Starship Troopers Star Corrects Director's Story About The Sci-Fi Classic's Shower Scene

Paul Verhoeven once claimed that he stripped in front of the "Starship Troopers" cast to shoot the film's infamous co-ed shower scene. In short, the actors involved in the saucy sequence requested that he and cinematographer Jost Vacano take off their clothes to make them feel more comfortable about being naked on-camera. As the story goes, the filmmakers were more than happy to oblige, but it turns out that Verhoeven's recounting of the tale might have been exaggerated.

Speaking at the "The Only Good Bug Is a Dead Bug: A Starship Troopers Reunion" panel at C2E2 2025 (via Popverse), Dizzy Meyer, who plays Mobile Infantry soldier Dizzy Flores in the movie, revealed that Verhoeven and Vacano didn't go as all out as we have been led to believe. In her own words:

"I said, 'Oh yeah, you're a big shot, because you're able to wear your clothes behind the camera while everybody else has to walk around naked and do a scene like it's no big deal that we're naked.' And he goes, 'Well, I don't understand.' And I said, 'Well, if it's not such a big deal, why don't you take your clothes off.' "And [Paul] looks over at Jost Vacano, and Yost goes, 'Oh, okay.' And the two of them dropped their pants briefly. They didn't film the scene like that."

Needless to say, Verhoeven and Vacano's stripped-down moment didn't live up to the cast's expectations, but they shot the scene anyway. However, one of the film's main actors wasn't happy about going into the movie knowing he'd have to take off his clothes.

Casper Van Dien, who plays Johnny Rico throughout the "Starship Troopers" franchise, initially had reservations about filming the infamous shower scene. During a conversation with PEOPLE in 2024, the actor admitted that he panicked when he saw the shower scene in the script — for the same reasons his co-stars were so apprehensive about filming the sequence:

"When I read that scene, I basically, if you want the dead honest truth, I was like, 'Oh s***, no, I gotta do that scene. Oh my God, what am I gonna do?' So, you know, you're like, 'Oh my God, I'm gonna be naked in front of a whole bunch of people and in the shower for a long time.'"

Fortunately for Van Dien, he felt more comfortable when the time came to shoot the scene, as he accepted that it had to be done for the sake of the job. With that being said, the actor believed that it was the most difficult scene to film, which is really saying something, as "Starship Troopers" is a very action-heavy flick that was probably very physically demanding for everyone involved.

As of this writing, a "Starship Troopers" remake is in the works from director Neill Blomkamp, whose previous sci-fi credits include "District 9" and "Chappie." The filmmaker hopes to make it more like the original Robert A. Heinlein novel, which is largely different from the Verhoeven adaptation, so it might be lacking in the way of revealing shower scenes.