So what. We liked him. Upbeat and charming, he spoke with Well Rounded Entertainmen while making the rounds promoting his small supporting role in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, a very creepy adaptation of the Washinton Irving story about a murderous headless horseman.

Dressed to kill and so nice that we lost our urge to move in for one, Van Dien struck us as a guy who might not make it big in the movies, but will probably have a decent career in front of him as a TV star, probably a cop shop. An ensemble cop show. That we're not sure we'd watch.

You're looking dapper; I've never seen someone get so dressed up for a press interview.

Thank you. I always do and I always get that comment. I like to wear suits and ties. And I'm being interviewed — I think it's the proper way to do that. I think about old movies, like in American Movie Classics, you see all the Hollywood stars and the actors all dressing up. That's also how I grew up: going to church. I didn't have to, but I always wore a tie.

You grew up Christian?

Presbyterian.

So what was your interest in the recent Omega Code?

It was a good spiritual movie. My wife — who was my girlfriend at the time — got the movie when I was filming Sleepy Hollow and she told me about this part of the camera guy that gets killed right away, and I knew it was being filmed in Israel. So, I knew one of the producers and I offered to do the cameo for free. And he said, "If you'll be done with Sleepy Hollow by then, we want you for the lead." So, I got to do this, like, James Bond movie, but without all the vices. No cigarettes, no alcohol, no women, but a lot of live action, running around chasing bad guys. It was a lot of fun. I also wanted to work with my wife; we got engaged on the film in Bethlehem. Israel's an amazing place, absolutely beautiful.

Were you at all nervous relating your name with a religiously-themed film?

No. It's more of a spiritual movie. The reason why most people are saying it's religiously affiliated is because it was funded by a Christian group. Now, most movies are funded by mobs, gangs, really seedy people, really disgusting people that you would never leave your children with, or your brother or sister, or that you woudn't trust with anything — and yet that's what the movies are funded with and nobody ever says anything. I mean, usually they're funded by the scum of the scum of the earth. So, you have a movie that's promoted by a Christian group and all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, no! Not the Christians, heaven forbid." I don't really care. I'll do the movie funded by the mobsters, by the seedy people, by the Christians, by Jewish people, Muslims. I like to do different films; I like to have a lot of fun.

Are you being selective about the roles you're choosing?

Yeah, I turn down a lot of crap that's sent my way, a lot of junk that I'd never do even for the amount of money that they offer. I'm also getting the opportunity to work a lot. I get chosen to do a Tim Burton film and he hires a wealth of actors that's unsurpassable in most films today. To be a part of that is awesome.

You've done such disparate films; what genre are you most connecting with?

I like doing the variety. I like playing James Dean in one film and then Tarzan in another. To be in a Tim Burton film and be this character Brom Van Brunt, barrel-chested, I gained thirty pounds for it, got really pale. I like looking different and researching, whatever it calls for in a role. I'm also a prose poet, played in a jazz band for seven years, played football, went to military school, was the number one sailor at my school, I love science — it was easy for me. But, acting is all I want to do. Be a dad and an actor.

Isn't it hard to have a family life as an actor?

It's the most incredible thing to be married. I love being a father. I think everybody should do it. My dad grew up military and I grew up in a military family. I get to give my family opportunities that I didn't have and we all have fun. My son goes, "My dad's Tarzan." You can't beat a statement like that.

Is there an element of privacy that you miss?

No. Otherwise I woundn't be an actor. There are certain things that you miss out on. When my wife and I announced when we were getting married, all the dates came out on tabloids and everything, so we went and just did a wedding quickly without telling anybody. And then we organized a small ceremony afterwards for just our family and nobody knew about it. But that's the way you have to do it. You have to learn to work within the system. And sometimes you don't always do it right, but it's not too bad. You never have it fully figured out. But it's like military school: there are certain rules and regulations that you follow and if you work within the society you can grow and get more freedom; if you fight it you get demerits and get less freedom and you'll hate it even more. Working within the system seems to work better than working against it because when you work within it, you can change it easier. Working with the press is different: sometimes you do the right thing sometimes you don't; sometimes you say the right things to them, sometimes you don't; sometimes they really hate what you did, sometimes they love it; sometimes they're really big fans of yours, the next minute they're not.

How did you grow into an actor coming from a military family?

My military family brought me around meeting different people, different cultures, and encouraged me to learn about them and to learn the diversity and uniqueness of everybody and respect and honor that, which is what the military is more about: it's not about going out to kill and be in battle; it's going out to learn how not to do that and to work within the rules and regulations of the world. And that's what the military aspect of it was: an education. Both my parents are teachers, as well, so I had that going for me. It was more of an education and love of learning and appreciation for the arts. They took me to see Broadway productions. I saw [the play] "West Side Story" when I was seven and then I saw the movie and fell in love with Natalie Wood. My favorite movie of all time is West Side Story. I love all movies, though. I love Stars Wars just as much almost, and The Magnificent Seven, horror films and old classics, I just love films.

What's your acting approach and training background?

I started taking a class at Florida State University then went out to California and studied intensely with many different coaches, sometimes three at a time. To prepare for a role, I read as many books as I possibly can on acting or on the role that I'm playing, or changing the physique to look like the role as much as I possibly can. As in James Dean, I lost 25 pounds by eating fat-free soup three meals a day for three months and I became really emaciated and had tone muscle atrophy. And for Tarzan, I got in great shape and gained weight, and Starship Troopers as well. And for Sleepy Hollow I put on thirty pounds by eating eight meals a day, four protein shakes a day and two protein bars a day and cut out cardio but kept working out with weights, and grew long hair and became really pale.

Doesn't it scare you to put your body through all that?

It's not a healthy thing to do. I don't recommend it for anybody. But for the role I need to look like the part, and then I can go into the intellectual level as well. I read as many books as I possibly can on the subject. I watch the films of the filmmaker I'm working with and films of some of the other actors that I'm working with. I become the character in as many ways as I can by: if its a real character, reading books that he read, watching movies that he watched, listening to music that he listened to; if it's a fictional character, reading other books of interpretations on him, talking to the writer.

How did you prepare for Sleepy Hollow?

I watched Tim Burton's films — all of them — all over again. And Johnny Depp's films and Christina Ricci's films. And I bought four copies of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow": two of them were identical, one was slightly different and one was a child's book. I also watched the 1977 TV movie where Jeff Goldblume played Ichabod Crane and a big football player played my role, which was odd. I watched the Disney movie over again.

Being from New Jersey, did you grow up with this mythology?

Very much so. Washington Irving based his novel on the ghost stories that were being told by the Dutch settlers who came over from Holland in New Amsterdam, which is now New York, and in New Jersey and Connecticut. I grew up on Van Dien Avenue, named after my great, great, great grandfather, all of Dutch ancestry. The stories have all been handed down. The Van Tassles in the novel are actually cousins to the Van Diens in real life. It's more or less America's version of the boogey man and Irving's novel was the first work from the Americas hailed throughout Europe as a great piece of literature. And now Tim Burton has taken his interpretation to a whole new level and created something that I think is going to stand above and beyond everything else that's been done with this story.

What was it like being on the actual set?

First, you step into this wardobe, and so everybody looks this way. And then you step into this set, and the best way to describe it is a Tim Burton-esque set. And you almost feel like you're stepping into his mind. It's an awe-inspiring moment because you're around this wealth of talent, in front of the camera and behind the camera, and they're all stepping up because it's Tim Burton. And you're in this place that's just eerie and wierd and it's a whole different world. And it's a beautiful and amazing and incredible experience.