Read Part 1 of Michael Brody's Interview with Shane West Here.
Part II of our interview with Shane West continues as the star of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen discusses working with legendary actor Sean Connery, his beginnings on television, and the prospect of another team-up with A Walk to Remember costar Mandy Moore.
How was it to meet a legend who is so terrifying?
SW: Well, you have to be smart. You can’t say anything too silly, otherwise he’ll hound you about it for the rest of the shoot. But he’s a softy, really. At least with us. And he’s a guy’s guy. He took us out to dinner a lot; he was always there if you needed to ask him any questions. He just wanted to make sure the question was smart enough. But I had a lot of teachers like that growing up. So he’s very much a gentlemen. He treats everybody very cool on the set; he’s very cool with the crew. He’s just very responsible. He’s a legend. Of all the movies he’s done, he knows how things should be run, he knows what to do, and he’s polite to people that are polite back. With us, it was easy. In the end, we were all making fun of him. In the sense of doing his accent and things like that. We weren’t hiding it as much as we were in the beginning. But, he’s a great guy.
What about the rest of the physicality of the role and the CGI effects? How was that?
SW: There is an element of CGI in this film, but not a lot of it, either. Not compared to the Hulk and X-Men 2. A lot of these are actually built sets. Venice, Italy was built. For what seemed like miles. Obviously, it wasn’t, but the buildings just kept going back. It was unbelievable. So a lot of it was real. A lot of Hyde was real. Where as the Hulk wasn’t. We were usually looking at Hyde all the time. The Invisible Man we were looking at all the time, because he wore a blue Lycra suit. So you can see that our eyes are directly at the person. If our eyes aren’t, that’s our own fault. And the physicality was just learning how to handle guns and look like I knew what I was doing. And the stunts were great. I did most of my stunts, including some shots where I’m driving the car and I tell Sean to grab the wheel, and I start shooting. And I had all these blanks firing at my face. It was a bit hard not to think of The Crow. But I was being shot at all sorts of angles, and going 60 mph with a guy driving it from the passenger seat.
You were really going 60 mph?
SW: No, what was it? (Thinks to himself) I think it was 40. But it was very, very fast in a very short distance because the camera was on a crane running down the side, and we had to drive right past the camera. I don’t even know if they used the take. Because there's so much action in that scene. But as soon as we passed the camera, we had to slam on the brakes and hope we didn’t hit the wall at the end of runway. We did that about…seventeen times. That was scary. And by the fourteenth time, I was like “This is the one.” But we got through it.
Now, in some fan-boy circles, you are already somewhat known for genre stuff. You guest-starred in “Sliders," and you had one or two lines in “Buffy.” Is it strange that people know all that?
SW: It’s not strange because those are very die-hard fans. So they probably know everything about the series. It’s cool, in a sense, but at the same time, if I do a talk show, they ‘re like “So, you were in "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer". How was that?” I’m like “I don’t remember. It was two lines.” It wasn’t even with Buffy. It was with Xander. But it’s cool to be noticed for the smallest part of that. And also “Sliders” was my first big guest-star.
Do you think The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has any sort of discernible war message about it?
SW: I think it’s more or less coming out at the right time. I don’t think it was planned that way. If you think of it in that sense, it’s a very cool thing. It starting off sparking a war through all these nations, sparking this World-War, and having society’s dregs coming along to save the world. You could always look at something positive out of that.
Do you feel that with the resurgence of comic-book style movies coming out, that there is a pressure to make them bigger, better, faster, grander, and do you think that can sometimes be a detriment to making the best movie?
SW: Yeah. I think it’s been happening for several years. The true “good” action films came out years ago. But, it is hard too, because I want to do another action film. Believe it or not, it was fun. And it’s fun to play.
And you didn’t get killed.
SW: (Amused) And I didn’t get killed. But, it’s fun to play. At the same time, reading an action script…It makes me wonder. Was The Matrix a good script? I don’t know. Because reading these scripts, they’re crap. They really are. And I think they become something. The Fast & The Furious was not a goods script, but that movie made a lot of money. So you never know.
What is your next project?
SW: I got three or four that I’m trying to do. Four actually, starting in September, one of which I can only hint to playing the punk-rock leader of a band. Which I’m kind of excited to do.
Are you considering a return to television at any point?
SW: It depends on the project. I think I got lucky with “Once and Again” because of my background. I come from a divorced family. My mom raised me and we left my dad. We’re all cool now, but back in Baton Rouge, we all traveled by car out to Norwalk. So having that background and doing three years of a divorced family, it wasn’t hard, it was more like therapy. But I would love to do an episode of “Once and Again” if they were ever to do some kind of reunion, as sappy as that sounds.
Do people want to re-team you with Mandy Moore?
SW: A Walk to Remember Part 2? Where I’m in love with the corpse? That’s tough, because there’s a movie called Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!!! that’s shooting right now. It’s the first film that I actually went straight and tested for. She was up for the girl that falls for him and I was up for the guy that falls for her. So that almost became a problem. I don’t think we have that chance yet. Unless, it’s an independent. But if it were some sort of big studio film, I think they’d have to wait a couple of years. Studios shy away from that as much as they can. Unless, you’re Ben Affleck.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is currently playing in theaters.
