Casper Van Dien Talks 'The Flood' and Fighting Giant Alligators
Moviefone speaks with Casper Van Dien about 'The Flood.' "When I read it, it was like 'Con Air' with alligators. That's how it was pitched to me," he said.
Opening in theaters, On Demand and digital beginning July 14th is the new action thriller ‘The Flood,’ which was directed by Brandon Slagle (‘Frost’).
What is the plot of ‘The Flood’?
A horde of giant hungry alligators is unleashed on a group of in-transit prisoners and their guards after a massive hurricane floods Louisiana.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Flood’?
‘The Flood’ stars Nicky Whelan (‘Hall Pass’) as Sheriff Jo Newman, Casper Van Dien (‘Starship Troopers’) as Russell Cody, Louis Mandylor (‘Rambo: Last Blood’) as Rafe Calderon, Randy Wayne (‘Megan’) as Dale Elkins, Ryan Francis (‘Hook’) as Jay Stamper, Kim DeLonghi (‘Marlowe') as Eva Carter, Bear Williams (‘Sheroes’) as Angela Cooper, Randall J. Bacon (‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’) as Jonathan ‘Jox’ Apone, Mike Ferguson (‘Amityville Uprising’) as Floyd McGraw, and Eoin O’Brien (‘Kate’) as ‘Big Jim’ Pruett.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Casper Van Dien about his work on ‘The Flood,’ similarities with ‘Con Air,’ fighting alligators, the VFX, acting in water, and working with Nicky Whelan, Louis Mandylor, and the rest of the cast.
Casper Van Dien as Russell Cody in the action thriller, 'The Flood,' a Saban Films release. Photo courtesy of Saban Films.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, what was your first reaction when you read the screenplay for ‘The Flood’?
Casper Van Dien: When I read it, I was like, "Oh, it's ‘Con Air’ with alligators." That's how they promoted it. I think they also said ‘Anaconda’ but with alligators. That's how it was pitched to me. Then I read the script and I said, "Okay, this looks like it'd be fun." I Love Nikki, and I love Louis Mandylor and the guy that directed it, Brandon Slagle. I did another movie with him before, so I was excited about doing that. Thailand is an amazing place and that's where we filmed it all and I had a lot of fun working with those people.
MF: What was it like working with Nicky Whelan?
CVD: Nikki is an amazing actress, and she's a lot of fun. Just a sweetheart of a person. My wife and I adore her. We love her. She's really all in. That's the thing that's good about her. So she's all in and when she gets there, she's just a joy to work with. I didn't see all of her fights, so I don't even know how they all went. I just know what I did with her when I was working with her. I was like, "Oh, this girl's got something," so that was awesome for me. She's not just a pretty face. She's got everything going for her. Now, my wife and her are really good friends and my wife just adores her. I mean, if we lived closer, I'm sure we'd hang out more. But she's just a great person.
Nicky Whelan as Sheriff Newman in the action thriller, 'The Flood,' a Saban Films release. Photo courtesy of Saban Films.
MF: Sheriff Newman and Russell are at odds when the film begins but eventually form an alliance together. Can you talk about the moment when she realizes she can trust him?
CVD: Well, I think that she does see eventually that he has her back and I think that that's questionable up until that point. That could go either way and I like that. Then in the end, I liked it all the way through. I hope it all worked. You never know. You come in. You throw this in as an actor, you try and the writing had it in there, but then we could add our other layers onto it and the director adds his layer onto it. Then, of course, the editor gets his in the end too.
MF: Was it fun working with all the other actors that play the inmates?
CVD: It was. I like all of them. I mean, all these guys are good. Eoin and I worked together also with Louis in ‘Battle for Saipan,’ so we had all worked together before. But that group was great. They're a cool bunch of guys and they really got into it. It was fun working with all of them. I loved working with them. The other actors are always key. Every actor's key in it. It is the relationships you have with them and everybody's different story. I hate the movies back where, I'm not going to mention any names, but when actors would want to have all the lines and everything. I don't think that's as important. I think it's better when you have all the developed characters and everybody putting their all into it, and feeling like it's their story. I think it makes it more interesting and a lot more fun.
(L to R) Mike Ferguson as Floyd McGraw, Randall Bacon as Jonathan ‘Jox’ Apone, Bear Williams as Angelo Cooper, Eoin O’Brien as 'Big Jim’ Pruett, Nicky Whelan as Sheriff Newman, Ryan Francis as Jay Stamper, and Alexander Winters as Deputy Whitlock in the action thriller, 'The Flood,' a Saban Films release. Photo courtesy of Saban Films.
MF: What was your experience like working with Louis Mandylor on this movie?
