Ecco il transcript della interview. Enjoy:
Van's Interview by Ryan
Blog Talk Radio
Dec. 7, 2010
www.blogtalkradio.com/blazinryradioNote: Starting at timestamp 6:02, the following transcript tries to quote Van, Ryan, and all the telephone callers word-for-word. If you notice any errors or if you can fill in any of the blank spaces ( ____ ), please let me know. Thanks!
If you want to read the section where Jake called in, go to timestamp 55:18 in Part 2.
Part 1 of 3 Parts
0:00
For the first six minutes of the show, Van was not present. Ryan used the time to talk about Van and various topics including dry cleaning and viejos.
6:02
Ryan: I think we have our guest, and we are now joined by Van Hansis.
Van: Hello.
Ryan: Van, how are you?
Van: I'm doing good. How are you doing?
Ryan: I'm doing all right. Let me just tell you that the switchboard is lighting up like crazy.
Van: Oh, wow!
Ryan: The chat room is super packed and a lot of people want to hear your voice again, so thank you so much for
for doing it, sir.
Van: Well, I thought I was hearing my voice when you were talking about your...talking I guess about viejos and all that stuff. I was like, wait; is that me from an earlier interview or something like that, 'cause it sounded like me to me. But you know you never are really able to tell what your own voice sounds like, I guess.
Ryan: Well, I'll take that as a complement because people ever since I announced that you would be on the show have been tweeting at me.... Is it "tweeting" or "twitting" or is it "twatting"?
Van: I think it's.... I don't think it's "twatting" because you can get into some very, some very bad terminology with that one. I have always heard "tweeting." "I will tweet you" or something like that. But I guess you just "tweet" everybody; you don't "tweet" a certain person. I don't know. It's weird. I'm not on Twitter, but if I were saying it, I would call it "tweeting."
Ryan: [Laughs] Okay. Well, people were tweeting me constantly how lovely a voice you have on the radio, so I'll take your comments as a compliment.
Van: Oh, really?
Ryan: Yeah.
Van: Well, that's very, very kind.
Ryan: And actually, when we had, um, somebody tweeted at me.... I guess I'll just say "tweeted" for the rest of the time even though that sounds funny.
Van: Yes, I think that's the terminology.
Ryan: [Laughs] Somebody tweeted at me (I can't remember who, I'm sorry), but somebody tweeted, "Can you get Van to start tweeting when he does his interview 'cause Jake did the day that he did his interview?" So, what do you think, are you going to start a Twitter account?
Van: I don't think so, honestly. I mean, I think that, uh, I don't know, I don't know what I would have to tweet to be honest with you. And I think there's enough ways to, to..., there's enough inroads into the, you know, the huge Internet and everything with Facebook. And everybody seems to know anything anyways, so I not going to, I don't think I'm going to start twittering right now or tweeting or whatever. Maybe down the line I'll tweet something but as of now I'm going to be tweet-free.
Ryan: Okay. Fair enough.
Ryan: So Van, are you aware that you have one of the coolest-sounding names on the planet? Van Hansis. You know this, right?
Van: Yeah, I'm pretty aware of how cool my name sounds. No, it's a unique name and I like having it, but you know in high school and elementary school it wasn't exactly the best name to have, and you know even now people don't make fun of it or anything but everyone's like, "you sound pretentious with your name." And I'm like, "well, maybe I am. Who knows?"
Ryan: Did people call you like Van Halen, Van Helsing, stuff like that?
Van: Well, I was on a.... I played soccer when I was younger, so there was always Van Gogh, and then the movie VAN HELSING came out so there was always that, and there was Van Halen. It was just...I would tell everybody my name was Van and so like to this day when I introduce myself to somebody, I say I'm Van and I either say like the car or like the shoe or like Van Halen. You always have to qualify, "No, it's not 'Dan'; it's 'Van.'" But you know that's a small price to pay for having, I guess as you said, one of the coolest names in the world.
Ryan: Yes, definitely. I wasn't aware that Van Gogh played soccer.
Van: Well, no, because I'd be running and they'd be like, "Van, go." Also, you know, it's 14-year-olds, so they're not exactly known for their incredible wit all the time. But, yeah, so in soccer it was always "Van Gogh."
Ryan: I was imagining this brilliant artist cutting his ear off and running after a soccer ball after you said that.
Van: You know, I did cut my ear off playing soccer once.
Ryan: Oh, no. What happened?
Van: That's a lie. That's a lie. I was just lying. I didn't cut my ear off. If I did, you'd see it on TV because I wouldn't have an ear.
Ryan: Well, I thought you mean like some soccer injury where your ear was like bleeding or something.
Van: No, no, no. I wish it were that cool. I don't think I had any.... I slammed into the goal post once and hurt my head, but I kept my ears intact.
Ryan: Well, that's good. I'm glad.
Van: You and me.
Ryan: Now I hear that you are in a creepy thriller, OCCUPANT.
Van: I am.
Ryan: What can you tell us about this film?
Van: Well, I can tell you that I think it's going to be really, really cool; that I talked with one of the producers of it about a week or two ago and it is having its...getting its final tweaks. Not to be confused with tweets, its "tweaks" with a "k." It's getting that...final tweaks done in editing, and I think they're adding some sort of special effects thing into it. But I've seen a cut of it and I was really, really excited about it. It looks fantastic. And so, once they get everything finally edited and ready to go, I think that the route it's going to be taking is to the festival circuit. So unfortunately because, you know, we want to make sure that the product is a good as it can be, I think for this year we missed a lot of the deadlines. But I think that's better in a way to make sure that you're presenting the best possible version of what you can present than just to try to get it all done to make the deadlines. So I would.... Hopefully we'll be hearing something about.... And I will put anything on Facebook that I hear. But, hopefully soon it will be in some festivals.
Ryan: That's awesome. I know your fans are clamoring to see it.
Van: I know, it's exciting, it's very exciting.
Ryan: Did you make it a point to do something very different from a soap and get involved in a horror film like this?
Van: Well, I mean when I was working on the soap it was always very important for me to do other stuff. Most of it was theater, but I always felt like, you know, I loved being on the soap and I learned so much from the soap but I also felt that, you know, soaps work a certain set of muscles acting-wise and there's so much other stuff that you have and that I think needs constant attention and constant care. It's like a car, you know, you can have a great engine but if your suspension or something is terrible you have to focus on that, so I would always try to do other stuff while I was doing a soap. And as far as like did I specifically want to do a horror movie, I mean I love the genre so doing one was a dream come true for me, but it's not something that I actively seeked out or "sought out" I guess is the right.... Is that proper English?
Ryan: Yeah.
Van: Yeah, "sought out." It's not something that I sought out. You know, you audition for whatever and it's like whatever kind of response you get kind of dictates where you go so I mean I would have done a movie about being on a soap. I was excited to do a film because I'd never done a film before so I was very excited just to see how that part of the industry works.
Ryan: Yes, definitely.
13:47
Ryan: We had America Olivo on the show who is a big slasher star and I asked.... I'm going to ask you the same thing I asked her. When you're doing a horror film, does it cause you to get more scared of things like in real life or maybe scared of the actors around you in real life because of their characters?
Van: Well, for me, it's...I always try to keep a distance between myself and what I'm playing, but when you're going through those emotions and you've really got to find some sort of way, hopefully healthy way, to bring yourself to those circumstances that you're in because the circumstances warrant what reaction you have. And in a horror film, of course, chances are you're going to be scared a lot of times so you've got to.... It's a tricky line to not completely psych yourself out and freak yourself out, but to make it look like those feelings are real and there honest emotions that you're having. So actually I did kind of, um, it messed me up a little bit mentally for a couple of weeks after I finished shooting it, but that also could have been in part that I was so busy because I literally shot for 12 hours every day on the movie.
Ryan: Wow.
Van: And then right when that was done I had to make up all the work that I had missed on AS THE WORLD TURNS which was.... Our shoot was a month-long shoot, so I had, in one week I had four weeks worth of stuff on the soap that I had to go back and do, so I think by the end of, by the end of everything, I had worn myself out. But that being said, I wouldn't trade that at all. I wouldn't trade the experience at all.
Ryan: Awesome.
15:41
Ryan: So, you mentioned theater before. I just learned last night that you did a show called DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION at the Ohio Theatre in New York and I learned that there was some profanity in it. So, I hadn't heard about this show. What I'm imagining is a bunch of actors, 57 actors on stage in the theatre playing the video game and cursing at the audience. Is this what happened or is it something else?
Van: That's kind of...that's close. It was actually.... It was a musical so it was 57 actors dancing and singing songs and cursing at the audience.
Ryan: [Laughs]
Van: It was a lot of.... It was so much fun. The guy who directed it and the company that put it on.... Al Timbers is the name of the director. He's a buddy of mine and he now has two shows on Broadway. He has THE PEE-WEE HERMAN SHOW and he has BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON.
Ryan: Oh, wow.
Van: Yeah. So I saw BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON years ago when I was at the Williamstown Theatre Festival where it originated and it's incredible so I urge--and I'm sure THE PEEWEE HERMAN SHOW is incredible, too--so I urge anybody to go see those shows if they find themselves in New York City.
