Challenged by one of his troops, Paul Verhoeven did what few great generals would have had the nerve to do: he stripped off.
The ensemble of Starship Troopers were slow to disrobe for their nude, co-ed shower scene, explains actress Dina Meyer, and Verhoeven was 'giving us a hard time about being silly Americans and making such a big deal about our bodies'.
'So I say: 'Okay, big shot, let's see you take your pants off. Let's see how easy it is.' He says: 'Fine.' He drops his drawers, takes off his shirt, gets his DP (director of photography) to do the same thing, they're both standing there buck naked. And they're, like: 'There!' And I'm, like: 'Gee, I'm sorry I said that.' ' Meyer should have known better; Verhoeven does not back down. 'There was no escape, you know,' explains the Dutch-born director. 'I could have said: 'Well, I don't do it, you have to do it.' But I think a director has to be part of his group, to crawl with the actor through the mud if it's in the interest of the motivation and scene. I could not escape that and had to do it.
'I think if I don't want to come down to them, meaning physically, on the ground, I think that they are basically abandoned. I think it's sometimes critical to stay, to keep the morale up.' Sitting in his Los Angeles office, amid Starship Troopers action figures, religious icons, photos of his actors and a biography of Che Guevara, the barrel-chested, white-haired Verhoeven can remember a time not too long ago when his own morale was very much in question.
Before Starship Troopers, the director of such hits as Robocop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct crashed his career into a wall with one of the most notorious flops in recent memory: Showgirls.
That drama of Las Vegas 'exotic dancers' was savaged by critics and ignored by filmgoers. It failed so completely that Verhoeven was in danger of turning into a Hollywood joke. By his own admission, he fell into a deep depression.
