Casper Van Dien rose to prominence in science fiction after starring as Johnny Rico in Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers (1997). He has since worked in a variety of films and television shows over the years. One of his newest releases is Hunt Club, a gory thriller that follows “a group of male hunters who regularly lure women to their island with the chance to win 100K in a hunt, only to discover that they are the hunted, but this time they mess with the wrong girls and must deal with the consequences.”
Hunt Club was directed by Elizabeth Blake-Thomas with a cast that includes Casper Van Dien, Mena Suvari, Mickey Rourke, Will Peltz, Jessica Belkin, Jason London, and Jeremy London. It is now available on DVD, Digital, and On Demand.
Horror Geek Life: It is great to talk with you. Of course, it’s impossible to resist bringing up Starship Troopers.
Casper Van Dien: I love to talk about Starship Troopers. It’s actually my favorite thing. So anytime you bring it up, I’m always game. It was a lot of fun.
Horror Geek Life: Good. It always seemed like everyone had a great time, and it’s still rewatchable today.
Casper Van Dien: They’re good filmmakers that made that one. They knew they knew what they were doing.
Horror Geek Life: Oh, without a doubt. You have recently been taking on a variety of roles. And some of them, like Hunt Club and Daughter, are somewhat unsettling to watch on purpose. What makes you choose certain parts, especially ones where you’re not the protagonist?
Casper Van Dien: Good scripts are few and far between. And when you get an opportunity to do something that’s really powerful, and it’s a different piece than what you’re normally used to. I’m at the age and stage in my career where I don’t give two fucks about what I have to do or be. I don’t care about doing something the way I might have thought I had to do it then. I want to do good work. I want to do good pieces. And I want to bring characters to life.
Me playing Father in Daughter and the head of the Hunt Club; they’re horrible men. But I did put some things into them that could be likable. Like Father loves his son more than anything. And in Hunt Club, when they’re hurting a girl and talking about messing around with her, I’m like, “Well, you tell them to stop that. We’re gentlemen.” These quirky things, I think, make the character better because if you just play it like a worldly mustache villainous guy from one of those cartoons, there’s nothing you like about the character. So, I want you to have at least something. You’re not going to like my characters, but you might like the acting or story. My hope.
Horror Geek Life: Absolutely. And I love that Elizabeth Blake-Thomas, who raises awareness of human trafficking, directed Hunt Club. Of course, that is the central theme of this movie. Was this a subject that you could tell she cared deeply about on set?
Casper Van Dien: She was very protective of the women. And I love that because I’m playing this horrible person, but I’m not that way. I have daughters, I have sisters, I have a beautiful mom, a beautiful wife, and women that I just love and adore. So, when you’re playing this, it’s really hard, but this is a real subject. This does happen, and people do horrible things to women.
David Lipper, who’s an old friend of mine, who wrote it and is the producer of it, hired all the women. He was like, “Casper, I got this role for you. You’re perfect.” And I read it, and I was like, “What the fuck are you talking about? I’m perfect for this?” He goes, “You’re perfect. Because I’m not going to have somebody who would be hurtful to women be in this role.”
He said, “I got a woman director, woman first AD, second AD, third AD. I got women producers. The script supervisor is a woman. The hair and makeup were all women. There were so many women on this movie that it was unbelievable.
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When we went to the premiere the other night, in the beginning is the set-up and then in the middle, we do horrible things. The end is their retribution. The women in the audience, two-thirds of the audience, were cheering. I was like, oh God, I’m just acting! Because in the audience, when they took out a guy, they were like, “Yeah!” I was like, oh boy, don’t mess with women.
In Daughter, I think people were shocked by what happened in that one too. I won some awards at some festivals. It was just a fun movie. And you know, they did such a good job. Corey Deshon is such an incredible director and writer. And my manager didn’t think I’d want to do that. My manager goes, “Hey, your agent really loves this script, but this is the Daughter script. I don’t think you’re going to want to do it.” Because he knows me as a father and doesn’t see me that way. I read it. I’m like, “I’m in; this is a great script.”
So, Daughter is an amazing movie. And Hunt Club’s a great movie for women’s empowerment, but it’s a hard movie to watch for me.
Horror Geek Life: Were any of the scenes uncomfortable to watch?
Casper Van Dien: You know, all of it was intense, and Mena [Suvari] did such an incredible job. I love all the actors, and I was really impressed with them. And the London brothers were so creepy in it. I just was so disturbed by them. Jessica [Belkin] also did a great job.
I had to walk out of that scene first when they were doing that. I had to walk out, and the first time I saw it, I couldn’t watch it. I wanted to walk out again this time because I just can’t watch stuff like that. In the theater, I’m sitting next to my agent and Ed Neumeier, who wrote Starship Troopers. He was there with me because he’s one of my friends. My manager’s there, and Ed’s wife is next to him. And I turned to her like, I’m so sorry. It was hard to watch.
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It’s not gratuitous at all, but it gets so dark, and the setup as they’re cutting out of it, your imagination goes to a place that’s just horror. But then the revenge part of it, it goes so extreme. The women go so extreme. Hell has no fury like a scorned woman.
Horror Geek Life: Amen to that. Before we wrap, are there any recent or upcoming projects you want to mention?
Casper Van Dien: Well, I’m finishing the season finale of All American. I’m playing the bad dad in that too. And then I have a County Line: No Fear out right now with Tom Wopat from The Dukes of Hazzard. I play a black-hat cowboy in that, a bad guy. And then I’m in Heart of a Champion, where I’m a white-hat cowboy. That’s a cool movie. Somebody called me Gary Cooper in that. That’s just… I could retire.
And then I also have Tom DeLonge directing me in a movie called Monsters of California. He threw in all this alien stuff; it’s like an Amblin movie. It’s going to be so cool. I can’t wait to see that.
And then I have Mad Heidi out, which is insane. I play a Swiss dictator. They call it the first Swissploitation film. I have never heard that before. It’s literally the cheesiest. If you like Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino and Grindhouse Films, you’re going to love this one. It is literally the cheesiest movie you’ll ever see. It’s out on demand right now.