Ryan: Yes. I'm in New York and a lot of my friends have seen both shows and they've all said very positive things so definitely check them out. So, well, that sounds like a really fun experience. Are you a good singer?
Van: No, I'm terrible.
Van: Yeah. Go figure, huh? I guess I can check that off my list because I really am a very bad singer. It's surprising how bad I can be. But I was in a musical, so I think, you know, I got a little tougher skin after that 'cause also I don't like singing. I'm terrified of it so basically being put in a musical, and I had my own song, too, that I had to sing, so for that to be something I've done, I'm proud that I did it. I probably will never get the chance to do it again because most people don't want bad singers when they are casting musicals. Uh....
Ryan: Right.
Van: And so, I'm glad, I'm glad that's done. I'm glad I proved to myself that I can do it, and I'm glad that I probably will never have to do it again. Never have to sing in public again. Never say never, though. Never say never.
Ryan: "Never say never," to quote the great Justin Bieber.
Van: I got a call once.... What? Justin Bieber said, "Never say never"?
Ryan: Yeah, it's one of his newer songs, but what were you saying?
Van: Well, I was saying a couple...like a couple of years into being on the soap, one of the producers called me up and they were like, "Can you sing?" And I was like, "No." They were like, "Not even a little bit?" And I was like, "No." And they were like, "Just not even a...?" "No, no, no." You know, I try not to say no to a lot of things because you want to be, you know, you want people to want to work with you, but Luke was not going to start singing on AS THE WORLD TURNS. Leave that to Jack or to...there's a bunch of people who had great voices on that show. Martha had a fantastic voice. They can sing, but me, uh-uh.
Ryan: Well, you know, that sounds like an awesome experience.
19:08
Ryan: So you actually started acting at like five or six years old, right?
Van: Yeah, I mean not like professionally or anything, but I started like in community theater and stuff, and it was just really fun. So it kind of was something that I sort of fell into I guess and just kept going with it and got lucky.
Ryan: I heard that you played a gargoyle and that's when the acting bug hit you. Do you hope someday to reprise this role?
Van: Yeah, I would love to play a gargoyle. And you know now with all these vampires and werewolves and all this stuff happening that's really cool, I'm going to put my money on gargoyles being next. They will be a gargoyle show on the CW. There's going to be gargoyles everywhere. It's going to be in five years people are going to be like how they are with vampires right now. They're like enough. People are going to be saying they like gargoyles and I'll be leading that charge.
Ryan: Right. Right. But vampires have such a...they're almost...they look human. Gargoyles I can't imagine a sexy sex symbol like vampires have become.
Van: You know what, I'm sure, I'm sure Hollywood has a way of turning anything sexy, so I'm sure they could find a way to turn gargoyles sexy. I could think off the top of my head, yeah, they're gargoyles, they're monsters, but they're really sexy monsters so when they turn into people, they're sexy people.
Ryan: Right. ____
Van: There are some sexy gargoyles out there somewhere. You know?
Ryan: Okay.
20:44
Ryan: So, Van, you went to a high school that specializes in the arts and I also attended a great school like that in my home town that completely changed my life when I was in the theater department there. Can you share one of your favorite memories or talk about your favorite play you did at that school?
Van: Well, I did THE SEAGULL when I was there which was my first Chekhov thing I ever worked on, and I remember when we...when it was announced that we were doing THE SEAGULL most of us didn't really even know who Chekhov was or what THE SEAGULL was or anything and so I was one of the leads in that, and that was really awesome. I mean, granted I was also 17 years old so I didn't know what the hell I was doing, you know, but it's something I'd like to go back and do again. But I think just being at such a specialized high school, my high-school experience was so different than what most American people my age are because we didn't have any sports, we didn't have any.... There was no real clubs or extracurricular stuff. It was in the morning you would do academics and then in the afternoon everybody would split up and either do acting or dance or writing or visual arts or music or whatever. And you know a third of our student body was international students, so it was just a very different school than I think, than I think what normal high school is usually viewed as. But for me, that was such a important place to be at that time, and the friendships I made, and the mentors that I studied under. My, uh, the head of the drama department I still talk to, to this day, and is probably, outside my parents, the person who has had the most influence on me in my entire life. So it's definitely like being at a boarding school and being at a specialized boarding school where everybody is there to pursue the same thing that you are there to pursue. It gives it a real, a real unique flavor. Everything's worth it.
Ryan: Awesome. Definitely. So you were talking about doing THE SEAGULL. I heard you talk about that's when you learned to trust yourself as an actor. So, doing Chekhov as a 17-year-old I imagine is incredibly difficult. Is that the reason it was difficult pulling that off?
Van: Yeah, it was difficult. Well, yeah, and I think that as you get older I think acting becomes easier in a way. And what I mean is that when you're 17 and your character is going to, you know, shoot himself, uh, hopefully, you've never been at a place.... Well hopefully, you're never at a place where you're going to shoot yourself.... But hopefully you haven't really...you don't have the reservoir of, of experience to get to those emotions as capably as someone who I think is in their 20s or 30s or 40s who has lived a full life and has lived through terrible times and great times and stuff. So, I think as you get older, your wells of emotions just.... You're able to tap into other things so at 17, I couldn't really tap into what my character was going through because I was a 17-year-old. I had no idea what this guy was going through, so you had to, you had to really dig, and I think maybe that's what I was talking about is that you know it was a huge challenge and it was a challenge that I wasn't emotionally capable of fully meeting so I had to find other ways of doing that.
Ryan: Right. Did you have like any specific tricks or ways that you remember?
Van: Not, I mean, not anything, not anything that I really remember specifically, but I think one thing that I had to really focus on, and that I still in my acting I still kind of struggle with it, it's not about the product; it's about getting.... It's about the journey that gets you to the product. Like for instance, if you know when I was on the soap and I would be like Luke breaks down crying, I would be like, "Aw, man," because what if I'm not breaking down crying at that point? And I can't.... You focus on, on the outcome. You've got to find your own way of getting to that outcome. And then, you know, on the soap, it wasn't really a problem for me to get there if I was just listening to what was happening and listening to the other characters and really, you know, going through what Luke was going through. But if you focus on.... If you try to focus on the results, you're going to be in your head and you're going to mess yourself up. So I think maybe what I was talking about was that THE SEAGULL the first time that I had to find a way not to focus on results and to trust my process.
Ryan: That's really interesting. This morning I was watching Regis and Kelly and
and James Franco was talking about his stent on GENERAL HOSPITAL and he said that the context is what kind of.... That's what fed his acting, so I think that's similar to what you're saying is that, you know, every.... He was saying how he felt like he didn't want to.... He was saying like to himself, "Do I have to be a soap opera actor; is that different?" but he said no, everything that happens around you feeds what happens with your character, and I think that's what you're saying.
Van: Exactly, exactly. And I mean, I think, I don't think there's a thing as a soap opera actor or a soap opera actress. I think there are actors who happen to be cast in soaps or happen to be cast on, in theater, or in prime time, or whatever, and it kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier about different muscles are necessary for the different genres. But you know I was ignorant about this when I first started in the soap, I thought, oh well, soap actors are very dramatic and they're very, uh, they like to look at each other after a scene ____ for some reason and before the scene ends everyone's just staring at each other which is a convention in soaps. But you've got to find a way to fill that so it doesn't look like you're just staring at somebody for no reason. You know what I mean?
Ryan: Right.
Van: And I don't, yeah, I agree. I don't think that.... It's whatever your circumstances are in, your character has to react a certain.... You've got to react to your circumstances, and soap circumstances are often very, very heightened and there is, uh, there's a, maybe "style" is the right word...there's a style, but it's not a style of acting. It's a style to handle the script. It's like the same thing of sitcoms are very, very stylized also and there's a style, but the characters are still.... The best actors in whatever field I think manage to transcend whatever genre they're in and show you the honesty within the genre whether it's a soap opera or sitcom or you know LAW AND ORDER or whatever.
Ryan: Right. By "heightened circumstances" do you mean things like maybe making out with your grandmother's husband?
Van: Yeah, exactly. Stuff like that. You've gotta find the humanity in that. You've got to find what's the connective.... What, even though most people watching will not make out with their grandmother's husband, again hopefully, you've got to find a way so that people who would never ever make out with their grandmother's husband could understand why your character would. You know? You've got to find the humanity in that or something.
Ryan: Right, and you did that and you made that believable, so kudos to you.
Van: Thank you.
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely.
Ryan: So, before you were cast on AS THE WORLD TURNS, and had one of the most talked about storylines in soap history, you did a.... You tried out for I WANNA BE A SOAP STAR and when I look at you talking about this on the other Blog Talk interview you did, I heard you say that it took place on the set of THE VIEW which is already a violent, violent area, and then....
Van: Why is THE VIEW violent?
Ryan: Oh, I mean look at all the fights that break out everyday with, you know, with Rosie and with the other ones....
Van: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. ____
Ryan: So, I imagined there would be a lot of negative energy. Okay.
Van: They weren't there. They weren't there.
Ryan: What was that experience like?
