‘Sharknado 2’ Star Ian Ziering Said He Took The Role To Keep His Insurance

Sharknado 2 star Ian Ziering is pretty upfront about why he decided to tackle this inherently silly motion picture. Were it not for a few pressing financial obligations, the actor may have passed on the project altogether.

The sequel to the surprisingly popular Sharknado is presently slated for next month. SyFy will air the follow-up on August 21, so make sure your schedules are completely cleared beforehand. After all, it would truly suck if you’re the only person on social media who isn’t talking about the inherent zaniness of Sharknado 2.

To help spread the good word about the follow-up, Ziering and co-star Tara Reid recently sat down with the folks over at Moviepilot. During their chat, the former 90210 admitted that he probably wouldn’t have accepted the role were it not the welfare of his family.

The Sharknado star explained:

“I did it to make my insurance. I didn’t lie to anyone about that. If it wasn’t for my life, I may not have done this, but as I was vacillating on whether I should do this or not, she said, ‘Look, you need to go to work. You’ve got to make your insurance.’ So I realized I’m a husband and I’m a father and I have to provide. I get my insurance through my unions, so that really was the impetus for me. It wasn’t a selfish decision to do it. It was a selfless decision.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean Ziering and his co-stars didn’t have an absolute blast filming Sharknado. The actor continued:

“It was awesome. Are you kidding? To be able to chainsaw my way out of the belly of a shark is something that has been captured on celluloid that will be remembered forever, at least in my mind.”

The media frenzy that erupted around Sharknado seemed to catch everyone involved with the flick by complete surprise. Director Anthony C. Ferrante, who returned for the upcoming sequel, told Dread Central he was shocked that mainstream audiences seemed to lovingly embrace the film, campiness and all.

The filmmaker said:

“I figured we probably made the greatest stoner movie ever made and maybe, just maybe, in a few years it would become some kind of cult movie. Then it blew up the night it aired and people were laughing with it, at it – they loved it, hated and some didn’t understand what the hell we were doing, which was fine, because people were watching it. You make movies to get a reaction out of people, and we did, which was very satisfying.”

Are you planning to catch Sharknado 2 when it airs on SyFy next month?

[Image via SyFy]