When Landon Carter nearly met Jack Pearson.
Shane West was in talks to guest-star on Mandy Moore’s NBC drama “This Is Us,” but the Pearson family’s storylines made it difficult to introduce a new character.
“There was a lot of people talking about ‘This Is Us,’ and that just wasn’t going to — as much as I was so proud of [Mandy], and also, I love Milo [Ventimiglia] — there was no real story,” West, 45, told The Post while promoting his new movie, “Walden.”
“I wasn’t sure how that was ever really going to work based on how they created that story. Because there was talk of, like, maybe a one-off episode or something like that, which would have been great.”
In 2019, West said he was “100% interested” in joining the cast, but wouldn’t want to “just pop in” for a brief cameo.
West and Moore, 39, starred as Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan, respectively, in the Adam Shankman-directed film “A Walk To Remember” in 2002, which was adapted from Nicholas Sparks’ novel of the same name.
Moore was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe for her work as Rebecca Pearson on the “This Is Us” series, which followed the lives of Rebecca, her husband, Jack (Ventimiglia), and their children Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) in the present as well as flashbacks and flash-forwards. Its series finale aired in May 2022 after six seasons.
Two decades earlier, West and Moore’s careers launched when they played high school sweethearts in “A Walk To Remember,” which is still a favorite with audiences today. West and the singer want to work together again, but have yet to find the perfect project to do so.
“We don’t want to do it just to do it,” West explained to The Post.
“We want to make the next iteration to hopefully stand out, so we don’t just do it for the sake of it. The joke is if it’s some sort of romantic drama that she lives and I don’t, and let’s reverse the roles. But we’ll see one day,” he continued. “I think a series would be pretty cool, because at least with the series, you’d have a lot you can work with from week to week. Well, maybe even animation.”
He added: “For me, it would be any capacity because I love her. She’s great. She’s a wonderful human being and a great person. But I think the fans want some sort of romantic capacity. I mean, I think a good thing to do is if you do a series and you tease [it].”
The Louisiana native currently stars as Detective Bill Kane opposite Emile Hirsch in the thriller feature film “Walden,” which focuses on a court stenographer (Hirsch) who decides to execute criminals who have been let off the hook. West has jumped between film and TV through the years, appearing in “ER” for 70 episodes as Dr. Ray Barnett, to other rom-coms such as 2000’s “Whatever It Takes” and 2001’s “Get Over It.”
“Get Over It’s” stacked cast included then-up-and-coming actors Kirsten Dunst, Mila Kunis, Colin Hanks and Ben Foster.
“Ben and I were best friends for a long time. Not that we’re not. We just, you know, life happens. I love Ben. Ben was a part of ‘Whatever It Takes’ at one point, but he didn’t end up doing it. We did ‘Liberty Heights’ together. We did ‘Get Over It’ together. … So I’ve known him forever,” West explained.
“Kirsten, I love. I only probably saw [her] a couple of years, you know, after that film. Colin Hanks I’ve known forever. He’s great. Colin and I did ‘Whatever It Takes’ together, so it was a fun time.”
West played Bentley “Striker” Scrumfeld in “Get Over It,” who had a very rough British accent “that was terrible.”
“But it was supposed to be! And you know, the trick on that was it was so bad that they said, ‘Do it.’ That’s basically what it was. They said, ‘You’re not getting any training. Do whatever the heck you want [and] just do that,’ ” West recalled.
“It’s so bad. It’s not even truly an accent of any kind . . . He’s a false prophet to begin with. As long as people kept laughing, and it was fun to make people laugh — I just kept doing it.”
“Walden” is now available on demand and on digital.
