I wasn’t sure if I should tell this story—but ah, what the hell.
Around 20 years ago my social life used to consist of hanging out at screenwriter Shane Black’s Hancock Park mansion on weekends. I’m not proud, but that’s what it was.
All sorts of random people would end up there—and one time, I found myself sharing the elevator (there’s an elevator up to the third-floor screening room/party space) with none other than Dina Meyer, who of course I recognized.
You guys know Dina Meyer: Starship Troopers, a Romulan commander in Star Trek: Nemesis, several Saw movies. Her porcelain beauty, athletic appearance and versatile intensity has given her a well-traveled career, mostly in genre entertainment.
It’s sort of like, she’s so striking, and yet something of a chameleon—so she ends up in genre movies and TV shows where they need a pretty person to play a character or authority role.
In person she was pleasant, albeit a little bit distant.
For whatever reason, she started to grouse to me about how men were—now, I can’t remember the word she used. Let’s just say it was “wussies.”
She was complaining about the men she was dating being cowardly. And she seemed genuinely upset about it. Or at least, frustrated.
I don’t remember if she was there on a date or not. I imagine you’ve got to be pretty hot or famous to date Dina Meyer.
I asked, “You mean, they won’t share their feelings with you?”
And this was, honestly, the snap interpretation I made of her complaint. She’s an actress, right? A world of emotions?
And she looked at me, and, well...no, that’s not what she meant.
She liked to do things like rock climbing and snowboarding—and the men she was dating were too afraid to do these things.
So she literally wanted men to date who were tough enough to keep up with her kick-ass hobbies.
Hah! So there you go. True story!
I guess the Starship Troopers casting wasn’t just a Hollywood illusion!
UPDATE: She has a social media presence. I was not imagining this!