Casper Van Dien Interview: The 2nd

Casper Van Dien and Ryan Phillippe get down and dirty in The 2nd, the new action flick from director Brian Skiba. Casper plays "The Driver," the leader of a team of assassins hired to kidnap the daughter of a Supreme Court Justice. The only person who can save the day is Ryan Phillippe's Vic Davis, whose son is also being held hostage. The basic premise is little more than an excuse to put Ryan Phillippe in a variety of high-octane action sequences, culminating in a show-stopping battle between Phillippe and Van Dien.

Casper Van Dien is best known for his star-making role as Johnny Rico in 1997's Starship Troopers, the subversive sci-fi epic from Robocop director Paul Verhoeven. A big-budget action spectacle with a script that scathingly satirizes military culture and the knee-jerk appeal of fascism's hatred of foreign concepts and societies, the film is one of the most enduring cult classics of the 1990s. To this day, Starship Troopers maintains a strong following of fans who are in on the film's brand of black comedy, as well as those who simply enjoy the over-the-top violence depicted in the war between humanity and gigantic bugs.

While promoting the release of The 2nd, Casper Van Dien talked about his work on the film, from his friendship with co-star Ryan Phillippe to the fun he has playing a stoic villainous role. He also talks about his early days in Hollywood and his love for Starship Troopers. Over the decades, he's reprised Johnny Rico several times within the franchise, and Van Dien expresses hope that the character may return one more time in a television series.

The 2nd releases September 1 on Digital and VOD.

Hey, this is cool! I was six years old, maybe a little too young, when my dad took me to the movies to see Starship Troopers, and I haven't been the same since!

You have an awesome dad!

He was the best. He would have loved to hear you say that, he just passed away earlier this Summer.

I'm sorry to hear that, Zak.

He would have gotten such a kick out of this. He taught me so much about storytelling my taking me to the movies and showing me how powerful art can be.

Paul Verhoeven is a genius, and so is Ed Neumeier, the writer. Your dad had great taste, man! And I'm glad he did that. What a way to be introduced to that crazy, insane filmmaking world, with satire and humor.

I want to circle back to Starship Troopers later, but I think we should talk about The 2nd first.

Yes.

Sometimes I'll go to a movie, or they'll send me a screener, and I'll go in wanting nothing more than to see two handsome guys beat the s*** out of each other.

(Laughs)

And by the end of this movie, I got that!

I met Ryan a long time ago. We both were working on One Life to Live. I met him about 150 billion years ago. Before I did Starship, before he did Cruel Intentions and the other things he would do. But it was so much fun for him and I to throw down in those fights. That, I enjoyed.

I also appreciated that, as far as I could tell, aside from getting blown out of a window, it was really you two going at it. Was that something where you had your stunt guy on the side and you were like, "No man, I wanna do as much of this fight as I can by myself!"

We had great stunt guys who really worked with us and choreographed our fights, and we'd go to the dojo and fight. Both of us had some fight training before. One of my best friends is Garrett Warren, who is a stunt coordinator and second unit director, he worked on Avatar and Logan. He was my Taekwondo instructor. He taught me how to fight for a lot of these films. And Mark Dacascos is another one of my best friends. He teaches me Muay Thai and mixed martial arts. There's a lot of guys who've trained me. And then I get into this thing with all these stunt guys who were there for us. Anytime we needed something, they'd jump in. If there was something we couldn't do, like jumping out of a window, which my character did, which I did not do, my stunt double did. He was amazing and I'm grateful for that. But for the fights, it was really fun to throw down with Ryan.

Is it a blast playing that kind of stoic badass villain character, or do you prefer being the hero?

I think I've been playing a lot of villains lately, and I'm getting better reviews for playing the villain than I do for playing the hero. I guess that might be saying something! Maybe, I don't know! (Laughs) So maybe I'll stick to the villains for now.

This is not your first collaboration with Brian, the director. Tell me how you know him and how you came to be work buddies.

Brian and I worked together on Chokehold, which is another fighting movie. I had a smaller part in that one, but it was a fun and integral part. Then he called me up for this and said, "I've got a role for you, and I think it's perfect." And he told me he got Ryan and he was going to hire a couple of my other buddies like Richard Burgi and William Katt, and my wife is in there, another one of our friends is in there, a whole bunch of stuff, it was a lot of fun. He's just a cool guy. I really dig him and I'm sure he and I are going to work together a lot.

I just saw you in Jason Mewes' movie, Madness in the Method, and that was a fun surprise.

(Laughs) That was definitely a different role for me. When he called me up to ask me for that, he was like, "Snat! Bap! I've got a role for you!" Jason was awesome. We've been friends. We worked together on different things. When he got his directorial debut, he wanted his buddies to come around for it. So, he and I have been pals for years, we're both from Jersey, so it just seemed like a natural thing, "Sure, bro, I'll help you out any time!" I think we like to stick together and help each other out. I think it's important to do that in this industry.

It pays to be friendly. You never know when that karma's gonna come back around and get you a role, right?

And also, it's just a lot of fun to help support your friends with their dreams, to help people accomplish something. Whether it's going to help out or not, I have no idea if that would ever do anything. I don't know. But that wasn't the purpose of it. This was his opportunity. Sometimes, when you're directing, it's better to have friendly faces around. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it's better to have people who are going to challenge you. But I just wanted to be there to support a good friend.

That's great. You were recently on the Honest Trailers YouTube show, doing a take on Starship Troopers. I imagine that's a franchise very near and dear to your heart, still, right?