CVD: Louis's always magnificent to work with. I think he's super talented. I mean, he's a great fighter, but I think he's an even better actor and I love working with him.
MF: Your characters have a history together, did you and Louis workout a backstory for their relationship?
CVD: Well, we really wanted it to be like we had worked together and we wanted it to come across that maybe things weren't so great, but we did like each other. It's just that maybe I don't like all of his principles and I'm a little bit worried about him. I don't think it's better if I just hate him and he is all horrible. There's things I did like about him, but then, when push comes to shove, I'm not willing to take the chances. His character made a big mistake, and my character just can't come to terms with that. But I think that before that, we had liked each other and then when it came to that turning point, I wanted it to be real. He and I, like I said, have we've worked together before and so we had a relationship. We knew of each other beforehand too. So that makes it all interesting, I think, and I'm hoping it came across. That's what we were hoping for and that's what I liked about the script because I don't want it to be all black and white, and there are gray areas. I wanted to have those relationships and hopefully, that all comes across.
Related Article: 'Starship Troopers' Casper Van Dien Talks New Thriller 'Daughter'
(L to R) Louis Mandylor as Rafe Calderon and Casper Van Dien as Russell Cody in the action thriller, 'The Flood,' a Saban Films release. Photo courtesy of Saban Films.
MF: Can you talk about the VFX used for the alligators and what it was like for you shooting those sequences?
CVD: I was just acting, so there was nothing whatsoever. We didn't have any practical effects. I didn't see any. I just had the descriptions of what was going on in the set and then what the director was telling me. I had to trust that and then watch also the other actors' performances. There was different things that different people had with them and how they were going to react, and they had to have the visual effects guy there with all that too. So it's always fun. All that's fun. I mean, in ‘Starship Troopers,’ we didn't have the big giant bugs either, they did have some practical in that, but most of it was all us just visualizing what they were telling us, and what they were going to put in afterwards. It was just us fighting against dirt, the ships, and the blue screen and green screens. But other than that, it was just dirt.
MF: Finally, can you talk about the challenges of working in water?
CVD: That was not fun. I mean, parts of it were fun and in the beginning, it's fun. But then the water has all these people in it, and then it gets dirty and people are coming up coughing and you're in that water. It starts out clean but at the end of the day, I don't care what they're putting in it, it isn’t clean anymore. Louis and I, doing that fight sequence, that was in the dirtiest water at the end of the day after everything had been through. So I mean, we'd been through some things, and it was that way every day. Every day you're in the water. It starts out clean, and then gets real dirty because you have the entire crew in there. You have the equipment coming in and out. You have all the actors coming in and out and you try to keep it clean. You try to do these things, but it just gets dirty and you're in Thailand. So they're filling up these things with just big water trucks, filling it up, and it's just this makeshift water place. It's a building that they then had to waterproof, and then have rain coming through the ceilings and that's dirt coming through that. So then you're in water that I wouldn't swim in, but I am now acting in it, I'm fighting in it and I'm getting drowned in it, while other people are acting like they are dying in it. Blood is going in there, dirty water, dirty shoes, dirty people and people are sweating and then they're coming in there and it's kind of hard to keep it all clean. So that part of it is difficult. I think that on bigger movies, they have water tanks that they can do more stuff with. There's no way they were being able to measure it out for this. Just all the variables that you were throwing in, and also, we're in Thailand. We're not in the States, so the control's probably not the same as it would be over here. I think they tried to do their best and they would keep changing the water. The water also would drain out because it's splashing and going around different things. But then, we'd also fill it up at different levels. So there'd be different scenes where it'd be like, "This is ankle deep today. This is waist deep and now, you're in it." But it was so much fun, though.
Nicky Whelan as Sheriff Newman in the action thriller, 'The Flood,' a Saban Films release. Photo courtesy of Saban Films.
Other Movies Similar to ‘The Flood':
- 'Jaws' (1975)
- 'Alligator' (1980)
- 'Anaconda' (1997)
- 'Con Air' (1997)
- 'Starship Troopers' (1997)
- 'Deep Blue Sea' (1999)
- 'Lake Placid' (1999)
- 'Assault on Precinct 13' (2005)
- 'Rogue' (2008)
- 'The Shallows' (2016)
- 'Rampage' (2018)
- 'The Meg' (2018)
- 'Copshop' (2021)
- 'Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile' (2022)
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'The Flood’ is produced by Hillin Entertainment, Ashland Hill Media Finance, BGG Capital, Benetone Films, Red Phoenix Productions, and The Video Store. It is scheduled to release in theaters, On Demand and digital beginning July 14th, 2023.
