PopHorror Let's Get Scared
A humble family man, Casper Van Dien has made his mark in the filmmaking industry, rising above being just another pretty face on the silver screen. In his 3 decades in the business, Casper has managed to avoid being typecast, spreading himself across the spectrum by taking on action (Mortal Kombat: Legacy TV series), fairy tales (Avengers Grimm 2015, Sleeping Beauty 2014), family comedies (Army Dog 2016, Baby’s First Christmas 2012), genre parodies (Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf 2015) and outright horror (Sleepy Hollow 1999, Dracula 3000 2004, June 2015), as well as playing Johnny Rico in three separate installments of the Starship Troopers franchise. PopHorror was delighted to be able to talk to Casper about his recent role as Casper Van Dien in the supernatural film, Darkness Reigns, (read our review of the film here) his role as a dad and some of the spooky things that have happened to him in his life.
PopHorror: Thank you so much for calling!
Casper Van Dien: Thanks so much for talking to me.
PopHorror: Especially since it’s your honeymoon! (Casper got married June 9, 2018, to actress Jennifer Wenger, his co-star in Darkness Reigns)
Casper Van Dien: (laughs) Yeah! Yeah, we took a couple days and we went to Dollywood the day after our marriage, and we went to Nashville. We went to the Johnny Cash Museum. We went to Andrew Jackson’s home, where he had lived. The next day we went to Memphis, and we went to Graceland, and then we went to Beale Street that night. I went with my wife and a couple of our friends. Then we came back here, and now we’re going to figure out where we’re going to go on our actual honeymoon.
PopHorror: I also have to say that I love that your IMDb picture is of you and your wife, Jennifer. That’s so sweet!
Casper Van Dien: Well, thank you. I put it out a few days ago because she makes me so much better looking.
PopHorror: Well, now! (laughs) I just watched your new film, Darkness Reigns, and I thought it was an original and twisted tale. However, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed at how little you were actually in it.
Casper Van Dien: Me, too! You know, you’ve got to talk to Andrew P. Jones about that. He’s the director. He’s the one you have to ask that questions to. The thing was, he wanted to have a guy come in and be the character that I was. I had to be me, but I had to play a difficult version of me. Afterwards, he said, “You know what? You weren’t difficult enough for me. I wish I had put you in more.”
PopHorror: Was it weird to play yourself as NOT yourself?
Casper Van Dien: You know what? It was actually really fun to play a really unpleasant version of myself, because then I could explore different aspects of my darker side, and I think that’s always cool.
PopHorror: That’s actually a really cool way of looking at it. As for the hotel itself, it’s supposed to be haunted. That’s the draw for the filmmakers to shoot there. Was the place where you shot haunted?
Casper Van Dien: There was rumors going around that there were weird things going on. Our casting director, Phaedra Harris, had actually gotten a weird text from somebody she didn’t know. He – or she – said they were in the pool. The pool itself was empty, just some dirty water and stuff like that in the deep end. And then somebody said – I don’t know if it was actually true or not – but they said that someone had actually died in that pool. So she was really creeped out. So I kept sending her texts saying, “I’m in the pool…” (laughs)
PopHorror: (laughs) Of course you did!
Casper Van Dien: Of course I did! (laughs) I get into it when people get spooked out. And there was a couple that actually stayed in the hotel. There was running water but only cold. I think that was a bit weird. But interesting.
PopHorror: Where did you guys actually shoot?
Casper Van Dien: We shot in Jefferson City in Missouri in a hotel called The Truman. I don’t think it’s there anymore. If you look online, it looks really pretty, but it wasn’t so pretty when we got there. It was getting ready to be torn down.
PopHorror: Did you feel anything spooky while you were there? Any ghosts hanging out in crafts services?
Casper Van Dien: (laughs) Well, the shooting itself is always spooky. I can’t say that I felt anything creepy. I think when you’re shooting a horror movie or something like that, your mind – because you’re trying to act – I think you can trick yourself into being a little more freaked out than you probably normally would be. But there are definitely some creepy aspects to walking around in an abandoned hotel and knowing that it’s not completely safe. It puts you a little on edge.
PopHorror: You had a story in Darkness Reigns about living in a haunted house as a kid in the ’80s. Was that a true story or was that something that was written up for the fake Casper Van Dien?
Casper Van Dien: Well, they wrote all this stuff for me, but what’s funny is, when I was growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, I did live in a house in New Jersey where the person who had lived there before us had hung themselves in the garage, a Mr. Schmidt. And once, when I was a kid, I felt like something went through my body. I was suddenly freezing cold and my hair stood up on end. I think I really freaked myself out as a kid. But then as I got older, I knew that it was just, you know, me.