Van: Right. Well, I mean, it wasn't the best experience in the world. I'll tell you that much. It was, it was a reality show. You got there.... I got like.... 'Cause my agent.... Most people who auditioned for that, they like, I guess, submit something on line or something like that. It was a really dead week for me in New York and I think pilot season had just wrapped up and I hadn't gotten anything and my agents called me and they're like, "So we've got this ____ and you can skip all the first steps and just go to the producers for this I WANNA BE A SOAP STAR thing if you want to do it. I was like, "Hell, sure, I'll do it." And I, and I went to the producers and I did some soap opera scenes and they liked me and so then I had to go back like the next day or something and there was a big holding room of people and then they would bring you up on the stage like five at a time and I was the shortest guy I remember and the least well-built out of all the five guys that they brought up. And then you have to say why you want to be a soap star and I don't think I said anything interesting because I at that point really had no huge inclination to be a soap star. And then you had to turn around and do a tag shot and then they cut me. So, that was my I WANNA BE.... And then they make you walk down the alley way of THE VIEW, like with the dumpsters.
Ryan: They make you walk by the dumpsters.
Van: Yeah, yeah, seriously. I got cut pretty quickly. But yeah, but I mean it was an experience, you know, chalk that one up to just a strange afternoon in my life. Yeah, so I got cut and then I think within like six months later I was actually on a soap so that was kind of funny.
Ryan: Yeah, in your face, I WANNA BE A SOAP STAR. I am a soap star.
speaking of, let's talk about this a little bit. When Jake was on the show, he said that he really regretted that he never pulled a prank on you like taking a garlic tablet or something before a scene. Is there something that you did, some high jinks...?
Van: I thought he always did that.
Ryan: [Laughs] Is his breath that bad?
Van: No, I'm making a.... I'm being a jackass.
Ryan: Is there something that you wish you had done or that you did to cause a prank on the set?
Van: No, you know everybody asks about the pranks and I would never.... I don't really play pranks in my day-to-day life though really. I don't think I've.... I can't even think of a time I've really pulled a prank on somebody. I'm sure I have at some point but I was never really one for.... I guess I'm boring. I never really wanted to pull pranks on anybody. I mean the times, the things that happened to me that aren't like pranks but the distracting stuff that happens to me, like if somebody starts laughing, then I'll start laughing, so they'll be lots of times.... Somebody came up with a name for it, I forget what name it is though, but there's a term for it when you can't stop laughing when you know you're not supposed to laugh like in class or something like that. So that would happen to me sometimes and you know that nobody thinks it's funny but you. Like the crew wants to go home, the producers are probably in the booth furious at you because, you know, you're taking, you know, 20 minutes to laugh at nothing. But the sad thing for me is that I really like that feeling. I like the feeling of laughing when you're not supposed to laugh. It would be very easy for me to get swept up in somebody else's energy. Jake and I had days like that for sure when.... I forget specifically what.... Usually it would be when we had to speak very seriously about outlandish things. That's when you couldn't stop laughing.
33:34
Ryan: So right now in imaginary land, what do you think that Luke is doing this second?
Van: Probably whining about something, honestly. At this second, I don't know, in imaginary land. Well, I hope that he's got his foundation going. Maybe he and Noah are talking. I don't know. I'm sure... I'm sure.... Let's see, it's been three months since the show went off the air so I'm sure lots of dramatic stuff has happened in the last three months in Oakdale because it seems like dramatic stuff always happens there. Maybe Lily and Holden got divorced again or back together again or Damian came and they got divorced and back together. I don't know what Luke's doing. I hope he's happy.
Ryan: Do you, do you think that somewhere down the line Luke and Noah would be back together again?
Van: Yeah, I think so. I think at some point, yeah.
Ryan: Okay.
Van: Or very good friends.
Ryan: Sorry?
Van: I said, "Or very good friends." But, I mean, I think that they will be in each other's life forever.
Ryan: ____
Ryan: You know before the Rock the Soap cruise, you talked about going to a beach party in Mexico with all your fellow soapers. Can you let us in on any of the debauchery that went on down in Mexico?
Van: We didn't actually have a beach party.
Ryan: Oh, really.
Van: No. Jake and I went out and got tacos and then went back to the boat. There's this really good taco place. Yeah, we were probably on Mexican soil for like maybe an hour total. So sorry, no pranks, no debauchery, no fun. But we got those really good tacos though. They were crazy tacos.
Ryan: Crazy tacos?
Van: I just make that up. I was trying to sound like we did something like debauchery.
Ryan: ____
Van: I don't think we even got a beer or anything there. I think we just got tacos and maybe a Mexican soda and went on our way back to the boat.
Ryan: Well, you guys know how to throw down.
Van: I know. We're wild.... What's that ____ line? We're wild and.... I can't. I'm not even going to try to do an impression of that. The wild and crazy guys. You know, the Steve Martin....
Ryan: Yeah. Steve Martin.
Van: I tried and I failed so I cut my losses.
Ryan: So you had to play a drunken Luke several times on AS THE WORLD TURNS. As the true method actor you are, did you do a lot of research for this storyline?
Van: Oh, I've done research my whole life for that storyline. No. No, but I would. I definitely, uh, if I was drunk I would be, I would think to, not necessarily for Luke but for other things, you know. It's kind of like, like it's weird with actors sometimes how you kind of hijack your own life. Like, like if.... I remember years ago like I was crying about something, I was having a..., everything was awful, and I ran to the mirror and looked at myself to be like what does this look like, what does this look like? Recreate.... At some point you're going to have to recreate this. What does it look like? And I think that's borderline unhealthy behavior. But with Luke specifically more so than just getting drunk myself, what I did was I read about what other actors would do because I think it's so, so easy to play drunks so badly. So I'd find actors that I liked who had played drunk and I'd see what they did and, you know, rip it off, honestly. Rip off the technique that they had. I read somewhere (I think I said this before) that somebody (I forget who) said that when they were playing drunk and they were in a play so they played it a lot over and over and over, they just pretended that their character didn't have any bones. And I really liked that. That's kind of what I did because I thought it gave a really cool physical.... Like if you could think of it, you can kind of physicalize it, like pretend you don't have bones, you can kind of physicalize it. So and then also, with my, when I like go out with friends and stuff, I would not be drunk, but I would pretend to be drunk. When meeting up with them I would pretend to be drunk to see if they would think I was actually drunk or just fucking around. And also.... Sorry, I sweared. Swore. Is that okay?
Ryan: You can swear. Yes, swear all you want.
Van: Good. So, yeah. So, and that would work. So, uh, so that's kind of.... It's an amalgamation of different things to get to drunken Luke. If I had my way, he would be drunk the entire time because that was the most fun I think. When he was drunk.
Ryan: Yeah, I heard you liked playing him when he was kind of mean and not like just the nice guy he always was. Is it more fun to play that?
Van: Oh yeah, it's definitely more fun to play that. And I don't know.... Like he could definitely be very mean, but I liked playing him when he was lots of time when he was wrong or when I disagreed with.... I liked playing when I disagreed with his point of view because...
Ryan: Right.
Van: ...in a way I had to agree with his point of view. Because I played him, I couldn't, you know, I couldn't condescend to the character or anything even though I don't agree with what he was saying or doing. I had to find that in myself about, you know, yeah, I could see how he would be right about this and then play it.
Ryan: Yeah.
39:20
Ryan: Well, you know you were nominated for three Daytime Emmys, you were on one of the biggest soap stories of all time, you affected a lot of people's lives in a really positive way. Do you have any...like do you have any favorite memories from the whole AS THE WORLD TURNS experience? What was the whole thing like?
Van: The whole thing was, was huge I guess is the best way I can describe it because for.... You know I was there for five years. So it was, I mean, it was, it's like how anytime you're in a situation for an extended period of time, that situation will invariably form who you are and who you become, so I couldn't imagine my life without that five years because I would have no idea what the other path would have been. You know, what else would I be doing? You know, I look back on it so fondly and I have so many fantastic memories. There are just too many to even begin to pull one out of the hat, you know.
Ryan: Yeah, I hear ya.
40:31
Ryan: I, uh, you know, I've been friends with Jake for a decade now because we went to college together and I...
Van: I didn't know you.... You went to college with Jake?
Ryan: Yeah, we were in the same drama department.
Van: I didn't know that.
Ryan: Yeah.
Van: Wow!
Ryan: So, when I heard that he was going to be on a soap, I was like, "Oh, I should watch." And then when I heard the storyline, I was like "I definitely want to watch." And I was kind of going through a bit of a Noah story myself at the time, so I just wanted to tell you that even when Jake wasn't on, I kept watching and you really, you did an amazing job on that show. I think it was really important to have a character like Luke on for such a long time and I'm really glad you're the one who played him.
Van: Aw, thank you very much. Thank you very, very much. It's very kind of you. I was so proud to have played him.
Ryan: Definitely
Ryan: So, Van, we are.... Okay, this is going to be the shortest edition of Hot or Hot Mess ever so your fans don't kill me. We're going to play a game we usually play on the show. It's called Hot or Hot Mess where I play you some audio clips and you tell me if they're hot or a hot mess. Are you ready?