For the rest of my life. If you saw my office right now... I have a couple of Starship Troopers posters here, and I have a pinball machine out in the garage surrounded by Starship Troopers posters. I love that film. I loved the book when I was a little kid, and then when I read the script, I was like, "How did I have no sense of humor?" I was such a young kid when I read the book, I was 12. And so I re-read the book, and there's no sense of humor in it! It's just what Ed Neumeier wrote into it, and what Paul Verhoeven put into the film. They also did Robocop together. They had such a dark, sick, perverse sense of humor. They're so intelligent, and I love that. It's a satire that went over a lot of people's heads. Some people thought some of the cast members didn't even know. I can't really imagine that they didn't, because we all had the opportunity to read the script, and if you read the script and the book, you'd know they're two completely different works of art. The book is amazing, but it's not satirical at all. It's 100% militaristic, but awesome. And the script, the movie... Ed and Paul are geniuses for getting you to think and think off-color.

Totally. Like I said, I watched it when I was a kid, and so all of those messages went completely over my head, but then I never stopped watching it. And as I re-watched it over the years, I'd pick up more and more until I was like, "Oh, this movie is saying completely different from what you might think it is at a glance!"

(Laughs) And I thought that was genius! And they came out with toys at the time. And I thought, this isn't really a kids' movie, but kids liked it! The ones who saw it, because it's got things that appeal to kids, but that satire, that wicked sense of humor... If you were someone who read books or kept up on politics, you'd go, "Wait a minute! This is totally insane! Why aren't people getting it?" But that's the genius behind Verhoeven and Neumeier. I mean, they did Robocop! Another insanely genius film.

Do you have a Johnny Rico action figure?

I do! I have several Johnny Rico action figures. There are two that were made when it first came out, and now there's a Johnny Rico Funko Pop. And there are, like, 38 different micro mini Johnny Ricos that can attach to a Tanker Bug, or a Warrior Bug, and a Dropship the Plasma Bug. They have a whole bunch of different things. And there's a Funko Pop right now, it's of me after I blast the Tanker Bug and get all the orange goo all over me. And there's also a Funko Pop Tanker Bug! They just came out last year.

You've returned to this role a few times. I think the last time was in the Traitor of Mars animated movie. Do you have a connection that keeps you coming back, or is it as simple as giving back to the fans? Or do you always want to see what's happening next with Johnny Rico?

I will forever appreciate Paul Verhoeven and Ed Neumeier and Sony Pictures and Disney. People don't know that Disney worked on that. I'll forever be indebted and grateful to all of them for giving me the opportunity. It's something that's near and dear to me. I still get people yelling at me at the gas station or the supermarket, they'll go, "C'mon, you apes, you wanna live forever?!" "Johnny Rico, what are you doing here?!" Just yelling quotes from the movie at me, yelling my name and freaking out. It's a positive yelling, though. If they were yelling something else at me, I might not appreciate it. But they get so excited, and there's such enthusiasm behind it, so I feel honored, humbly. I'm thrilled to be a part of it any time. And when they don't ask me, I'm like, "WHAT?!" For the second one, they didn't ask me back, so I was like, "Why didn't you guys ask me back?" Or for Roughneck Chronicles, they didn't ask me! Like, when they asked me to do the voice over for the pinball machine made by Sega, I said, "Yes!" Then they said, "Okay, we can't pay you, but we can give you one." And I said, "I already said yes, but yes again." So now I have a Starship Troopers pinball machine with my voice on it, and it's awesome!

When I interviewed Jay Mewes, I asked him if he's over people accosting him on the street going, "Snootchie Bootchies!" And he was like, "No man, I love it!"

Yeah, he does. I can tell you: he loves it. It's cool. I love that he's that way. He's a good guy.

Starship Troopers was your break. You'd been working a lot up to that point, but that was "the one." In those early days, pre-Starship Troopers, did you ever think about packing it in, going back home, whatever? Or were you always going to stay out there and chip away at Hollywood, no matter what?

When I first went out, I wasn't an overnight success. When I got Starship Troopers, everybody said I was an overnight success, but that was... It came out in 1997, and I moved out to L.A. from Florida and New Jersey in 1989. So I was an overnight success from 1989 to 1997, which isn't quite overnight. There were a couple of times I might have thought that... I was working a whole bunch of different jobs. Security, bartender, doing different things as I was getting ready for acting class and getting pictures and everything when I first went out there. But I was so motivated. It was such a different world and experience for me. Then I just started working. Since I was 22, I haven't had to do anything but act since then. I'm 51 now, so I've been very lucky. I've been blessed. I love this industry. I love what I do. I love being around people. I love movies, I love talking about movies. When I'm not filming, I get to talk to people like you who also love movies, and it's awesome! I'm doing exactly what I want in life. It's just fun. I love all forms of entertainment. If I wasn't an actor, I'd interview actors. It's just something I love. Just being around it is infectious.

For your next gig, we can switch. I'll star in the movie, and then you interview me.

Yeah, we can do it that way!

Starship Troopers: a big bug coming after Johnny Rico.

Okay, last question, and I'd be remiss if I didn't ask: do you think we're going to see Johnny Rico again?

I hope we are. I was really close to doing something. We were really close to maybe doing a TV series, but we'll see what happens.

I'll keep my ear to the ground.

Look, if we get that out again... We were really close last year to getting that off the ground with a really awesome director.

Can you say what network it could have been on, or is it top secret?

I can't say any of that... I don't even know if I'm supposed to say what I just said. But I've worked with the director before, and he's huge, so there you go.

Ooh, will I get in trouble if I put that in the story?