going to do something lighter. "You do all these dramatic roles, and you're always playing in these dramatic movies. Are you ever going to do something fun?" So I was like yeah, let me do Resident Evil. That sounds fun. That sounds great. And then the next movie came up, and now it's the third movie, and then Ultraviolet, and it's been like Resident Evil and Ultraviolet are the only real action movies I've done. And since it's just Resident Evil, it's like three films, but really it's one franchise, so it's really kind of two films, but it just took ... well, I guess so. I didn't do a lot of action in that, did I?We heard that there's a shot in Extinction where you're jumping off the Eiffel Tower and it didn't make it to the final cut.

Jovovich: Because I looked so ridiculous. I mean, they tell me it's not because of that. They said that, you know, it was just, didn't work, with the undead on the Eiffel Tower, something was better, blah, blah, blah. They just cut into the next sequence, but I know that it was not a hero moment. Even on the day, I just could not do it for some reason. Like I don't know what it was, but I ran down the building in number two and it was scary, but I did it and was able to control my features to look really heroic, but somehow this particular shot and the way they rigged me up, it was one of those roller-coaster moments where you're in Magic Mountain and you're going down that first huge hill and you're just like "Ah!" And literally I would jump and just be all "Ah!" And they're like, "OK, that's great. Let's try it again." And I'm like, "Whoa." I don't know. I thought it looked awful, and I'm not surprised it didn't make the cut.It was a 50-foot drop, so why wouldn't they use a stunt person?

Jovovich: Well, they did do it with my stunt double, too, of course. But I'm always like, "I want to do it." I love doing stuff like that. I mean, it's fun for me to fly, and me and my dad used to go, we counted, we went literally 55 times to Magic Mountain between the ages of like 6 and 12, probably. I mean, that was our thing to go ... and you don't see many 6-year-olds getting on these huge roller coasters where I was like, literally, 10 times on Colossus. I was always that kind of a person. I skydived in my life, I do scuba diving. I've always been into fun, crazy, alternate-universe type experiences.You get to play a couple different variations on Alice in this one. Many of them are naked [laughter]. Did you try to play them all a little differently from the main one?

Jovovich: Yeah, I did. I tried to also think about why does this one die as opposed to not. Why does this one make it past this test, and why does the other one not make it? And I figured definitely in the beginning of the film, where the gurney explodes, Alice reacts really scared and really emotional, and it stresses her out. And then she gets killed by the bomb exploding because she wasn't in control, where the original Alice would never have reacted that big. The original Alice would have always had her head really well placed on her shoulders. She would never lose control like that. That's why she survives. So little nuances like that made it really interesting, and that was one of the most interesting parts of the movie for me to play as an actor, because just to be able to walk down the old sets again was really fun, but to be able to play them in different ways and be the original Alice and be the little-sister Alice and be the overly emotional Alice and ... you know, it was fun. It was great.

Ali, you've been doing press for this movie for a long time!

Larter: I feel like I'm in a vortex, where it's all at this point right now, with season two of Heroes coming up, I did some work on this Dove campaign, it has just been on! Emmys, it's been full-on. But the truth is, you know, I've been in this business for a minute. And to actually be promoting things that you are really excited about, is great. You don't always get to talk about things that you're proud of.You had fun on the set with guns and action, and since this was prior to Heroes, did it at all prepare you for that?

Larter: I've had action back to American Outlaws, back to Final Destination, you know. I feel like I'm always playing the girl who somehow gets herself into some kind of trouble and has to fight her way out, and I'm pretty comfortable doing those things. I think it's just like, usually just a different kind of gun. So give me a brush-up course on the new model, and let's get in there.Would you consider yourself a scream queen?

Larter: I don't think about myself in that way; I'm just attracted to strong female characters, so for me if some of them fit into that genre, it's fantastic. I loved my role in Legally Blonde, you know. I like to do all different kinds of roles. I think that during the course of my career I'll hopefully be able to really mix in between all of them.You said you like to change it up all the time. So what was it about Claire that made you want to play her?

Larter: Definitely that she wasn't allowed any emotional tendencies. I think about Niki Sanders, a character that I play all the time, and what I love about her is that I do get to go to those places and push myself in a different way to feel those things. But with Claire, it had to be very much a simmer-under-the-surface. It's so easy for performances to go over the top in action movies, and in movies where there is so much going on. You've got the music, and the suspense happening, that a performance can just go too much. Really, you have to play it down. For Claire, I just thought, it was a great character within the scope of this movie. And again, I love the fact that she took on different roles with different people. You saw her really get to be more motherly to someone who really needed that, or a leader to someone who needed to be inspired, or needed hope.Claire is a new power female in the Resident Evil franchise. Any chance of taking her in a new direction?

Larter: I hear whispers and rumors. I think everything will tell on Monday, don't you? [Laughs.] I love playing her. I love having red hair, I love kind of the persona of putting that outfit on, and for me, there are so many different sides to myself, and I love not having the kind of girly and emotional stuff that I get to work on, on Heroes. So I love playing Claire. And if they decided they wanted to do something else, I'd be 100 percent for it.