Van: I guess so. And "hot" is good and "hot mess" is bad, right?
Ryan: Yes, yes, exactly.
Van: All right. All right. It sounds like a fun game.
Ryan: [Plays the Hot or Hot Mess theme song.] Okay, so first...
Van: Was that just the intro music or do I say hot or hot mess to that?
Ryan: [Laughs] That was the intro music, but you can say it if you want.
Van: No comment.
Ryan: Okay. So this is Broadway's own Lea DeLaria's Ethel Merman impression. Hot or hot mess? [Plays impression of Lea singing "There's No Business Like Show Business."]
Van: Wow. I guess that's hot. I don't know. I think that was pretty cool. I couldn't do that.
Ryan: Next up, Jonathan Demar's Rip Torn impression. [Plays the "somebody owes me a martini" impression.] Hot or hot mess?
Van: I'm going to say hot again because it sounds like Rip Torn to me.
Ryan: Okay. This is Biz Markie beat boxing on our show. [Plays beat boxing.] Hot or hot mess?
Van: You know, I think I might be too nice or something because I'm going to say hot again.
Ryan: Undeniably hot.
Van: Also, who am I to say what other people's impressions if they're good or bad, you know.
Ryan: Well, do you do any impressions?
Van: Yeah, but I'm not going to do any right now.
Ryan: [Laughs] Okay, so last up on Hot or Hot Mess, this is me and your ex TV boyfriend singing an R. Kelly song. [Plays version of "Ignition."] Hot or hot mess?
Van: Oh boy. You know, I'm going to be...it's hot. It's all hot. It's good.
Ryan: I was ready to get messy there.
44:46
Ryan: Okay, so here are some.... Closing that up, now let's open up the Blazinry mailbag. Here are some questions from your fans. This is from vanhansisfans on Twitter. They wanted to ask me about the CLUB CAR AMBUSH video that you did. How on earth did that come about, and very similarly, Love Laura on Facebook asks the same question.
Van: Oh, that was some friends of mine. They were starting up this, this kind of.... I don't know if you'd call it a.... It's like a production group, I guess, to do, to do some I think, cabarets, and, I don't know, other type of feeder, feeder things. And they had, I guess, they shot a series of.... They just asked their friends from Carnegie Mellon.... And they just asked some of their...some friends to shoot some just little videos which I think was promoting one of them. That was years ago and I don't know how it got.... I mean I know how it got on line, but I think the one that I had shot they had decided not to use and then I guess years later they were like, all right, let's put it on. So it got on the Internet a couple of months ago I guess even though the show it was supposed to support was over like two years ago, I think. So, it's not a very interesting story.
46:16
Ryan: Okay, this is from shallowend on Twitter, Shannon on Twitter. She asks, what is your favorite movie you've seen this year?
Van: My favorite movie I've seen this year. Like in the movie theaters or just favorite movie I've ever seen? I re-saw THE GRADUATE and that's always.... I mean that's probably my favorite movie, though, so of course it's my favorite one I saw this year, but I guess that's what I'm going to go with. THE GRADUATE even though it didn't come out this year, it came out years and years ago, but I hadn't seen it in about four or five years and I watched it again and I was astounded by it.
Ryan: Yeah, THE GRADUATE. ____
46:57
Ryan: Let's see. This is from vhandaily on Twitter. Is there a role that you wish you could have played that would have been perfect for you?
Van: Oh, wow. That's a really good question. A role.... I guess that must be a role that somebody else has already played or that, that I might be too old for now. Ah, you know, I don't know. I can't think of any off the top of my head. I kind of think that this career is about the journey and it's about the steps that you...the steps that connect to other things that you've done, so I would say that whatever role I play is the perfect role at that time for me to play. And, you know, of course there's been a bunch of roles that I would have loved to play and that I would have been so, in my mind, I would have been so great at. But it either didn't happen or I'm too young or too old or something when they're casting it. So, I don't know. I wouldn't say there's anything that I'd be perfect for, but I'm just glad to get what I get.
48:13
48:13
Ryan: Naomi from Scotland wants to ask what is the reason that you wear an elastic band around your wrist and are you going to Holland anytime soon?
Van: Yes, actually I think I am going to Holland. Well, I know I'm going to Holland. I'm going to Holland for an AS THE WORLD TURNS event in the middle of January. I think Martha Byrne is going and Billie and Marnie are going and I think Paolo is going and Liz Hubbard so I think that's going to be awesome. I'm very excited about it. And the elastic band. The elastic bands I started wearing years ago. It was kind of like a.... In my mind.... If you look.... Well, living in New York especially, if you look on the ground, there's elastic bands everywhere. There's rubber bands everywhere, but nobody really knows it because nobody's looking for them, so I started noticing them, then I started actively looking for them when I was like walking down the street or whatever. And it kind of became a, I guess, not an analogy, uh, man, I'm blanking on the word. Not an analogy but a...
Ryan: Metaphor?
Van: Metaphor. Metaphor. There we go. It became like a metaphor for actively seeking out what you're looking for, what you want. So it was kind of just a way for me to.... I don't know. It just became a little, a little thing I did and I really don't do it so much anymore, but that's what it meant at the time, and I still believe that. You know, actively looking for what you want to find.
Ryan: Yeah. That's really awesome.
Ryan: Van, we have a ton of people who want to talk to you. You want to talk to a couple of your fans?
Van: Yes, of course.
Ryan: Okay, cool. Here we go; 440, you're on with Van Hansis.
440: Hello?
Van: Hello. Hey.
440: Hi.
Van: Hi.
Ryan: What's your name, where are you from?
440: My name is Stephanie and I'm calling from Cleveland, and, uh....
Van: How are you doin'?
440: I'm good. I'm going to try to make it fast because everyone in the chat is freaking out with the limited time. My first question is about LADYKILLER and if you can just kind of.... We all just finally got to see that. You know, it's absolutely hysterical. I loved it.
Van: I've never seen it.
440: If you could just tell us some of it.... You haven't seen it!?
Van: No, I haven't seen it. That was kind of like the same thing with the CLUB CAR AMBUSH thing. It was something I shot. I think I shot that either right as I got AS THE WORLD TURNS or right before it or something. It was a little student film that I shot and it disappeared for five years and now it's on line. But it was fun. I really enjoyed shooting it. I should watch it. I will watch it. But it was pretty much.... It was kind of like I did that at the same time I did that one called THE TIME MACHINE.
440: Okay.
Van: I was doing a bunch, a bunch of student films and stuff to get stuff for a reel before I got, before I got the soap. So yeah, it was just kind of something I did over the course of a weekend maybe or a week. The weird thing though is the place that we shot it, I hadn't been back there in about four years, and then last year I went to a restaurant that a friend of mine worked at and it was in the exact same place that we shot it at. It was a bar that had been renovated and turned into this restaurant. I was like I had some sort of weird deja vu, you know?
440: A miracle. I think people are saying it's posted on your Facebook so definitely check it out
Van: I will check definitely it out. I think I saw that it was posted on my Facebook, but I was also like, "Oh, I don't know if I want to watch that right now."
440: It's worth it. It's awesome.
Van: Is it? Thank you very much.
440: I thought it was hysterical. It definitely.... I'm in finals week and that definitely helped pick my mood back up.
Van: What are you studying?
440: I'm a gender studies major, actually.
Van: Awesome, awesome. Well, good luck with finals.
440: Thank you. And just real quick, my friend Lindsay wasn't able to call in tonight but I believe she's listening and she just wanted to ask if you would ever work with Eric again and if you guys keep in touch or anything like that.
Van: I would work with Eric again in a heart beat, but unfortunately we haven't really kept in touch that much. We email a little bit, but I would work again with Eric in a heart beat.
440: Awesome. Can you just give a really quick shout out to her? That would completely make her day.
Van: All right. Lindsay. That's her name?
440: Lindsay.
Van: Lindsay. Hi, Lindsay. This is Van and I'm giving you a shout out.
440: Thanks so much.
Ryan: Aw.
Ryan: Aw.
Van: Is that good?
440: Yeah. Perfect. Thank you.
Van: Thank you very much.
440: All right. Bye.
Ryan: Thanks for calling, Stephanie.
53:02
Ryan: Okay. So, whoever is freaking out in the chat room, everyone can calm down. It will be okay. If we cut off on the live feed, then we'll just stay on the line and keep rocking until Van...until you have to go. Is that all right?
Van: Yes.
Ryan: Okay. Cool. All right; 801, you're on with Van Hansis.
801: Hi, Van.
Van: Hi.
801: Hi. Excellent. I didn't think I'd get through. I just want to tell you how much I appreciated the emotional journey you took us on with Van...with Luke, and how much Henry Davis brightens my day. I watch his videos almost every day. He's hilarious.
Van: Well, thank you. Thank you very much.
801: And I would like to.... I just want to see you do something totally different. Maybe something kind of dark or like a psycho serial killer or something.
Van: OCCUPANT is very, very different than anything I've done before.
801: Would you be willing to do like a serial killer?
Van: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Of course. I mean, I hope at some point to do, to play a serial killer. That would be awesome.
