In a phone interview we speak with Jovovich about her iconic roles, and how the action landscape is shifting.

Q: The conversation right now is about women leading franchises. How has that conversation in 20 years?
A: In “The Fifth Element,” everyone expected Bruce Willis to be the star of the movie. Nobody thought that there would be this little orange-haired girl doing all of the crazy stuff. Back then, it definitely wasn’t the done thing. And to be honest, it still isn’t. “Resident Evil” is an exception to the rule. Maybe there’s a few others, like “Hunger Games.” But especially here in America, it’s hard to get (action) movies made with strong female-driven roles. We’ve made great strides with women being taken seriously (in) this genre and these kinds of films, but … there’s definitely a long way to go to have women accepted 100 percent as action heroes.

Q: Why is that?
A: A lot of actors in general don’t really like action movies. I think if you don’t respect what you’re doing, then how are other people going to like it? Something that I’ve heard a lot from actors is that it’s not real acting — it’s silly stuff. Doing things in front of a green screen — they don’t take it seriously. For me, acting in front of a green screen always presented really immense challenges.

Q: “Resident Evil” may not have ushered in a bigger trend of video game movies, but it did make an impact.
A: “Resident Evil” was very (instrumental) in getting zombies back on the screen. They’re winning all over the place now. When we did “Resident Evil” the first time, we had to get extras to play zombies. We had to send them to school and get movement coaches and put them through a zombie boot camp. Now there’s professional zombies — I mean they’ve made careers out of being zombies. They know how to move like a zombie. There’s a whole zombie world out there now where people know what they’re doing — makeup artists, prosthetic artists.

Q: You once said that the longer you play a character, the more you put yourself into them. What did you put into Alice and Leeloo?
A: Someone like Robert De Niro, for instance, or Jack Nicholson — they can play themselves all day long in every movie. They could be playing a doctor, … a gangster, … a dad or a grandfather — but they’re always themselves. And we love that. But with a character like Alice, I couldn’t be myself. I’m me right now, talking to you, but I don’t sound like Alice. And Leeloo, she’s very much an anomaly…. She is very different, and for that I literally had to leave myself at the door because I couldn’t bring any habits. Luc (Besson, director of “The Fifth Element”) was like, “Don’t breathe when you laugh.” I ended up going to the zoo and studying animals — and figuring out who Leeloo was, based on her animal spirit.

Q: Her animal spirit?
A: My acting coach and I would go to the zoo and stand in front of cages and start imitating the animals…. Then (I would) try the character with these new physical changes to myself. Some didn’t feel right. She wasn’t a monkey, … a snake, … a jaguar; she didn’t have that kind of sleek, sexy way of walking.
Leeloo ended up being a combination between a baby lion and a bird. She’s got this childish innocence. She’s clumsy, a bit heavy-handed like a lion. She’ll make a mess. But then she’s alert, like a bird, head constantly moving.

Q: Where do you see yourself and your legacy in the lineage of action heroines?
A: I don’t want to worry too much about my legacy. You could drive yourself crazy thinking that way. I think about doing the things that are interesting to me and mostly just focusing on my family. If something is able to get my focus away from my family, then it’s probably worth doing. The legacy is going to happen, regardless.

Q: Are you involved in the “Resident Evil” reboot, and how do you feel about it?
A: I haven’t heard anything about it. Look, it’s a great universe. It should get a reboot. My advice to them is to find people who are as passionate about it as we were. I think that’s what you need to have successful franchises — people who really love the property and love what they’re doing to put their excitement, enthusiasm and energy into it. If you start becoming too much like a machine, I think the fans feel it. They … want something original and something that they can feel is real. “Resident Evil” is always real. You have your fans, and you have people that hate it. But it’s held its place because of the passion that we put into it and the excitement level that we have making it. If they find people that really have that, they’re in good shape.