Hello ladies and gentlemen, your pal Muldoon here with a fun (and incredibly brief) chat with "Johnny Rico" himself, Mr. Casper Van Dien. Be it his roles in SLEEPY HOLLOW, STARSHIP TROOPERS, or as Johnny Cage in the MORTAL KOMBAT television series, Van Dien seems to gravitate to fun roles in some fairly far out scenarios, so it's no shocker he plays opposite of a demonic little girl in JUNE. (If you've not yet caught my review, know this: it's fun and will make for a nice pre-Halloween night in.) Given I just posted that not but two days ago and suddenly had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Dien about the movie, I happily accepted and had the pleasure of a super quick Q&A with the man. It would have been great to talk his ears off longer and ask more detailed questions, but ultimately my own triple booking screw up rushed what little time I did have to chat with the man. Van Dien is a genuine pro and was absolutely cool about the rapid fire nature of the interview, a refreshing splash to the face as most folks getting interviewed aren't as forgiving with being so rushed. I'd like to thank him again for once more being the coolest guy in the room and for taking time out of his day to chat with me and the rest of AICN. Let's jump on in and hear a few interesting stories from the man.
Hi Casper, I’m Mike with Ain’t It Cool.
Hi Mike, how are you?
Good, thanks. So we don’t have too much time here, so I’m just going to throw a bunch of questions at you, is that cool?
That’s totally cool, dude.
Great! First off, I did see the film and I liked it. In fact my review is up on Ain’t It Cool right now. Typical question, but how did you come to be a part of the film? What made this project feel like a good fit for you?
So I got involved with the project because I was directing Victoria Pratt in a movie and she was talking to somebody on the phone and some actor had fallen out, someone who was going to do it, and she said, “Well I have to go, because I’m working with this director right now…” and he goes, “Oh? Who?” She goes “Casper Van Dien” and he said, “Oh, what about him?” [Laughs] He started asking her some questions and the next thing I know she hands me the phone and he’s like “Hey, so Casper I want you to be in my film.” [Laughs] So I’m talking to this guy about being in his film. I was thrilled with her and her performance in my movie… I talked to him, he sent me the script, and I liked it; so I ended up doing it.
That makes complete sense, pretty straight forward with a bit of good timing on his end. Given that you read the script and knew Victoria well, was there anything that surprised you with the film? I mean clearly you had worked with Victoria Pratt beforehand, but were there any creative decisions that you weren’t expecting going in? Any pleasant surprises?
Kennedy [Brice]! I really liked her a lot. She is a really talented young actress and she was just a lot of fun to work with, but Eddie Jemison was an absolute joy to work with as well. He is so creative. I just really enjoyed him and the overall camaraderie there. The amazing thing about this film that I was more shocked about was at the end. The very last day we were going to do a crew photo shoot and I saw somebody with a “Death From Above” tattoo and I go “What’s that?” They were like “Oh no! He saw one.” I go, “What do you mean, one?” The entire cast and crew had put these “Death From Above” tattoos on them and we did our whole crew picture with “Death From Above.” [Laughs] I had never done that before. Even in STARSHIP TROOPERS we didn’t do that, I mean there were the four of us with the “Death From Above” tattoos, but in this one there’s like ninety people with “Death From Above” tattoos on, all for a crew picture. So I guess that was the most surprising thing for me.
Yeah, it’s pretty rare to get that many folks on board with a single fun thing like that.
They were all excited about it, so it was kind of cool. It was a good throwback to Johnny Rico in STARSHIP TROOPERS.
Speaking of STARSHIP TROOPERS, that’s really the film where I became aware of you. I’m curious about the first time you became aware of “Casper Van Dien –The Actor.” Slightly meta, but I’m always curious about where folks come from and their first few films. What was the first set you were on where you stopped and said, “Hey, I can do this cool stuff for a living and get paid?”
You know, I booked my very first audition and it was a commercial in Florida. It was the very first one I went on and they were like “Well, you’ve got a callback.” I was like, “I don’t know if I want to go back to a callback, I already went on the first one.” I had no idea, so I ignored the callback and had this song and dance. At first I did terribly, but then I just sang a song I wrote and then they booked me on it. All I had to do in the commercial was sit in a chair with four girls dancing around me in bikinis and I went “This is nice.” I was nineteen and was like “Wow, I’m going to get paid for girls dancing around in bikinis? That’s not bad.” Then they were like “You need to join the union” and I’m like “But that’s the entire paycheck, why would I do that?” “Trust me… just trust me.” I’m like “I don’t want to trust you; I don’t know who you are.” [Laughs] I think, “becoming aware of myself” with this… Acting is something that’s extremely therapeutic. It’s like free therapy or getting paid to do therapy.
You play different characters and different roles and you have to then go in and find places in your psyche or in your background or your life that make it something that then becomes believable. You want to believe it and you want to feel what those feelings are, whether it’s rage or horror or fear or love or lust… Whatever it is that you are trying to feel, you want it to be real, so I think you just become more aware of yourself as you continue acting just as everyone does in life with each unique experience. I think I’m becoming more aware of who I am and even with directing, as I got into directing, I became more aware of who I was as an actor, too. I got to see what it takes to get things out of actors, to get them into these roles and also just make sure that they are able to do it. When you call “action,” you need them to be prepared and you need them to be ready, so you build this space to help them pull off this role and this character. It’s ultimately just about everybody doing their part to help support the end product. So I think I’m always becoming more aware of myself as an actor.
Okay, well Casper it looks like our time is up.
Wow, that was quick!
Yeah, well it was a pleasure and I truly appreciate your time. Thanks again for speaking with me today about JUNE, bikinis, acting, and more!
Thanks, Mike!
JUNE hits VOD tomorrow (10/6/15), so if tales of demonic children, explosions, Eddie Jemison, and Casper Van Dien sound like a fun to you as well - be sure to check it out and circle back here with your thoughts. You folks saw my thoughts - I'm anxious to see yours!
- Mike McCutchen
"Muldoon"
Mike@aintitcool.com
