Shane West was a heartthrob on the rise in the early 2000s, with the potential of becoming
a major Hollywood actor. But for some reason, he wound up disappearing from the spotlight.
Was it Hollywood that turned its back on him or was it purely bad luck? And is there any
hope for West's future onscreen?
Shane West moved to Los Angeles when he was just a teenager to pursue an acting career,
and like most actors, he struggled at first. According to an interview with Lindzi Dot
Com in 2002, he never even considered a career in acting until he moved to California with
his family and saw many of his classmates were acting and appearing in commercials.
He claimed:
"I got the bug. It started working for me so I kept going."
West had guest appearances on a few major television shows when he was just starting
out, including Boy Meets World and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but he landed his first major
role in 1999 on Once and Again. While the series was noted for being controversial,
and one of the first shows to introduce a homosexual relationship, it was cancelled
after just three seasons.
West went on to make his first big screen appearance with a small role in Liberty Heights
soon after, which was well-received by critics.
Even in his 20's, West's characters seemed to be stuck in high school. In the 2000 film
Whatever It Takes, the actor played a high school nerd who falls for the most popular
girl in school. Although the flick had a big cast, including James Franco and Aaron Paul,
it didn't connect with audiences or critics, Rotten Tomatoes gave it just a 16 percent
rating. On top of that, the movie reportedly had a $32 million budget, but didn't manage
to even make a third of that back.
West apparently saw the writing on the wall. After shooting on the teen rom-com wrapped,
he told The New York Times:
"[Whatever It Takes] will probably be my last teen movie. I don't think I want to do another
one. I don't want to get stuck."
That might have been smart thinking, but West wasn't being offered many parts that allowed
him to play more diverse characters.
"Look. This is about me, okay? This is not you."
In Get Over It, West played a foreign exchange student who claimed to have been the lead
singer of a boy band abroad. With a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film fared slightly better
than Whatever It Takes, but it was another financial dud, raking in just two million
more than it cost to make.
Right after he filmed A Walk To Remember, West was finally presented with the opportunity
to break away from teenage roles, playing Tom Sawyer in The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen. Based on a mini comic book series created by writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin
O'Neill, the story follows popular fictional characters from classic novels who were chosen
to form a group of evil-fighting heroes sent on a secret mission for Queen Victoria circa
1900. It was expected to do well, but even with Sean Connery playing the lead, critics
felt the movie was a mess, and it received only a 17% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
"God, I feared the worst."
"It's alright. We still have-"
From there, West put teenage romantic dramas and comedies to the side while he pursued
darker roles in horror films. Unfortunately, these movies didn't attract much of an audience
either, and West made the decision to turn to television.
Shane West got his next big break when he was offered the part of Dr. Ray Barnett on
ER, joining the list of some of the sexiest men in Hollywood who've played doctors on
the show, including George Clooney and John Stamos. Even though he started on ER in it's
11th season, the show still had a huge following and his appearance certainly helped boost
his career, but he left after just three seasons.
West went on to take a role in the anticipated pilot Supreme Courtships, which depicted the
professional and personal lives of six members of the Supreme Court. The show had some pretty
big names attached to it, including Grey's Anatomy's Kate Burton, and That '70s Show
alum Kurtwood Smith, but the pilot wasn't picked up by Fox. This sent West back to the
set of ER, making a few small appearances as Dr. Ray Barnett to wrap up several storylines
until the end of the series.
Shortly after his pivot away from being a teen heartthrob, West took a stab at producing
some of the films in which he starred. First, he served as executive producer for the biopic
What We Do Is Secret, a film based on legendary LA punk band the Germs, with West playing
the band's lead singer, Darby Crash. But the actor didn't exactly have beginner's luck
as a producer. He told Rolling Stone:
"We had a solid year of having shot half the movie but then we ran out of finance. We had
a year before we started again."
According to Box Office Mojo, the punk rock flick made just over $58,000 worldwide.
"Hey. That was really hysterical, when's your guys' next show?"
"Uh, probably never."
Not long after What We Do Is Secret, West went on to co-produce and star in the horror
movie Red Sands, where he played one of several U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan who accidentally
unleash deadly creatures. It received mixed reviews and went straight to DVD.
West has been a part of several bands, including Average Jo, Johnny Was, and Twilight Creeps.
During a 2017 interview with BUILD, West explained how he and one of his bands got a song on
the A Walk To Remember Soundtrack.
"Mandy already, ya know, was a well-known singer at the time and she was getting a song
on the soundtrack. I don't think I knew what the song was going to be but I knew she would."
