From A Walk to Remember and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to Whatever It Takes and Get Over It, Shane West has starred in countless classics — and he has no qualms about playing favorites.
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, the actor, 45, revealed the film on his resume he’s most proud of is 2007’s What We Do in Secret, in which West starred as the late Germs cofounder and lead singer, Darby Crash. The biopic — which also starred Bijou Phillips, Rick Gonzalez and Noah Segan — followed the punk rock band’s early days and career.
“In reality, I was able to join the band,” West tells Us, noting he was working on the project while also starring on ER. “The band got back together, and I started touring with [them] for at least four or five years.”
Portraying the musician, who died by suicide in 1980, left a lasting impression on West. “I got [a] tattoo of Darby because I became close with his family and friends and fans,” he explains, noting the experience was “pretty rare.”
The Nikita alum is no stranger to the small screen either, and he was quick to mention which projects he’d like to revisit if given the chance. “[With] Salem, we never got to get that ending,” says West, who portrayed Captain John Alden on the supernatural horror series, which was canceled in 2016. “Salem would be fun to go back and do maybe a one-off fourth final season to show what happened to all these characters.”
West also believes his time as Bane on Gotham — which he recalls as being “a lot of fun to be a part of” — was cut short too soon: “I wish we could have done more with the character, but we only had four episodes to do it with,” he says.
With streaming services allowing older movies and television shows to find new audiences (à la Suits), West hopes some of his older work will grow a larger fanbase. “That would be awesome, to have a new life on streaming,” he tells Us.
One of Shane’s most unforgettable films is 2002’s A Walk to Remember, which also starred Mandy Moore. “People love that one,” he says with a laugh. “It sticks around, and I love that.”
West’s latest project is Walden, a thriller starring Emile Hirsch as Walden Dean, a stenographer who takes matters into his own hands after witnessing one too many injustices in the courtroom. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a script like that,” West gushes, noting he was “intrigued right off the bat.”
In the film, West plays family man Detective Billy Kane — a role he’s been wanting to play “for a while,” he says. “To be able to play older, so to speak, and be married and have a little girl, it has been important to me,” he adds.
It was a bonus that the film allowed West to work alongside Hirsch. “We’ve known each other for years and wanted to work together, so it was kind of a no-brainer after that,” he explains. “I didn’t know he was going to play Walden the way that he did — which was tremendous — but I knew that he would come in and give it 100 percent.”
Filming in Georgia allowed West, Hirsch and their costars — including Kelli Garner and Tania Raymonde — ample opportunity to bond when cameras went down. “We did dinners and mainly played pool together a lot,” he shares. “Decatur gave us plenty of time to hang out.”
Though the dark thriller is not for the faint of heart (“I don’t know if I see my mom watching this movie,” he explains) West is proud of the final cut. “It’s heavy,” he adds, “but there’s a good heart in it in the end.”
Walden will be available on digital and on demand Tuesday, December 12.