PopHorror: That’s terrifying, to move into a house knowing that the last person…
Casper Van Dien: Hung themselves in the garage?
PopHorror: Yeah. I would have never gone into that garage.
Casper Van Dien: It was a barn, an actual barn that we had in New Jersey. There was still hay in it and stuff like that. Plus my dad’s workbench and a floor upstairs that we had built for ourselves. So, yeah. Stuff happens.
PopHorror: You know what happened to the last two or three people who lived there, but if your house is 100 years old, who knows what else went on.
Casper Van Dien: Exactly. This house was 100 years old back when I lived in it.
PopHorror: So who knows how many people lived there.
Casper Van Dien: Or died there. People are always dying in homes. Usually in their beds, but there are some more emotional or violent deaths that happen. Always creepy.
I do regret not having served in the military. That’s the one thing that I regret and I wish I had done. I’m really proud of my family’s service. I’m really grateful to the men and women who do serve our country.
PopHorror: So let’s change the subject a bit. You’ve spent a lot of time in front of the camera, but you’ve also done a bit of work behind the camera as well. What do you prefer?
Casper Van Dien: I really enjoy directing. I really do love it. But I’m an actor at heart. That is what I really enjoy doing. The three films that I’ve directed (The Last Bid (2016) and Patient Killer (2015), directed and wrote Sleeping Beauty (2014)), I’ve starred in them as well. I don’t know that I’d necessarily choose to be an actor in the films that I’m directing, but it’s always been a prerequisite. For me to have the opportunity to direct, I’ve had to also play a character in those three films, so there’s more going on than the usual directing stuff. In other films that I’ve been offered [to direct] that I haven’t accepted, I would have had to act in them as well. So far, I haven’t had the gig where they hire me to just direct, at least so far. But I would love to have the opportunity to just do that. But, you know, I’d probably still throw myself in a little bit. I’m still an actor.
PopHorror: There would always be that Hitchcock cameo.
Casper Van Dien: Yeah. I haven’t really had that yet. I’ve always had a big role. But I would love to do that little Hitchcock role in a bigger film if I was already directing it, where I wasn’t already acting.
PopHorror: It must be tough to keep going through the constant flux of directing other people and then getting yourself into your own character, back and forth.
Casper Van Dien: Well, I look at all the people that have done great jobs with it. There’s Mel Gibson and the films that he’s directed. I think he was phenomenal. Or Sylvester Stallone. He’s done them. And Kevin Costner, like with Dances With Wolves (1990). Oh, and Jodie Foster. There’s a lot of directors who have done it, and they’ve all done such a fantastic job. I think it’s possible. Or, at least, plausible. You never know in this business. But sometimes when it’s a passion project, you get to do something amazing and close to your heart. And if you’re in it, you get to push yourself to make it to the best of your ability and make it the very best quality.
PopHorror: That’s so true. And you also know what you want, so you can make sure that you get what you want out of that particular character. You don’t have to try and explain this vision to another actor and hope that they can come through.
Casper Van Dien: I think so. But that can also be a double-edged sword. Sometimes, it’s good to have the director’s perspective and point of view, and they can try to push you to get you to go further. If you’re not being pushed… Or sometimes, you’re not even aware of where you want [a character] to go, and directors can pull something amazing out of you.
PopHorror: So, if you weren’t in filmmaking in any way, what do you think you’d be doing right now?
Casper Van Dien: Wow! Well, let’s see. It’s kind of hard for me now because there were a lot of things I thought I might do when I was younger. I was always exploring different opportunities and things that were made available to me. I think I was mostly geared toward doing some kind of service. I would have been in the military in some aspect, in the Navy or in the Marines. That’s what I was mostly considering, because my father was in the Navy and my grandfather was in the Marines. So I’d considered doing that. I was going to go back to college and pay my way through school on a Navy scholarship if the acting thing didn’t pan out. I was just giving the acting thing a shot. That was 30 years ago. I was thinking, at the time when I was going to college, that I wanted to be a doctor. I mean, that’s just what I thought. I don’t know if that would have worked out or not.
PopHorror: That’s a lot of school.
Casper Van Dien: Yeah, it is a lot of school. So I don’t know if it would have panned out. You never know. All of these things can sound nice, but I have no idea what I would have actually done. I do regret not having served in the military. That’s the one thing that I regret and wish I had done. I’m really proud of my family’s service. I’m really grateful to the men and women who do serve our country. I think it’s a very honorable and respectful thing to do. I appreciate it a lot, and it’s given me the opportunity to do what I love doing. I really think I would have loved that. Yeah, I’d say that’s my biggest regret. But as far as a career, I have no idea what I would have ended up doing if I hadn’t been an actor. I’m very fortunate that I get to do the thing that I love to do the most for work. I feel blessed in that way.
