Assault on VA-33 combines powerful character trauma with some impressive fight scenes, brought to life by all manner of action stars. Professional wrestler Rob Van Dam plays one of the bad guys responsible for holding hero Jason Hill’s (Sean Patrick Flanery) wife and her hospital hostage, and he enjoys every minute of his role.
Van Dam spoke to Screen Rant about collaborating with director Christopher Ray on the project, his past with the WWE, and his hope for a future comic book story.
Tell me a little bit about your character Zero in Assault on VA-33.
Rob Van Dam: Well, Zero's one of a gang of a somewhat unidentified militia group. There might be some details in there for people that are paying real close attention to specifics, but I am basically one of the bad guys. And my job is basically to be stuck in the van while these guys are inside having all the fun, taking over this VA hospital. And it goes from there, so I'm outside watching the parking lot, they told me. Trying to make me sound important.
Zero is dying to get into the fray, because he has a skill set that he wants to display there. But what was it about the story of Assault on VA-33 that attracted you to the role?
Rob Van Dam: I love the genre of action movies. Of course, this is going to be compared to Die Hard. And I don't really know if they're doing a lot of that nowadays, or if this is a throwback, but it certainly reminded me of what I used to love about action movies. Not that movies aren't good anymore, but now a lot of it is FX instead story - or they have both the story and all the special effects and all that.
It is like diehard, but they got some legitimate badasses to play all the parts, so I'm glad to be part of it. But the initial interest was the offer from Christopher Olen Ray, who's the producer of it. He's a good friend of mine, so when he has a part for me, then I mean to see if I can do it.
Can you talk to me about the collaboration process and working with Christopher? You're extremely funny, you hit it here with the comedy as well. Can you talk to me about bringing that out in this film?
Rob Van Dam: I love working with Chris because, as I mentioned, he's a friend so I'm comfortable with him. A lot of times the director can be a little intimidating, like you don't want to ask too questions and sound like the dumbest guy on set. Although, there's a lot of really good actors out there and stuff, so I don't ever think I'm going to be the best actor.
But the script is written so it's really funny, and it's good to have that supporting cast around you. But the part is kind of fun, because you know a bit about the guy and his journey throughout the movie. I love working with Chris; I met him when we did 3-Headed Shark Attack, and then I did Sniper Special Ops with him, although his dad was the director. He and his dad are kind of the same guy anyway.
Also Chris' partner Gerald Webb has been in all these, so some of these actors I worked with before. Brittany Underwood was on the Christmas movie that I did with him, so it's cool to feel like part of that network.
I know that you're a well-versed martial artist, as his Mark Dacascos. Did you get a chance to meet him in person and talk to him face to face?
Rob Van Dam: No, I actually didn't. Sometimes that happens in the movie. As a matter of fact, in the movie with Steven Seagal, very few actors got to even see Steven Seagal. But it doesn't come across quite that way sometimes when it's edited together. But I actually wasn't aware that he was in it until I was looking at the credits. I was like, "Oh, cool!" Because I remember when he first came out, and it was the 80s or 90s. It was Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, Jeff Speakman, and then Mark Dacascos in [Only The Strong]. I still have the song in my head when they're all doing the capoeira dances around, celebrating and stuff.
But yeah, that was all influential to me coming up, and I would have enjoyed meeting him.
It's crazy that we're even talking right now, because I remember watching the taping of a scene you were in on The X-Files. Can you talk to me about the type of roles that are attracting you now?
Rob Van Dam: I've got a lot of my experience acting in front of a camera, so if you compare that to actors who came up through plays and then work their way up, they were polished and knew about it before they were on camera, I think that way of going up might be a more traditional sense. And for me, usually if I look at something I did a few years ago, I feel that I've gotten so much better since then. That's experience, and being around the right people and being comfortable.
But also, I've never considered myself a complete 100% actor at heart. And that's because, to make be a good wrestler, I had to pay all kinds of dude. Years and years and years of all kinds of dues, and I wanted that bad enough. With acting, for me, it's not like: "All I gotta do is just show somebody what I got!" It's not like that at all. It's more of an opportunity thing. I read the script, and I'm like, "Wow, that's a really cool part." And it fits into my schedule, so I'm able to do it.
I think I might have done auditions for two or three years, and I hated it. I hated doing auditions, because it was such a painful process. And I just felt like I was like going through a machine. Everyone looks like me, and we're all there for the same [role]. When I first moved to LA, I thought, "I'll start at the bottom and see how quick it goes," and I'm doing auditions for underarm deodorant commercials. I showed up one time, and they just wanted somebody that had an armpit with some hair in it. I lifted it, they were looking at it, and they said, "Okay, next!" That's when I was like, "Oh my God. What am I doing?"
My ego told me - and not just my ego, but my time, because I was busy doing all this stuff. It wasn't long 'till I told my agents that I'm not doing auditions. If they want RVD, and if there's part that you think is just perfect and they want an actual wrestler that's experienced, then whatever. My agents probably weren't real happy, but they stuck with me and always represent me. Once in a while, something comes through them - it comes through all kinds of different pipelines, though. This one, of course, was Chris. Chris isn't going to come to me with a part that's going to be bad. He knows me, so knows how to how to showcase me in the right way. All my trust and good faith is always gonna be in him.
I'm a longtime RVD guy, so I gotta know when you are coming into the Hall of Fame? You did a tremendous amount of work in professional wrestling, and you should be rewarded for that.
Rob Van Dam: Well, I appreciate that. If WWE feels the same way that you do, then I'm sure we'll see it happen.
I don't think anybody has a better frog splash than you do. But are you following the business? Is there anybody that does a frog splash you think is close to the five star? Because nobody has the full five stars. I think.
Rob Van Dam: You know what's funny? When I started back with Impact a couple years ago, I'm like, "Wait, you let a guy here call his move this Six Star Frog Splash? Come on." But it feels good to know that I inspired the whole generation. Everybody wants to do RVD moves. That feels good, except for I didn't have any control over what they pick up. There's a lot of old school fundamentals that are missing, from my perspective. But it evolves, and as long as it's got fan support, they'll stay behind it.
And then Montez [Ford]... His frog splash is pretty sick.
I also know you're an avid comic book fan. Are there any properties that you'd be interested in bringing to the big screen?
Rob Van Dam: Yes, there's one that's been on the table of projects for years, and every once in a while it makes it to the front. A couple months ago, we were having meetings every day about it, and now it looks like it moved to the back of the priority list - which happens.
But it's actually the book that I wrote. I put one together, though a lot of people don't know about it, called Twisted Perception. I stopped publishing for a little while, and then I kind of put it in the closet for a while. I wrote a whole other thing, the same storyline but a different part a few years later. I shopped a little while and ended up with Hound Comics.
But that was just print to order and not that many people saw it or read it. I printed out several copies and had a few 100 anyway; sold them at some of the conventions. One of them was the London Comic Con, where I had 200 or so of them that just went out to all the London fans. But most people don't know about that story. It'll probably work its way back up towards the top sometime.
But if it is me playing the principal character, he's definitely going to be older than I thought he was when we first had the idea.
Assault on VA-33 is now playing in theaters.