Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
This may be hard to believe, butA Walk to Rememberjust turned 20!
All these years since its early aughts release, the romance — available to own on digital — has managed to last the test of time and go on to become iconic.
For its 20th anniversary, Moore, West and Shankman reflect onA Walk to Rememberwith PEOPLE exclusively — and the trio dish on some little-known facts about the making of the film. Scroll below to see what they had to say.
Moore and West kept things professional on set… despite having a crush on each other
Both Moore, 37, and West, 43, have openlyadmitted to crushing on each otherat the time of filming. Despite that, West says they “always kept it professional” because they “inherently cared about each other.”
“I think when you do [have an attraction] and you’re doing such a sweet story that it just makes it very easy,” he continues, noting that it was “very much a family” feel on set. “Everybody got along and balanced in reality. I was a bit older. Mandy was not 21, so it was more of a loving thing where we were just all out to protect her.”
But their attraction to each other was even apparent to the film’s director.
“They were teenagers. They were young. You could tell that they had to crush, but they were both dating other people,” says Shankman, 57. “Or, I know Mandy was with somebody at that time. She had a boyfriend. I don’t think Shane had a girlfriend at the time. But I could tell that there was certainly a lot of chemistry there.”
Warner Bros. Pictures
Recalling her experience working alongside West, Moore believes the “natural ease” the pair had is what still “resonates” with fans to this day.
“Somehow, we sort of just had this really natural, effortless chemistry with one another,” theThis Is Usstar adds. “And I think that comes across in the film and that’s hard to get. You can’t really fake that.”
A Walk to Rememberdidn’t have much support from the studio before its release
According to Shankman,A Walk to Remember"was being made as an indie" for Warner Bros. Pictures.
“I remember the head of the studio at the time didn’t really see it as something that he wanted to make,” he says. “So we just boldly went for it. It was a pretty short shoot. We just made it and then people really liked it.”
TheHairspraydirector still remembers “all the phases” of the production process “like it was yesterday.”
“I remember the first time I sat down with Mandy. I remember the first time I talked to Shane. I remember their auditions really clearly,” he adds. “I remember going to North Carolina and scouting it, and just all the stuff that came with it. I remember shooting days really well for some reason on that one, maybe because it was scrappy. It was really scrappy. And the odds were against us. We didn’t have a ton of studio support. [It] was what it was.”
Anne Hathaway was a top contender for Moore’s role
Stars includingJessica Simpsonwereup for the partof Jamie Sullivan, but Moore’s ownPrincess DiariescostarAnne Hathawaywas also being considered. Funnily enough, the 39-year-old Oscar winner once had to remind Shankman of this very fact.
“I don’t remember this, but Anne Hathaway has told me that she was down to the wire on it. And I was like, ‘Really?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, yeah. I was one of the finals,'” he recalls. “I was like, ‘I don’t remember that.’ I don’t really remember anybody in that game because I was pulling for Mandy. But Annie told me that she was there. She and I are very friendly. So I was just surprised because I just hadn’t remembered that.”
Moore learned a lot from West about what “acting is”
While Moore was a fairly big pop star prior to landing the role of Jamie, she was still relatively new to the world of acting. In fact,A Walk to Remembermarked the Emmy nominee’s “first big job” as a leading lady.
“I didn’t know anything, but I just remember completely falling in love with the process,” she says. “It’s really what solidified the idea of like, I want to be an actor. I want to do this. I want to follow through with this. I would love to have more roles and more opportunities. It showed me everything that I wanted to try to continue to do with my life.”
But since she “knew nothing” about leading a film, Moore says she leaned on West to guide her through the process.
Rich Fury/Getty
“Sweet Shane had to teach me how to hit my mark, about looking down to look at it before I completely stopped,” she continues. “I would say I really learned to sort of trust my instincts, trust being present [and] trust my listening skills because that’s really what acting is. I feel like I’ve taken so much of what I learned on that film and hopefully, have grown and evolved as an actor.”
“I feel like it was such a fantastic learning experience and baseline for me to sort of work with someone as experienced and as talented as Shane, and be able to take what I sort of just picked up through osmosis of working with someone like him and bring into all of my other jobs,” she adds. “I think being present and really listening, just being still — all of that were things that I really learned, I think, for the first time being on that set.”
West created a yearbook during his time on set — and it has some of Moore’s hair!
West reflects on the “almost” yearbook" he continued to fill up while shooting the film up through his time onE.R.
“I was having everyone sign it on any project,” he says. “So, I have everybody from the film that signed it and they put in great messages.”
According to West, the yearbook contained one surprising item: “I have a lot of Mandy’s hair. I hope, if it’s still in that book. I haven’t looked at that in years.”
While filming in North Carolina, West — who was renting out then-Dawson’s CreekstarKerr Smith’s home in Wrightsville Beach — would “have people over for drinks and food and movies” to “kind of bond.”
“I think we did a lot of those things behind the scenes. There was a couple other films filming there,” he says, referencingSandra Bullock’s filmDivine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
“I remember we went to their wrap party, I believe, all together to bond,” he continues. “There was a movie withVince VaughncalledDomestic Disturbancethat was filming out there, so we would hang with that crew as well.”
Moore and West want to work together again
Fortunately for fans of the film, both Moore and West are interested in teaming up for a new project alongside Shankman.
“I would love to. I love him,” says Moore. “I would love to sort of put the band back together with Adam as well. The three of us got to find something to collaborate on. It would be so much fun!”
West reveals that the former costars “have discussed” the possibility as well.
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“Nothing necessarily in particular. Not a specific idea. I’ve joked around — we’ve all three of us joked around, I think it was maybe on the 15th anniversary or 16 or 17th or something, of Adam directing us doing it again,” theE.R.alum says. “Maybe, obviously, because we’re older, an older love story in that kind of sense.”
West continues, “But if anyone were going to die, it’s going to be me this time. You got to make it a tragedy. We got to make it even now, even Steven here. But I would love to. Maybe when she’s done withThis Is Us.”
source: people.com
