Read Part 2 of Michael Brody's Interview with Shane West Here.
Hailing from the deep South to the West Coast, newcomer Shane West still fancies himself an All-American boy. And why shouldn’t he? At only twenty-five and straight out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the clean-cut southerner makes his action-movie debut in the comic-book fantasy The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen playing one of the original all-American boys: Tom Sawyer. West sat down to talk about his new film, Terminator 3, and to shed some light on the in-fighting between Sean Connery and LXG Director Stephen Norrington. - Michael Brody
I read that you were added to The League to be the all-American element of what would have otherwise been a big euro movie.
SW: Yeah, you can’t have one of those. It wasn’t Guy Ritchie. I think they added the character not necessarily for an American appeal, but because, although the comic-book has a massive amount of fans, at the same time, it was an $80 million budget. With something like that I think they felt that to appeal to everybody and to get the younger audience as well, they added this character. I don’t know if it necessarily had to be American, but I’m sure Hollywood was thinking in those terms.
Did other people on the set mock you because you were “the yank?”
SW: I got mocked a little bit because I was a kid. I’m the “kid.” I’m 25, but I was a kid on the set. But everybody was really great.
Where you a fan of the comics?
SW: I was after I booked the part. I’m not gonna lie. I had heard of Alan Moore and I had heard of “Watchmen” and “From Hell”, and had seen the movie, and Don Murphy was obviously involved with this project as well. But when I read the script, I just did not get it at all. And I thought it was cool because it was just strange, and I like strange. I like “out there” and I read it two or three times and really got into it after that. And once I read the comic-book and knew that my character wasn’t in the comic-book, I actually got more interested. Because I could take this as an opportunity to create something that I pretty much guarantee nobody else was going to create in film.
Was there a little less pressure on you with this in terms of going forward, because it was kind of your back-up project. You were hoping for T3.
SW: That’s right. T3 was one of those strange things. I talked about it with a lot of my buddies who had all auditioned for it as well, but it was one of those films that if you got offered the role to play Connor, you’d have to do it. Just because of the first two and just because of being fans of action and sci-fi. But at the same time, there’s no James Cameron, she (referring to Terminator 3 villain Kristanna Loken) is not scary at all (laughs) and they made her too much of a model. And we knew that going in. So at the same time there were a lot of “ifs” and with The League we had no clue. It came at such a good time because I basically lost the part twice. Nick (Stahl) got it, but then he almost couldn’t do it because he had booked a pilot so I was next in line. Then all of a sudden, he could do it. I think that’s what relaxed me for this project. I had spent so much energy for T3 so I almost didn’t care. I was also relaxed because I knew I wasn’t in the comic-book so that helps me out. I didn’t have to duplicate anything. But at the same time, what goes along with that is the baggage of all these fans that love the novel and I’m not in the novel. So how dare I even be created? There were some places to relax and some places to get a bit antsy.
How did you find out that you were offered T3?
SW: That was another problem. I started getting congratulated a lot. Because A Walk To Remember had come out and it had made money and I got a lot of congratulations at that time as it happens out there. And I didn’t get it anymore because it had been like three, four months down the line and I didn’t know why they were still saying the same thing. And I found out someone had broken a small story that I had booked it. So I called my agents, the people that I thought should tell me if I actually booked this, and they had no clue of what I was talking about. So somebody broke a story that basically said that I did, that a lot of people read about. I don’t know if it was in the "Reporter," "OK" magazine, or the "Enquirer," but I saw it somewhere. So the whole T3 thing was kind of a lot of crap that I didn’t expect to happen. I have no ill-will with (Johnathan) Mostow or anybody involved with T3,. It was cool to be able to test with Nick Stahl and Jake Gyllenhall and people like that. I could prove myself among them.
You probably worked more with the screenwriter with this movie just because your character is not based anywhere else and he (James Robinson) is a big comic-book writer. What was that like?
SW: James is cool. He’s a very cool cucumber. He’s very laid back and he had some big shoes to fill in this case, too. And he created two new characters as well as new plot and a new villain. I never saw him sweat. We talked a little bit about Tom (Sawyer) and I think he would have said something if he thought I was perverting his vision of this character. In the end, he was content. And I didn’t do anything too over-the-top. I’m not going to piss off too many fans. There would be fans that are irritated, period, because there’s an American character in it, but they’ll probably be too close-minded. I think if they’re open-minded, they’ll see that this character actually helps the movie move along.
