Hollow Man: An Interview with Casper Van Dien

FILM

Sporting a snappy suit and a flat top, Casper Van Dien looked more like the energetic captain of his last big film, Starship Troopers, than the chubby, long-haired Brom from Sleepy Hollow when he met with reporters in a Four Seasons hotel room Friday. Also featured in The Omega Code, which has been called a Bond film without all the vices, and the yet-to-be-released Partners directed by Joey Travolta, which is described as a humorous Midnight Run, Casper enthusiastically talked about what it was like to be on Tim Burton's set. Talking about his relatively small part in the film, Van Dien fielded questions about Johnny Depp, Tim Burton and a matchup between the Headless Horseman and The Bugs from Starship Troopers.

The Harvard Crimson: What was it like to work with Tim Burton?

CVD: Well, his films are always so odd and out there and different and strange. You think he's going to be so weird. But he's a quiet guy. He's nice. He never screams. And everybody listens to him because he's.... Tim Burton. His films are classics and everybody wants to be a part of them. You want to be in them you want to see them.... You're awe-inspired. You step into his set, into his world, and you go, "Wow, I'm, in the land of Tim Burton. I'm in his mind. I'm in his head right now --I'm like in The Nightmare Before Christmas." This is not the real world. He takes a fantasy world, a surreal world, and makes it unbelievably believable. And it's not real. It's so odd looking, but you believe it wholeheartedly. And that's part of his magic.

THC: How did you get your look for the part?

CVD: [Burton] said "Grow your hair long and get real pale"--yes, that was my real hair in the movie--and I also gained 30 pounds. Gaining weight was actually a difficult thing for me. I'm a health nut, so it was hard. I ate eight meals a day and had four protein shakes a day and two weightgainer bars a day and I cut out cardio. It took me three months to gain it. (Afterwards I became a total vegan for six months and I lost it in a month and a half). I got four copies of Sleepy Hollow, I wached the Disney film, and I got the '77 TV movie, where Jeff Goldblum played Ichabod Crane--and actually Dick Butkus played my role.... You guys can quote me on this: I took nothing from what Butkus did in that TV movie -- absolutely nothing for my role.

THC: Was it difficult to go from a leading to a supporting role?

CVD: I would have swept the floor in a Burton film if he had asked me to. And you can see that--Martin Landau is in this, and Christopher Lee, and Christopher Walken. Anybody will do anything for Tim Burton. Everybody just wants to be a part of it.

THC: What do you think of Johnny Depp's casting as Ichabod?

CVD: I think Johnny Depp was incredible as Ichabod... in some of those scenes when he's cowering in the bed, he made me laugh so hard....Burton and Johnny Depp have such a close relationship--it's like brotherhood. And when you look at that, you could get jealous, but they don't make you feel jealous. It just makes you hope that someday, you'll be close to director like that. When Burton first cast Michael Keaton as Batman, people were like, Mr. Mom as Batman, Come on! But I think Keaton is now regarded as the best Batman ever... and when you think about Ichabod Crane, in the novel, he's this gangly, thin, gawky, awkward-looking man with a big nose and big ears. In the novel, Christina Ricci (Katrina Van Tassel) flirts with him to make me jealous and to get my character to marry her, and it works; Brom ends up marrying her in the book. But in the movie, it's not this gawky gangly guy, it's Johnny Depp. And she kinda goes: Johnny Depp or Casper Van Dien... Johnny! She didn't even bat an eye.

THC: You have a pretty impressive fight scene with the Headless Horseman...

CVD: It was very very very cool. It was just awesome. I was like, "My God, I'm fighting Darth Maul." [The stunt double for the Headless Horsemen also played Darth Mall in Star Wars: Episode One]. The coordinator was the same coordinator from Episode One. And this 24-year-old kid is asking me "Do you think I need an agent?" And I was just like, "Can I have your autograph?"

THC: In both Starship Troopers and Sleepy Hollow you faced some pretty formidable adversaries. If you had to face one or the other in real life, which would you choose the bugs or the headless horseman?

CVD: Ray Park was pretty tough. . . and those bugs were pretty amazing... Id have to say the bugs, because I actually won with them. The other one made me half the man I am today.

THC: Finally, the name Casper. Did you get teased for the friendly ghost associations, and if so do you feel like that in any way that gave you an edge in a ghost story movie?

CVD:Yes, I got teased for it. They would sing Casper the Friendly Ghost, and so I'd sing with them....And of course I didn't want to put my son through that, so I named him Casper as well. (laughs)