801: Dexter is like one of my favorite shows and I think you would be perfect for it.
Van: Ah, thank you. People say I look like that guy so maybe if he needs a brother who's a serial killer or something.
801: Maybe you could be his younger brother or something. That would be awesome.
Van: Only if he's a serial killer, too.
801: Okay.
Van: ____
801: What would your ideal role be? Like what genre would you like to go into or, you know, comedy or....
Van: I think at this point right now I would love to do some comedy, but I mean it always changes for me. My ideal genre is whatever genre I haven't explored in a long time. So right now for me that would definitely.... I would really like to do some comedy.
801: I would love to see that. Thank you and I will let you go for someone else. I really appreciate it.
Van: My pleasure. Thank you very much.
801: Bye
Ryan: Okay. Thank you
forever. New York City area code you are on with Van Hansis.
NYC: [Speaking in a fast, energetic, unique voice] Hey, how's it goin' man? This is Jackson from Annapolis.
Van: Hey, how are ya?
NYC: I'm good and how are you?
Van: Good.
NYC: Good. This is so cool, man. I can't believe I'm talking to you. I've just been waiting for you. I'm in New York now but I'm originally from Annapolis and I had a question about OCCUPANT.
Van: Yeah.
NYC: Can I ask it?
Van: Yeah.
NYC: I don't want to give any...I don't.... Oh, you don't even know what the question is yet.
Van: No, I don't.
NYC: Okay. I was going to ask when you were filming it, when you were filming OCCUPANT, did they just put like cameras all around like they do for that movie, uh, oh, what's that movie called? You know, they just made a sequel to it with like, you know, uh, you know, it's all black and white 'cause it's like on a home video camera, but that's only ____ you know.... PARANORMAL ACTIVITY! PARANORMAL ACTIVITY!
Van: Yeah?
Van: Did they put cameras around?
NYC: Yeah, I mean was it done like, I mean, I figured, you know, I don't know what the...I kind of know the premise....
Van: Um, Jake.
NYC: You know, it's a haunted house and...
Ryan: What did you just say, Van?
Van: Is that Jake?
NYC: What's that?
Van: Is that Jake?
Jake: [Jake, dropping the NYC Jackson-from-Annapolis voice and using his own voice] Did you really know it was me, man?
Van: Yeah, dude. What are you doing? How are ya?
Jake: I'm good, man. How are you?
Van: I was like "Jackson from" 'cause he said you're from New York and then you said that he's Jackson from Annapolis, I was like, "Okay," and then you knew way too much about the movie, and you know, I was like, "Aah," and I was like I didn't know whether to be rude if it really was Jackson from Annapolis, or.... You're tricky, Jake.
Jake: I should have pulled a double prank on you like [switching back to the Jackson-from-Annapolis voice], "What do you mean, this isn't Jake? No, no. This is Jackson from Annapolis. I was a big fan until then. God."
Van: I was like at some point, "This sounds like Jake," but then I was like, "No, I don't know." That was good, though, Jake. Good on ya.
Jake: Nah, you got me though. You just totally got me.
Jake: I went a little bit too far maybe. I went a little bit too far.
Van: Yeah, you went a little too far. If you ____
Jake: I've been listening to the whole interview but I realized as I was calling that, um, I guess you guys are over the time. There's a delay or something, I feel like.
Ryan: Yeah, we have one live minute left. Yeah.
Jake: Oh, okay. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Well, I hope you're doing well in LA, man. I wanted to join the...the...you know, the ____.
Van: Well, I hope your show's going awesome and I'm going to be in New York for a bit around Christmas so I'm definitely going to come check it out.
Jake: Fantastic. Fantastic.
Van: When does it open? It's soon, right, man?
Jake: We're going to previews on the 14th, but it doesn't open officially until the 5th, so, you know....
Ryan: Jake, can you just say what show you're doin'?
Jake: Oh. Dracula.
Ryan: And it will be off-Broadway?
Jake: That will be off-Broadway at the Little Shubert Theatre.
Van: Do you have to be British in it?
Jake: I love that you said, "Do you have to be British in it?" The character does happen to be British, so yeah.
Van: Awesome. I can't wait.
Jake: It's going well. You know I've got family there so if I screw up on the accent, you know they're never going to let me forget about it.
Van: Yes, seriously, they're going to come from the mother country and get ya.
Jake: Exactly. Hopefully I pull that off better than Jackson from Annapolis. ____ Where'd I get Annapolis from?
Van: I don't know, and then I was like, "Where is An...?" Is Annapolis near DC? Or in Maryland?
Ryan: I think it's in Maryland, right?
Van: Yes, that didn't sound too "Maryland" for me.
Jake: I guess it didn't.
Van: I didn't think you ____
Jake: ____ There was about 30 seconds preparation for that character before I called in.
Van: Well, you know what? For 30 seconds, that was incredible.
Jake: ____
Ryan: People loved you. People loved the character in the chat room.
Jake: What's that?
Van: Jackson from Annapolis?____
Van: Jackson from Annapolis?____
Ryan: Whoever this guy is, he's awesome.
Jake: I'll start a Facebook page for Jackson from Annapolis. How about that?
Van: Yes, seriously. It can be your, like, alter ego.
Jake: So, Van, I was listening to.... I thought it was pretty funny. Yeah, you didn't know that Ryan went to school with me?
Van: No.
Jake: We went to school together. Syracuse, yeah.
Van: No, I had no idea.
Jake: Yeah, man.
Van: I had absolutely no idea.
Jake: Yeah, we're old college buddies. Old-time college buddies.
Van: That's awesome.
Jake: Ryan, you didn't get the Van Gogh. ____ I think everybody got that joke except you.
Ryan: Yes, I was a little slow on that one, yes. I'm sorry.
____
Ryan: Hey, Jake, before you go, do you guys miss each other?
Jake: I miss Van terribly. I'm hugging my Van-shaped pillow right now as we speak.
Van: Awww.
Jake: I do miss Van and I thought this would be a great way to surprise him on the air.
Van: You did! You got me! You surprised me!
Jake: I know. I know. Hey, Van, I just read, I read an interesting article and I just immediately figured it would have lead to a long conversation of ours. Apparently, this year in particular, is one of the first years in a long time when there are no, uh, there are really no Christmas movies coming out.
Van: Really?
Jake: There's really not. I hadn't thought about it, but there....
Van: Yeah, I really didn't really think about it either.
Jake: Yeah, Hollywood
is moving away...it's kind of scrapping Christmas movies, so I thought of an appropriate question. On the air, you've interviewed me before, and now I'm going to give you an interview question.
Van: All right.
Jake: What is one of your favorite, if not favorite, Christmas movies?
Van: You know that's weird 'cause I was just thinking about this yesterday.
Jake: That is weird. ____
Van: One of my favorite.... What?
J You must have an answer prepared already.
Van: I do have an answer prepared. Uh, The Peanuts Christmas movie, of course.
Jake: You ____ would say something like that. Yeah, I mean I know...
Van: What's that supposed to mean?
Jake: Well, I mean, does it have to be ____. I mean, come on, there must ____ other TV movies, you know ____ classic...
Van: A CHRISTMAS STORY, Jake, A CHRISTMAS STORY, is that good enough for you?
Jake: Is that...is that...is that? That's fine. That's a great answer, I mean, you know.
Van: See, I give him my answer and he judges me for it.
Jake: [Laughs]
Ryan: [Laughs]
Van: I give him my answer and it's not..."of course you'd say that." You asked me a question and I answered it. So, A CHRISTMAS STORY. What's your favorite, Jake?
Jake: Off the top of my head, I think SCROOGE.
Van: I like SCROOGE, too.
Jake: Yeah. Good one.
Van: Oh, and I was thinking about you recently because Michael Keaton was in something, but it's not about.... Jake, I think he's the voice of Ken in, uh, TOY STORY 3.
Jake: Oh, he is. Did you see that?
Van: No, but I saw that he was the voice of Ken and I was like, "Ah, Jake would be very happy to know that Michael Keaton's ____."
Jake: Well, Van, let me tell you, in that theater, after I.... I stayed after the credits, and I was.... I enjoyed that movie very much, and, uh, I saw that in a perfect state of mind, and I turned to my friend who was with...who I saw that movie with and I literally said, "Aah, Michael Keaton was Ken!" like that.
Van: Well, you like Michael Keaton.
Jake: I think Michael Keaton is fantastic and he was a hell of a Ken.
Van: Well, I will have to check it out. I will have to check that movie out.
Jake: It's really funny. It's really good.
Van: I've heard great things about it.
Jake: Yeah. Have you seen anything else recently?
Van: I've been watching THE WALKING DEAD. Have
you been watching THE WALKING DEAD?
Jake: I have. I was going to ask you what you thought of it.
Van: I love it, of course. What do you think?
Jake: I think it's great. I think it's really great. I'm actually a couple of episodes behind, so....
Van: There's only six of them and then it's gone for the rest of...it's gone until next October which is too much of a wait. It differs a lot from the book, though.
Jake: I know. ____ But they have to do that. They have to do that.
