{"id":35904,"date":"2021-05-21T13:35:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T17:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=35904"},"modified":"2021-05-29T13:58:53","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T17:58:53","slug":"van-zan-dragon-slayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why did Matthew McConaughey take the role of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in <em>Reign of Fire<\/em>? How did he prepare for the role?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The role of dragon slayer Denton Van Zan was influential in how McConaughey was starting to feel about life. After years of partying and hedonism, McConaughey began to wonder about other ways he could spend his time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about Matthew McConaughey and the role of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in <em>Reign of Fire.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">McConaughey the <strong>Dragon Slayer<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Then the role of dragon slayer Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in <em>Reign of Fire<\/em> came along. Matthew loved playing this character. He says Van Zan taught him the deep value of duty, along with the value of affirming and owning your personal element of madness.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amid the endless partying and gratification of his Hollywood life, Matthew had begun to question God\u2019s existence as he placed more emphasis on self-reliance and free will. Playing Van Zan became an instrumental part of this. He realized that he wanted to pull away from his life of hedonism and start earning and deserving some of those easy Saturdays that he had been enjoying. The tough and rugged character of Van Zan, a man whose life revolved around a single, all-consuming purpose, felt important to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Playing the role also taught him how to play life by his own rules instead of letting Hollywood culture dictate his actions. To prepare for it, he began by shaving his head. This was partly because his hair had begun falling out anyway, and he had heard that shaving it was one way to make it grow again. But his new look also became part of his new self-determination when his bald head appeared in <em>People <\/em>magazine and a studio executive with a financial interest in <em>Reign of Fire<\/em> balked and threatened Matthew with some words about \u201cbad <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/karmic-law\/\">karma<\/a>.\u201d In response, Matthew spent some time tanning his newly exposed scalp. Then he oiled it up, put on a fancy Gucci suit, and went to a Hollywood industry party, where his bald head was a hit. The studio executive later called him and raved excitedly about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matthew\u2019s preparations for playing Van Zan also involved some considerably more rigorous activities when he spent several weeks at his brother Mike\u2019s West Texas ranch and developed his own brutal daily training regimen for becoming a dragon slayer. This included taking a double shot of tequila every morning, running barefoot in the desert for five miles, keeping his heart rate low as he stood on the edge of the barn\u2019s roof, and going out into the fields at night to tackle cows. One by one, these exercises failed\u2014the tequila made him sick, he couldn\u2019t make himself go to the roof\u2019s edge, his feet blistered so badly that he couldn\u2019t walk, and he got a concussion from a cow\u2019s headbutt. The upside was that he experienced a lot of pain, which was something the character of Van Zan knew all too well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why did Matthew McConaughey take the role of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in Reign of Fire? How did he prepare for the role? The role of dragon slayer Denton Van Zan was influential in how McConaughey was starting to feel about life. After years of partying and hedonism, McConaughey began to wonder about other ways he could spend his time. Read more about Matthew McConaughey and the role of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in Reign of Fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,33],"tags":[292],"class_list":["post-35904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-people","tag-greenlights","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of Matthew McConaughey&#039;s favorite roles was of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in the movie Reign of Fire. Here&#039;s why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of Matthew McConaughey&#039;s favorite roles was of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in the movie Reign of Fire. Here&#039;s why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-21T17:35:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-29T17:58:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2464\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1632\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-21T17:35:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-29T17:58:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/\"},\"wordCount\":522,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Greenlights\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Career\",\"People\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/\",\"name\":\"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-21T17:35:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-29T17:58:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"One of Matthew McConaughey's favorite roles was of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in the movie Reign of Fire. Here's why.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg\",\"width\":2464,\"height\":1632},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\",\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carrie Cabral\"},\"description\":\"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer - Shortform Books","description":"One of Matthew McConaughey's favorite roles was of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in the movie Reign of Fire. Here's why.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer","og_description":"One of Matthew McConaughey's favorite roles was of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in the movie Reign of Fire. Here's why.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-05-21T17:35:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-29T17:58:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2464,"height":1632,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carrie Cabral","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carrie Cabral","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/"},"author":{"name":"Carrie Cabral","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56"},"headline":"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer","datePublished":"2021-05-21T17:35:45+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-29T17:58:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/"},"wordCount":522,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg","keywords":["Greenlights"],"articleSection":["Career","People"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/","name":"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg","datePublished":"2021-05-21T17:35:45+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-29T17:58:53+00:00","description":"One of Matthew McConaughey's favorite roles was of Denton Van Zan the dragon slayer in the movie Reign of Fire. Here's why.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg","width":2464,"height":1632},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/van-zan-dragon-slayer\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew McConaughey as Van Zan the Dragon Slayer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56","name":"Carrie Cabral","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carrie Cabral"},"description":"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/herbal-the-game.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36810,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35904\/revisions\/36810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}