The track, "So What Does It All Mean?" made it on the album and needless to say, West
was stoked.
"We were just stoked that we got paid, the album went gold. So I have a gold record,
I never signed a record contract in my life, but I have a gold record. I heard it might
have gone platinum."
While West never made it big with any of his own bands, he did get a feel for stardom playing
with punk rock legends the Germs. The actor spent a lot of time with the group when he
was preparing to appear in What We Do Is Secret. Filming was done on and off for four years
to accommodate his schedule for ER, and during that time, West actually started performing
with the band and eventually went on tour.
In an interview with Rogue, West explained how this developed, saying:
"We played a gig where the actor Germs played first, and then the real Germs came on stage."
Since the Germs' lead singer Darby Crash had passed away, West had to perform with both
groups. He said:
"There were actually a lot of Germs fans at that party. And they just ate it up. They
really enjoyed the performance, and all we did was play five songs. And people started
kind of asking us to play gigs."
While his time spent performing with the Germs has come to an end, for now, he continues
to work toward a career in music and performs with his latest band, Twilight Creeps.
Nikita, a show about an assassin who gets revenge on those who trained her, aired on
The CW for four short seasons. However, things took a turn during the show's second season,
when it was considered the lowest rated drama on the network. Many were surprised when the
show was renewed for a third season, but the reasoning was simple.
The CW needed the show to reach a, quote, "true conclusion" as one of the stipulations
in their newly-minted $1 billion deal with Netflix. After the third season with no conclusion,
the series was renewed for a six-episode fourth season simply to tie up loose ends.
"Saying your goodbyes?"
"More like good riddance."
Business is business, and West says he was thankful for the opportunity, telling IGN:
"We're very blessed to be able to get this season, even if it's a half-season because
we do get to tell this story. The hardest thing about it has been really, I think, for
the writers. I think they've had the hardest job this year."
After Nikita ended, West tried to get back into movies with the Top Gun-themed thriller
Red Sky and a horror film called Here Alone. Unfortunately, Red Sky wasn't well-received
by critics and went straight to DVD and Here Alone came and went without much fanfare.
In 2018, the actor joined the cast of Gossamer Folds, playing the father of a young boy who
befriends their new next-door neighbors, a retired English professor and his transgender
daughter.
Prior to that, West starred in the WGN series Salem, a fantasy drama that reimagines a 17th
century Salem where the witches were real. Despite being the network's highest-rated
show in seven years, it was ultimately cancelled in 2016 after three seasons. In 2018, West
scored his highest-profile television gig to date, a recurring role on Gotham as the
villainous Eduardo Dorrance, who later becomes the iconic Batman enemy, Bane.
"The hell are you?"
"I'm your new commander."
In an interview with E! News!, West called it a "bucket list" role since Bane was his
favorite DC villain. He drew inspiration for the character's iconic voice from Batman:
The Animated Series and The Dark Knight Rises' Tom Hardy, but made the role his own, explaining:
"I had my own ideas, and then I just kinda spliced it in with a couple of other interesting
perspectives really."
Fun fact: West auditioned to play Mr. Freeze.
Post-A Walk To Remember, Mandy Moore's career was a series of modest hits and big misses
until she nabbed the role of Rebecca Pearson in NBC's mega-smash, This Is Us. So could
there be a reunion between West and Moore on her new show? Folks, there's a possibility.
Speaking with ET, West revealed that he and Moore have discussed a potential guest spot
for him on the hit series.
"It would have to be the right way to do it. I'm 100 percent interested. We've talked about
it, that we'd be interested, but you'd want it to be something special."
Let's not write the obituary on Shane West's career just yet. He's been a steadily employed
actor for most of his career, he just hasn't found lasting success. However, things are
looking up for the former teen idol.
Deadline reports that he is starring in the upcoming sci-fi thriller No Running, alongside
Orange Is The New Black's Taryn Manning and True Blood's Rutina Wesley. The film follows
a young black teen whose biracial girlfriend disappears under mysterious, supernatural
circumstances, leaving him with only 48 hours to discover the truth.
In a 2016 interview with Harper's Bazaar, West reflected on his career and the changes
in the industry since his breakout role in A Walk To Remember. He stated that when he
was younger, studios pumped out modest budget films and cable and network television was
the place actors made real money. Now with Hollywood funding only blockbusters, and an
influx of series due to streaming, most actors don't have a chance to breakout. He explained:
"I don't know if that's a good thing. I don't think it is, I miss it, but we all as actors
don't have the chance to play a Wolverine in the next movie. We'd love to, but they're
not looking at us at all. They're looking at whatever might be the hottest thing at
that exact moment."
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