Van: Yeah, I know, totally. And I think some of the stuff that differs from the book, it works really, really well for being a TV show that.... It's better than how.... I think the comic is perfect for the comic, but they, they, like, they can do some cool stuff on the TV show that they don't do in the comic.
Jake: Yeah, totally. I'm with you on that a hundred percent. And also, hey, Van, we did have fun in Mexico.
Van: No we didn't. We went and got ta.... What do you mean we had fun? We went and got tacos, though, Jake.
Ryan: Do you have the debaucherous story, Jake?
Jake: No, I don't. I don't, honestly. We were on...you know, I want to point out that, uh, we had a late night and....
Van: That's true.
Jake: People had like, you know, there were____ appearances to be made, it might have been a bad idea. Like everybody else like our age from the boat were just going to these.... You know, they have all these places where you get like five shots and a beer for like 20 bucks...
Van: Yeah, it was called Senor Frogs or something, right?
Jake: Yeah, that and there were a couple of other places just like that, just total tourist traps and uh, you know I just think it would have been uh, you know, there would have been somebody....
Van: It wouldn't have been the best idea.
Jake: It would not have been the best idea given what we had to do, but in hindsight, I kind of wish we had.
Van: Yeah.
Jake: There will be other fun.
Van: There will be. There will be. But we had good ta.... Those tacos were really good, though.
Jake: They were good.
Van: They were really good tacos. And they were really cheap, too. And Jake pretended that he knew Spanish, also which was really funny.
Jake: What do you mean "pretended"?
Van: Yeah, you were like, "Hola, un taco, por favor."
Jake: Oh, man.
Van: And they'd speak back in English, and he would still...still trying to do the Spanish.
Jake: I remember that really differently. I remember that really differently. It's weird.
Van: Yeah. The way you remember it is called "wrong."
Jake: Oh.
Jake: And yeah, so now I'm hard at work writing you a script to play a sexy gargoyle.
Van: Please do. Please do. I think there is a dearth of sexy gargoyles that need to be written.
Jake: What I just don't understand is when do they turn human? Is it during the daytime? 'Cause if it's during the daytime, why are they gargoyles at all? Are they hanging up on the buildings?
Van: No, don't they turn human at night? Isn't that what gargoyles do?
Jake: No. Gargoyles...
Van: Do they ever turn human?
Jake: No
Van: I don't know. There was that cartoon when we were kids where the gargoyles.... Well, I guess they never turned hu...they were just gargoyles, weren't they?
Jake: Right. They were like Ninja Turtles except they were gargoyles. You know it was the same time...in around the same time, they were trying to capitalize. And it was a good show.
Van: Yeah, well, Jake, if you're the one writing the script, this is something that you need to figure out.
Jake: Yeah. Well, I just wondered if maybe your character had any, you know, inspirations of, you know....
Van: How about, how about they're gargoyles by day....
Jake: There are only so many cities, I just wanted to point this out, there's only so many cities that gargoyles can take place. You know?
Van: Yeah.
Jake: You know. Well, I mean a lot of European cities, I suppose. You just can't really have gargoyles....
Van: You're shootin' down my dreams here, Jake.
Jake: Just askin' you the questions, you know, that are goin' to come up.
Van: Yeah, that's true. Well, I'll figure it out. I'll figure it out and I'll get back to you. Actually, I know it already. I know it in my head. I know why they're humans.
Jake: Why is it? Would you like to share?
Van: They're cursed. They're cursed.
Jake: Oh, they're cursed. Okay, all right.
Van: They were people who were cursed to be gargoyles. And somehow the curse doesn't work at night so at night, they're people and then during the day they have to turn into gargoyles, and there you have it.
Jake: Bu, bu, bu, wait, wait, wait, wait a second. The whole point of the gargoyle thing being a fun thing that we want to watch is that they're gargoyles who, you know, fight crime, right?
Van: You're the one who said that they fight crime. I didn't say that they fought crime.
Jake: Well, that's what gargoyles...I mean....
Van: Gargoyles don't do anything. Gargoyles sit there because they're statues.
Jake: Okay, so if this is what I understand of the show, just to be sure of it, they're people during the day, right, are they people during the day or are they gargoyles during the day?
Van: I said gargoyles during the day, but we could tweak that, we could tweak that.
Jake: Okay, so during the day, the show takes place with them frozen in stone on a roof. That's the day, and then at night, they turn into regular people who can't have jobs because they're....
Van: Well, when you say it like that, it doesn't sound like a great show, Jake, but....
Jake: Oh, it doesn't ____ you set it out.
Van: Well, let me think about it....
Jake: I'm not sayin' there's nothing there. I'm sayin' we got our work cut out for us.
Van: Then I guess that's what we're going to have to co...think about.
Jake: Yes. ____
Van: I think the.... Or maybe we can just get a really good makeup person. They can be gargoyles all the time but they can move. But that would be expensive. That would be very expensive. That's why I wanted them to turn into people because if you have to use all that makeup, that's going to be very, very pricey.
Jake: So this is an indie film. This is a low-budget....
Van: No, it's a TV show. It's a TV show.
Jake: Okay.
Van: It's a TV show. I mean, it could be an indie film.
Jake: I didn't realize it was a TV show. Okay.
Van: Yeah. It's a great idea.
Jake: Yeah, it is. Let's go pitch it right now.
Van: You know, I'm not going to listen to the sarcasm dripping out of your voice right now. 'Cause since I live in Los Angeles, I'm going to drive over to Warner Brothers right now and I am going to pitch it. And then when you get an audition down the pike for the gargoyle TV show, you'll be going "Damn, this is great!"
Jake: Yeah, yeah. The best ____ I've read in a long time.
Van: Exactly.
Jake: Well, I hope to be on the other side of that audition with you casting stone objects as gargoyles.
Van: Yeah, yeah, all you really need is you can just go out into, you know, your grandmother's lawn and she's got those little stone gnomes and you can use one of those or something like that.
Jake: That's right. I will.
Van: Yeah.
Jake: How was your Thanksgiving, and Ryan, Ryan, too? How was both of your Thanksgivings?
Van: Really good.
Ryan: Mine was great. How was yours Jake?
Jake: Mine was great. Mine was wonderful and it's been.... But not as wonderful as talking to you two guys right now. I'm going to let you guys finish it up. Van, I would
...catch up with you outside of this.
Van: Definitely.
Jake: I miss you, buddy. Ryan, ____
Van: I miss you, too.
Ryan: Always a pleasure, sir. Thanks, Jackson from Annapolis.
Van: Yes, thanks, Jackson.
Jake: Jackson from Annapolis.
Van: Oh my gosh. Brilliant.
Jake: All right. Peace, buddy.
Van: All right. Take care, Jake.
Ryan: Okay. Well, that was a nice surprise.
Van: Yeah, it was. And, you know, right when he started, I was like, "This is Jake, this is Jake, this is Jake," but then I got side-tracked and I was like, "Maybe it's not Jake," and then I was like, "No, this has to be Jake."
Ryan: Well, maybe unconsciously you knew he was doing such a ridiculous character you wanted to see how far he would take it.
Van: Yeah, maybe. Maybe so.
The third part of the interview is in the next post.
Part 3 of 3 Parts
1:11:56
Ryan: Okay, what do you say, Van, do you want to talk to a couple more of your fans before you go?
Van: Yeah, sure. What time is it there?
Ryan: Here, it is 10 after 9.
Van: All right, cool. I've got time.
Ryan: Okay. Awesome. All right; 724, what's your name and where are you checking in from?
724: Hi, my name's Susie.
Van: Hi, Susie.
Ryan: Hi, Susie.
724: And I'm here with my mom, Jen, and we're from Pittsburg, PA, and...
Van: Pittsburg!
724: We made the OCCUPANT pumpkin, so obviously we are huge fans.
Van: Oh, yeah. That was awesome. That was so cool. Thank you very much for doing that.
724: You're welcome. And you talked about how you're so glad that your parents encouraged you to go to college rather than straight into acting, and since we're from Pittsburg, we hear a lot that CMU is such a great school, so we were wondering if you would share a favorite college memory with us.
Van: Favorite college memory. Uh, um. It's kind of like.... It's hard for me to get to pull out specific memories because it's, again, it was kind of like when I was on the soap, it was such a huge part of my life. I would say there.... Wow, shoot, I can't...I can't think of any one thing in particular. I mean there were certain classes. We had a class.... We had a clown class which was awesome where it was half of a semester and you develop your own personal clown. Which, I mean, with, with tuitions the way they are, I don't know if my parents ever knew that all of their money was going to me creating a clown, but, um, it was such a cool class where you just created your own clown for two hours a day. You know, it's kind of like being in pre-school again, but it was awesome and I think it was actually helpful. But there were just lots of cool, random little classes that you'd take and it was a really.... The whole experience was just awesome for me. I'm sorry I can't...I'm not more specific.
724: Oh, that's cool. Thanks for.... Can you do one thing; can you say high to Angela? She's a huge fan. She's actually coming to Pittsburg to see CMU because you went there.
Van: Oh really? Hi, Angela. How are ya?
724: Thanks.
Van: Is that.... No problem.
