Paul Verhoeven Has Mixed Feelings About His Casting For Starship Troopers

Today, Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers" is mostly remembered and still revered for the groundbreaking Oscar-nominated visual effects from Phil Tippett's Tippett Studio and Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI). Losing the Oscar to James Cameron's "Titanic," the incredibly self-aware space epic has stayed in the public consciousness mostly due to the biting satire and enduring soap opera appeal that Verhoeven and the chiseled actors injected into the film. Based on Robert Heinlein's overtly pro-war book of the same name, Verhoeven and his writing partner Ed Neumeier took what they had learned making the dystopian action classic "Robocop" and applied it to their overblown version of "Starship Troopers." 

Plans of making a big-budget parody of a sci-fi action blockbuster became even more apparent with the casting of Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards, two classically beautiful actors that looked like they walked out of the pages of a comic book. Van Dien was so cookie-cutter that his jawline could have been a prosthetic; Richards's elastic smile and buxom figure were the very illustrations of the all-American girl. The hyper-reality of "Starship Troopers" is so well established that the over-the-top acting from Van Dien and Richards completely complements the overall jingoistic tone of the film, showing cadets literally skipping off to war. 

The style of their acting just seemed to match the subtle social commentary that Verhoeven was aiming for in between the lines of a gory R-rated action film where idealistic soldiers have to suddenly face an unstoppable race of superbugs. 

Looking back on the decision to cast Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards in an interview with Digital Spy for the film's 20th anniversary, Paul Verhoeven spoke about the long-gestating rumor that the director intentionally cast less accomplished actors in the lead roles. "Starship Troopers" isn't exactly remembered for the acting, after all. So, did Verhoeven cast them on purpose? "No, not really," he told Digital Spy. "I took them because I wanted them to look like the people you see in Leni Riefenstahl's movie 'Triumph of the Will.' So it was a ploy, but more based on a visual aspect." 

Riefenstahl's infamous propaganda film showed the Nazi party at its frightening height in an attempt to document the undeniable superiority of the Aryan race. It might have succeeded in doing that, at least for the entirety of 1935 until Jessie Owens blew away the competition at the 1936 Olympics in Germany. Verhoeven wanted an exaggerated look that ended up making the actors look more like caricatures than real flesh-and-blood soldiers. Verhoeven did admit to paying more attention to good looks than acting chops, saying:

"I probably was looking too much to the streamlined bodies and sculpted faces," he admits, "and perhaps paid not enough attention to all the acting stuff... I mean, I don't know, in retrospect, you could also say that was the right way to do it, because it should be these kinds of people."

The casting really is pitch-perfect, regardless of whether Verhoeven ever intended it to be or not. Considering the sheer amount of VFX work and the massive logistical problems Verhoeven must've been facing, it's understandable that the roles were cast based more on visuals that would fit into a much larger composition.

"Starship Troopers" also follows the mythology of the hero's journey, made famous by author Joseph Campbell. With that in mind, it becomes more important for Casper Van Dien's gung-ho character Johnny Rico to get from point A to point B to follow the 12-stage archetypal structure set out by Campbell. "Starship Troopers" follows that structure so closely it has even been taught in various film schools as a modern example of the adventure template most famously found in the Greek epic poem "The Odyssey" by Virgil. 

When Michael Ironside starts chewing the scenery in "Starship Troopers" as the leader of the mobile infantry, he takes on the mythic role of the mentor, representing one of the crucial stages of the hero's journey. Verhoeven and Ironside have a long-standing working relationship on films like "Robocop" and "Total Recall," and Ironside knows just how exacting Verhoeven can be. 

"Paul Verhoeven is one of the most clinically, surgically controlled sets you'll ever be on," he told Dread Central in a 2015 interview promoting "Turbo Kid." "Most things are boarded, shot, and under his control. If you want to change something, you better get to Paul about 20 weeks before he shoots it, or you're not gonna get to change it." 

That kind of attention to detail may be another reason why Verhoeven seemed to overlook the acting talent of his cast in favor of an overarching, mythic narrative that encompassed his entire vision for the film.