I’m very fortunate to have such exquisite young women in my life that keep me on my toes and teach me how much more I have to learn about life and myself and being patient.
PopHorror: I’m sure you don’t remember this, but I interviewed you two years ago for another site that I used to write for called CrypticRock. This was an interview promoting your movie, June (2015), a movie about a possessed nine-year-old. And we talked about how we both have teenage daughters at pretty much the same age, and how dealing with teenagers – especially girls – can be like having possessed tornadoes in your house.
Casper Van Dien: Oh, wow! I actually do remember that.
PopHorror: Really? That’s so cool! So, how are your daughters doing? Any luck deciphering that teenage girl speak yet?
Casper Van Dien: Well, my youngest one is now 14, my middle one is 16 and I have my 21-year-old daughter, my 27-year-old daughter and my 24-year-old son. But my daughters… my daughters are amazing. They all came down for my wedding. My son couldn’t make it. He wanted to, but his work couldn’t permit him to leave at the time, so he couldn’t make it. But all four of my daughters were at my wedding, and they were amazing! They were so supportive. And they already really love my wife. My youngests girls had actually met her before I had met her, so that was pretty cool. They adore her. As for the teenage speak (sighs), this is the thing I understand about having four daughters and having, well… this is my third marriage (laughs). Let me just say that I could probably write a book about everything I know about women and every page would be blank.
(both laugh)
Casper Van Dien: It could be a thousand pages long, but it would all be blank. My followup book would be ten thousand pages long, all gold leaf and leather bound, and every page would be full of different sized question marks. That’s how much I know and understand about women in general. Now, teenage women, women-to-be, it’s amazing. They’re like little storms. They’re really powerful and massive and they can be dangerous… but they’re beautiful. And watching them discover who they are is quite extraordinary. I’m very fortunate to have such exquisite young women in my life that keep me on my toes and teach me how much more I have to learn about life and myself and being patient. And still, it’s an uphill battle, consistently, with them, but I feel blessed to have them in my life. And they’re very loving. But I don’t understand them. At all. And the guy that tells you he does… I would just be like, “Dude, come on!” (laughs)
Because, let’s be honest. Men and women, we speak different languages, but that’s the beauty of it. That’s why I’m so attracted to women. They’re beautiful and mysterious and I don’t understand them. Guys, I can relate to. They just make sense. So that’s not attractive to me, I guess. I love the camaraderie I have with my friends, but there’s something about the beautiful quality of the unpredictableness of women and their decisions and they’re re-decisions. (laughs) Everything they do, it’s wonderful. And daughters, yes. They’re the best thing I have in my life. My daughters and my wife.
PopHorror: Just think of how boring your life would be without women.
Casper Van Dien: I would never be challenged. I mean, I have the challenges of when I spar and fight or play sports with some of the guys. That’s always a challenge, but there’s an end. It comes to an end and then you’re like, “Hey, cool.” But with women, it goes on with so many more things left to discover. And I’m totally a guy, because I can only handle, like, on thing at a time. And then when I switch off to work on another thing… I’m done with that one task and that’s it. But my wife, she can work on fifteen different things at once, hear four or five different conversations going on around her, and she’ll hear everything. And because there’s five different conversations going on, I won’t hear a word of any of them. (laughs) I’m a guy! She knows everything that’s going on, and she says, “You don’t hear anything.” And I go, “Nope! Not a single thing.”
(both laugh)
Casper Van Dien: And I’m not going to pretend like I do, because then I’m in trouble. I still get myself in trouble. I’m not going to say that I don’t. But at least it keeps me on my toes.
PopHorror: True! Okay, last question for today. What’s your favorite Halloween candy?
Casper Van Dien: Wow! Hmmm, well… it’s terrible. But it has been my favorite for forever. It’s Reese’s Pieces. I love them.
PopHorror: Were you inspired by E.T.?
Casper Van Dien: Yeah, it was E.T. I blame Steven Spielberg.
PopHorror: It’s all his fault.
Casper Van Dien: Yeah, completely.
PopHorror: For your Reese’s Pieces addiction.
Casper Van Dien: Well, he did want to catch that alien. And then I was in Starship Troopers, killing aliens. It wasn’t so different from where I was supposed to go.
PopHorror: But if those aliens had looked like E.T…
Casper Van Dien: I wouldn’t have been able to kill them!
PopHorror: You would have felt too bad.
Casper Van Dien: Yeah. Like shooting me in my childhood.
PopHorror: I think this is a great way to end things. Thanks so much for talking with me!
Casper Van Dien: Well, I appreciate talking to you again, Tracy. It was fun.
Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for Casper’s most recent film, Darkness Reigns, and stay tuned to PopHorror for all things creepy and bloody.