724: Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Van: Thank you very much.
Ryan: Thank you.
1:14:38
Ryan: Okay. And, uh, 760, what's your name and where are you checking in from?
Van: Hello?
Ryan: 760, are you there? Guess not.
Van: I guess we lost them.
Ryan: I think so. 447, what's your name and where are you checking in from? 447, you're on with Van Hansis.
Van: Dropping like flies.
1:15:14
Ryan: Uh, 267, you're on with Van Hansis.
267: Oh, yea, I got through. Hi, Van.
Van: Perfect.
267: It's Jammi. Hi, how are you?
Van: Hi, how are ya?
267: I'm doing good. How are you doing?
Van: I'm doing great.
267: As you know.... I'm glad you're doing great. I've seen your interviews lately with Roger and everyone. You know, you look good. I'm glad Los Angeles is treating you well.
Van: Thank you very much.
267: You know I miss you. Just listening to you and Jake talk, you know, I loved you and I love you guys. And I'm really excited for the OCCUPANT, so you know.
Van: Thank you.
267: Looking forward to that. I have a couple of....
Van: I'm very excited for it, too.
267: It's going to be amazing, I just know it is and I was listening to Thorsten's interview and he has a lot of great things to say about you, and you know he's right. This is going to be really big for you.
Van: Oh well. If that happens, that's great, but also, you know, no matter what happens with it, I'm very, very proud....
267: You're very proud of it?
Van: Yeah, to be a part of it. But I don't think, I don't think you can look at like.... I'm not one for counting chickens until they've hatched, but it's really, really nice of him to say that.
267: I have a couple of questions for you.
Van: Sure.
267: The first question, now that you've been in LA for a couple of months and everything like that, I just wanted to know do you have anything that you specifically like about LA vs. New York, or, you know, are you still a East Coaster at heart, or, you know, what's your ____? Because I know you've had your debates about LA vs. New York in the past so, you know, I'm just wondering how you feel now that you've lived there.
Van: I actually, I really like it out here. I think, I think to answer your question, am I an East-Coaster at heart? Yeah, probably and I probably always will be, but that being said, you know, LA has a lot to offer, um, that New York doesn't have. I think it's easier to have a healthy lifestyle out here ____ to be honest.
267: Yeah, that's true.
Van: Uh, I think there's a calm.... I don't know if "calmness" is the right word, but the pace of your day-to-day life is different, and for me, it seems like there's a lot less stress here.
267: Do the people in LA move a little slower? You know, New York is so fast-paced and people are always....
Van: New York is very fast-paced.
267: So fast, they bump into you and don't even care.
Van: I don't know that I'd say they are slower, but, uh, there is a difference in pace. I don't think anybody, you know, is as brisk as New Yorker walkers are, but that being said, it takes a little bit to adjust to the different pace, but then when you do, I think there's some really good qualities about everything going a little slower. But I do miss New York and I love New York. But I also feel like New York's not going anywhere.
267: Right, right.
Van: And I think that right now I'm at the place where I want to be which is Los Angeles.
267: It definitely seems that way, like I, you know, I was glad to see ____ pictures and everything I've seen, you definitely look good.
Van: Thank you.
267: You look like LA agrees with you very much.
Van: Thank you.
267: Another.... You're welcome. And you know I've always told you I'm going to always follow you wherever you may go.
Van: Oh, thank you.
267: Do you have anything in the pipeline? ____ You know you were taking meetings when you were having your interview with Roger.
Van: Well, the meetings that you take.... Because basically people out here.... Certain people do know who I am, some people who followed the show, that type of stuff, but a lot of people don't really know who I am because I've been out in New York for the last six years. So a lot of these meetings were just kind of like "Hello," get to know the, you know, meet with the casting directors so that when stuff comes up, you're on their radar
267: Ah, right.
Van: So it's not like I'm taking meetings like to pitch myself for a TV show and let's make this done, you know. So, it's not like that, but I got.... There's nothing in the pipelines right now, but I got very, very, very, very, very close to a show that I did not end up getting about two weeks ago. So I feel good the fact that I'm, you know, that since I've only been out here for two months and that, you know, I'm gettin' close, but time shall tell.
267: Yes, it definitely shall, and just want you to know that I'm very proud of you and....
Van: Thank you very much.
267: You already answered my other question which was what are you going to be doing over the holidays, and apparently, you're going to be in New York at some point, so....
Van: Yes, a little bit.
267: Well, that's good. And, uh, I guess that's it, so you have a happy holidays and....
Van: You, as well!
267: Thank you, Van, and we'll be looking out for ya.
Van: Thank you very much.
267: Goodbye.
Ryan: Thanks for calling.
1:20:36
Ryan: Okay, 937, you are on with Van Hansis.
937: No way, that's awesome. My phone's just about to die so here we go. Hi, Ryan. Hi, Van. How are you?
Van: Hi. How are ya?
937: I'm good. I'm trying to remember my question. I have to tell you honestly after the whole you-and-Jake conversation, my head sort of exploded so I'm trying to think what my question was, but I think that what I wanted to ask you was if you could.... I know you talk about.... You know, you really are interested in any kind of role, but I just want to try to get some examples like if you could play one Shakespearean character, one comic-book character, and one character on AS THE WORLD TURNS who isn't you, who would it be?
Van: Oh, those are good questions because they're nice and specific.
937: Oh, I'm Mickey, by the way ____.
Van: Oh, hi, Mickey. As far as Shakespearean characters go, I'd like to take a crack at any of them because I think that there's so many and they're so...they'll be so, so, so different. So, um, I could be cliched and say Hamlet, but I don't think I'm going to. I would like, uh.... Oh, maybe I'll just go with Hamlet. As far as comic-book characters, I want to play a bad guy. Oh, Batman has this really cool villain. I forget his name, but he, uh, I think his name is Zsasz or something like that and he cuts himself every time he kills somebody and he's completely crazy so I'd like to play him. As far as AS THE WORLD TURNS goes, another character.... I think playing Reid might have been fun because he got all those good lines, or, uh, maybe Damian.
937: Ooh, that's a good one, as well. Awesome. All right, I would love to see you play Hamlet. I mean that would be awesome.
Van: Thank you.
937: Okay. Fantastic. Well, I'm going to get off so somebody else can call. Have a very happy holiday. Thank you.
Van: You as well.
937: Bye.
Ryan: Thanks, Mickey.
1:22:40
Ryan: Awesome. Okay, uh, 618, you're on with Van Hansis.
618: Hi!
Van: Hi.
618: This is Megan from Illinois.
Van: Hey, how are ya?
618: I didn't think I'd make it through!
Van: Well, you made it.
618: Yeah! First, I want to say that when I heard Jake on the line, ____, I thought that he was high.
Van: Oh, I don't think so.
618: So I want to apologize to Jake. Sorry, Jake ____. And second, I can't remember what question I was going to ask. ____ Annie from England were talking about this and I can't find my questions.
Van: That's okay.
618: So, all I'm going to say, Van, is....
Ryan: Is it's Annie's questions from the chat room that you're talking about?
618: No, this is from Facebook a couple of weeks ago.
Ryan: Oh, okay.
618: All I'm going to say, Van, is that I'm very happy to hear you and that you're doing well and that I am very happy about everything that's going on. I can't wait to see OCCUPANT
Van: Aw, thank you. I can't wait till it gets out there and people can see it.
618: I do have one question. Just ____ question. It may not be a brilliant question, but how did your kitty cats take the trip and ____ from New York to LA?
Van: Uh, they both died. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. They're fine. No, they're fine. They're enjoying it. They're fine. Sorry, that was a mean thing to say. Sorry.
618: I'm a cat lover! Don't do that.
Van: I'm sorry. I apologize. I apologize. I guess I do play pranks, huh? Yeah, they're fine. They're enjoying it out here.
618: Well, there you go. You're a prankster now.
Van: I am. I guess so. Sorry that you had to be the first person I pranked.
618: That's all right. Well, thank you so much, Van, for taking my call.
Van: Thank you so much.
618: You're a wonderful person and I love chatting with you on Facebook whenever you get on, and thank you so much for the wonderful years you gave me and the wonderful years you will give me and all your other fans.
Van: Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
618: Bye, Van. You have a nice day and a happy holidays.
Van: Yeah, happy holidays to you, too.
618: Thank you.
Ryan: Bye, Megan. Thanks for calling.
1:25:30
Ryan: Van, Annie's question, incidentally, was, "What has Van learned the most about his profession he could never learn during education?" So, I think like in the real world of acting what did you learn that you couldn't learn at school.
Van: That's a fantastic question. I think what you learn that they don't really...that you can't be taught is just perseverance. Because when you're out there in the real world and you're not in school and nobody is paying your bills and nobody's.... You have no set schedule, you have nothing that you always had in school, you.... It's like once you graduate college, it's like being taken out of a cocoon or something and you have to learn reliance and perseverance in this business and I think in any business. And I think that's probably what I've learned the most from just being ____.
Ryan: Perseverance.
Van: Yeah, perseverance and self-reliance.
Ryan: Yeah, definitely helpful qualities as an actor. Definitely.
Van: Yeah.