Did you happen to read any Mark Twain in preparation for the role?
SW: In preparation and before. I guess being a young American, there were stories that I read growing up. But I re-read them basically to see how much of a smart-ass he was growing up, how adventurous he was, all the trouble he got into, and then aged it. To say “okay, now he’s obviously over a decade older, what would he be like in his early twenties?” And he’s a Secret Service agent. So that’s perfect. It’s a place where he’ll get plenty of adventure.
Let’s get to the Connery/Norrington question. These guys supposedly hated each-other, and practically every scene you are in is with Connery, so you had to have been privy to some of whatever went down with these two guys.
SW: I had to have been privy to not a whole hell of a lot. It doesn’t make any sense, but I was pretty much shooting a hundred percent of that movie, whether I ended up being in the scene or not. I was pretty much working every day on that film. I was one of the few that would be in the background or something. But I didn’t see anything. And not many of us did. I remember Stuart Townsend being the most surprised, but I think it was because he was always trying to feel around, anyway.
Surprised by what?
SW: About hearing the stories. Because he was traveling around a lot. I just remember him sticking out in my head because he had no clue. He loved Norrington and he loved Connery and I just remember him talking about it the most.
Entertainment Weekly wrote that someone said that nobody had even bothered to lie about all the tension that was so obvious on the set between Connery and Norrington. And he quoted somebody, but he said an “un-named star.”
SW: Did he say “un-named American star?”
No, but he did say “it was the most tense set I’ve ever been on.”
SW: It’s a gross aberration about everything that happened. When this guy came, I think it was our first big report. What we were shooting was two months at night. And it was pretty much the hardest shoot for all of us in general. We had gotten through the summer, which was kind of a breeze, and it was basically scenes where I’m driving around in the car, Venice is falling, they’re sinking Venice, and Steve Norrington had to shoot every frickin’ take with these rocks coming down, and he was not going to CGI any of the rocks. So we had to wait hours for them to bring the rocks back up, and it was a long time. I don’t necessarily believe Steve and Sean hate each-other, but I don’t think they loved each-other, either. I didn’t witness what it felt like I read. But I don’t think any of us did our best to diffuse the situation. And I think that’s why we’re talking about it now. Because I don’t think we cared at the time. We were in a rough situation.
How about the issue of the edit? Supposedly, Norrington had an edit and Connery had another.
SW: There was a lot to edit, period. I think Norrington could have edited two different movies if he wanted to. I think Fox could have edited two different movies if they wanted to. Because Norrington shot so much that sometimes we hated him, in a sense. We all loved him, but at the same time, it would be 2 O’ clock in the morning and we’d be like “come on, let’s not do this shot that is never going to make the movie. “Please don’t make us do that.” Or “don’t make me drive the car again.” But he could have edited two movies if he wanted to. I think once this hits DVD, the deleted scenes could be it’s own movie. I only worked with Steve a bit when we were doing ADR (Additional Dialogue Replacement) and things like that. But mainly Trevor Albert, one of the producers on the film. So, I never saw Sean. Must have been behind-the-scenes.
How easy or hard was it to crash the car?
SW: That was my last scene of shooting; I remember that because I was so excited. And it’s so sad because I think some of that negativity may come out in the comment that I made right now. That’s the only problem. We all pretty much liked each-other. I mean, I know I loved this entire cast.But I think that scene was difficult because, obviously I didn’t flip over in a car and potentially die. I had to crawl out from it and it was incredibly uncomfortable because Steve wanted reality, so he threw bricks and stones and all sorts of stuff that you never see under the car that I’m laying down on, but that I’m using to actually push up on. I also knew it was my last scene, so I got as dirty as I could and threw the dirt in my hair.
You talk about your last scenes, what about the lost scenes?
SW: There is a couple that I’m bummed about. There’s so much good stuff in this film, that stuff would have to be lost at some point. Everybody lost something. I lost a scene with Peta (Wilson), which I thought would have been cool. It explained the love triangle a bit more than it actually ends up being when you see the film. In the film it almost seems like I’m attracted to her, she shuts me down, and that’s it. There was a love triangle that we were trying to talk about for a while to the press. But we lost one of those scenes. I liked it because it made me seem older; it kind of helped my character be a little bit more confident, and would have helped my role in a possible sequel.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is currently playing in theaters.
Read Part Two of Michael Brody's Interview with Shane West Here.