1:26:41
Ryan: 608, what's your name and where ya checking in from?
608: Hello?
Van: Hi. Hey.
608: Hello. Hi. Hi. Oh, wow. Okay. Am I on?
Van: You're on.
608: Okay. I feel like I won kind of a prize or something. All right, well, I don't really have much of a question but, yeah, I told my friend to tell my jazz band director that I'm having family issues so I could listen to the interview.
Van: ____ now if they ever hear the interview, they'll know that you're lying.
608: Oh, no.
Van: I think you're okay.
608: It's worth it. I was wondering...you've been in...you've had quite a few interviews before and stuff and I was wondering if there are any questions like what's the most...like the question that made you feel most like uncomfortable or whatever.
Van: I don't know if uncomfortable is the right word, but lots of times, especially when the soap was on, like, I'd be asked questions a lot about story content which I had no control over, and then what I would say would be held as, um, it would be held in some sort of regard that I don't think it necessarily should have been because I didn't write the show. I couldn't control what was being written or whether people were liking the storylines or not liking the storylines. So, it didn't make me uncomfortable, but I always felt like, well, you can ask me anything you want about the story, but I can't tell you why they did it or why they're writing it this way or anything like that. So, that was probably the one that just never...it just never really.... I just didn't see the point of asking me about it because I can't do anything about it.
608: Yeah, I can see that. Oh, I'm Devin, by the way.
Van: Hi, Devin.
608: Hi. Well, yeah, okay. I'm sorry, the other people probably want to kill me because I'm taking up time, but I just.... I really enjoyed watching you on AS THE WORLD TURNS and I don't know....
Van: Well, thank you very much.
608: Yeah. Yeah. Sorry the reception is awful here.
Van: That's okay. I can hear loud and clear.
608: Great. Sorry, you can hear my voice shaking.
Van: No, no. You sound great.
608: Thank you. Wow. I'll let you get to the other fans.
Van: Okay. Thanks for calling.
608: Yeah. Bye.
Van: Bye.
Ryan: Thanks, Devin.
Ryan: Van, you're a trooper for sticking around this long. You got one or two more in ya?
Van: Yeah, I can do like two more and then I gotta go.
Ryan: Okay, cool.
1:29:37
Ryan: 956, you're on with Van Hansis.
956: ____
Van: Hello.
956: ____ Hi! Isabel from Texas! Hello. Hi.
Van: Hey, hey, hey, how are ya?
956: I'm fine. I just wanted to tell you that we miss you on TV so we're looking forward to anything you do in the future including the movie.
Van: Oh, very cool. Thank you.
956: Okay, and I just wanted to ask you real quick. ____ Luke and Reid fans are still devastated months later about what, you know, how it ended. But just real quick, if you could just make up something, what kind of alternate ending, what do you have left for them?
Van: For Luke and Reid?
956: Yes. ____
Van: Um, what didn't happen on the show?
956: Right. Yeah. Something a little different. Something happier.
Van: You want me to say something that could be happier for Luke and Reid?
956: Yeah, like what....
Van: Okay, he didn't get hit by a train.
Ryan: [Laughs]
956: [Laughs] ____ That's clever, yes. Definitely.
Van: If he didn't get hit by a train then things would ____ a lot happier for Luke and Reid.
956: All right. Well, thank you. I just wanted to let you know, yes, THE WALKING DEAD is a really good show. I'm glad you like it.
Van: Isn't it great?
956: Right, yeah. What's your favorite zombie movie, by the way?
Van: What's my favorite zombie movie?
956: Yes.
Van: Uh, well, I guess
of recent I would say my favorite zombie movie is 28 DAYS LATER.
956: Oh, okay, yeah, that's a good one.
Van: Of recent zombie movies, that's one I'd say.
956: Oh, okay. Well, thank you so much for giving the interview and thank you for answering my questions.
Van: Oh, my pleasure, ____. My pleasure.
956: Take care.
Van: Take care.
Ryan: Thanks for calling.
1:31:24
Ryan: Okay and Philadelphia area code, you're on with Van Hansis.
Philadelphia: Hello.
Van: Hello.
Philadelphia: Hi. This is Sabrina. I'm from Philadelphia area, obviously. My question would have to be what was the most interesting or fun thing about working on a horror film, like ____ a horror film, like what was the most interesting thing?
Van: The most.... I need to say stuff that's not going to give it away. The most interesting thing to me, well, OCCUPANT, the apartment itself is its own character and when before we start shooting I went in and walked through the apartment and it was this huge apartment in New York City. And I walked through and the people who were living there were currently there and it just looked like a nice apartment and then....
Philadelphia: So someone let you borrow their apartment?
Van: Yeah, we bought basically someone's apartment for a month and then they turned it into this, this, uh, this creepy, creepy buil...apartment. So for me, the most interesting thing was the apartment that we worked...that we worked in. It was really, really cool and it really gave you a sense of the person who had lived there before which was my character's grandmother. So that was...that was very, very cool with just seeing how the attention to detail was so, so good in that.
Philadelphia: Well, that's great. I mean think it would be good since someone already lived there and they just kind of let you....
Van: Yep. Yeah. The people who lived there, they put in a hotel for the month and then they took the apartment and they changed it all up and painted it and did all the stuff so it looked like, uh, Danny's grandmother's apartment.
Philadelphia: That's so cool that someone let you borrow their house. Like I would never let anyone take my house for a movie.
Van: Well, I think they got paid. I don't know if they were just like, "Sure, take our apartment," but then, of course, I think the producers...everything had to be returned back to the way it was when the family moved back. But, yeah, I'd have a hard time even if somebody did pay me, letting somebody take my place.
Philadelphia: Yeah, that's kind of.... I can't even think about it. But my other question...
Van: [Laughs]
Philadelphia: Yeah, I know, my place: mine. My other question would have to be what's the hardest part for you going from a soap to a horror film since they are two completely different genres?
Van: The hardest part was, uh, I don't know if it was the hardest part, but it's the part that was most intriguing to me is because, you know, soaps are on a.... Soaps are shot with three cameras at once and everything is shot, like the entire scene is shot sequentially in order and then they edit as they go between all three cameras. With the film, it's one camera and you set up and you light for one shot, and then you have to re-set up and re-light for the other person's shot, and then.... So each scene takes so much longer in a film to do. So that was really interesting. It wasn't, again, I wouldn't say hard, but it was just interesting to see, you know, the differences in the genres.
Philadelphia: That's really cool like just because I'm interested in film and stuff and I'm actually going to go to college for that so....
Van: Oh, awesome.
Philadelphia: Yeah, so that was just my question, personally. And I just want to say I miss seeing you like all the time on my TV. That was like the highlight of my day if you guys were on, I would like, sit there, like watch it, and be all excited. And I'm like all depressed now that it's off, like, "Oh, this is sad." But I'm really excited that I get to see you act again and get to like, not interact, but like be involved with watching you on-screen again because that really was a joy for me.
Van: Well, thank you.
Philadelphia: No problem.
Van: Thank you very much.
Philadelphia: No problem. I'm just brutally honest all over this place.
Van: That's totally cool.
Philadelphia: I know. I try. All right, so I guess I'll let you go now.
Van: Okay. Thank you for calling.
Philadelphia: Oh, no problem. My pleasure. I called for a reason. I want to talk to you.
Van: Yeah and there you go.
Philadelphia: Thanks for talking to me and staying late to talk to me and everyone else.
Van: My pleasure.
Philadelphia: All right.
Ryan: All right. Thank you for your call.
1:35:42
Ryan: Van, so now we've had Jake on, we had Eric on, and now we've had you on, and all three of you guys have been ridiculously awesome. I can't thank you enough for doing it.
Van: Thank you. My pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you very much for having me.
Ryan: Oh, absolutely, and, you know, I just want to let you know, that I really.... It was a very inspirational story to me, your story on AS THE WORLD TURNS, and I mean, you know this already, but you've affected so many people's lives in a great way and given a lot of people a lot of courage, and like I said, I'm glad it was you playing that role for five years and I can't wait to see what you do next, 'cause I've always been a Jake fan but when I started watching the show, I became a Van fan, too, and I can't wait to see....
Van: Aw, thank you.
Ryan: Absolutely, man. I can't wait to see what's next for you, sir.
Van: Thank you very, very much. Thank you for those really kind words.
Ryan: Definitely, man. You have a happy holiday.
Van: Yeah, you as well. Take care.
Ryan: Thanks, Van. Take care. Great to talk to you.
Van: Bye.
Ryan: Bye.
1:36:45
Ryan: All right. That was Van Hansis from OCCUPANT and AS THE WORLD TURNS. So awesome, such a great guy, and, uh, hey, listen everyone, thank you so much for listening. I'm sorry if I didn't get to your questions or your calls, but, hey, how about that Van for sticking around as long as he did. And what a great surprise from Jake Silbermann. Tune in tomorrow at 8:00 at our regularly scheduled time, Wednesday at 8 PM Eastern. We'll have comedian Jordon Ferber. So, remember, if it ain't show biz, it ain't a biz. Lastly, somebody owes me a martini.
### End of show.
