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A Walk to Remember Picture 8
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A Walk to Remember Full Production Notes "It all comes down to who's by your side."
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 Chapter 7: Mandy Moore Is a Deligtful and Charming PersonAccording to author Sparks who visited the set on the second day of shooting, West truly nailed the role. "In the film, as in the book, Landon undertakes a journey from a person who's a little on the rough side to someone who really begins to understand about the important things in life," he explains. "And Shane has a real talent for playing that. He's obviously gone through enough in his life that he can play this character to perfection. I can't think of anyone who would have done a better job."
Shankman's first choice for Jamie was pop singer Mandy Moore, who recently made her feature film acting debut in "The Princess Diaries." "Mandy has the voice and the face of an angel," Shankman says unequivocally. "She's luminous. Just before I was hired for the movie, I heard her on the radio singing `I Want to be With You,' which was included in the soundtrack for `Center Stage' and, after I was hired, I knew there was no one but Mandy for this role."
It turned out that A Walk to Remember was one of Moore's favorite books. "My mom and I are big Nicholas Sparks fans," she recalls. "We had read Message in a Bottle and then I read Walk to Remember and made my mom read it. Even then, before there was any talk of a film, I felt like there was a lot of Jamie in me."
For Sparks, Moore fit the character perfectly. "Mandy is a delightful and charming person," he says. "She brings the Jamie Sullivan that I wrote about to the camera. As I've come to know her during production, she's a very kind and good person, and that's essentially the character I created. In movie lingo, they call it `camera friendly,' where the camera catches the spirit of the person - what they are inside. With Mandy, it's perfect casting."
Describing the essence of her unique character, Moore says, "Jamie does not see herself as an outcast. She never allows the judgment of the other kids to damage her. If she's alone most of the time it's because she chooses not to have a lot of shallow friendships. She's not interested in being popular. She's very happy, comfortable and confident with herself, which is really rare in a teenager. Even more rare is Jamie's relationship with her father. Most teens rebel against their parents, but it's clear that Jamie's father is her best friend."
Moore credits the director for helping her delve into and develop the personality of Jamie Sullivan. "The first time I met Adam, we immediately bonded," she says. "He's amazing. He has a total passion for the story and pays close attention to every minor detail. He knows exactly how to get me into the character and helps me stay there. He knows what he wants Jamie to be and how to bring that out of me."
As Moore prepared for her role, it was the pre-production physical transformation that helped provide her inspiration. Jamie wears her hair loose and un-styled and dresses in plain, modest clothes ` not at all what the singer's fans are accustomed to seeing in a music video. Production and costume designer Doug Hall needed to seriously alter Moore's pop star image. He dressed her in clothes made from simple fabrics that hung a bit too loose. And her blonde hair was dyed brown and cut to hang straight with bangs.
"Instantly, I became Jamie Sullivan," says Moore of her makeover. "Automatically, people looked at me differently and treated me a little differently when I wore her clothes. It helped me get into character. I didn't feel like Mandy anymore -- I truly felt like Jamie.
"And the amazing thing is that so many people on the set told me that they didn't know me any other way," Moore continues. "They don't know the image of Mandy with blonde hair and the hand on the hip and the pouty lips. They only knew me as Jamie with dark brown hair and bangs. It's great because I didn't have to get out of character for the whole two and a half months of production. But as soon as we wrapped, the hair went back to blonde and I went back to being Mandy the next day."
Still, Moore considers the long-term influence of her characterization philosophically. "People have often told me that when you do a film, a certain part of that character stays with you. If that's true, then I hope a little bit of Jamie always stays with me because there is so much good in her that I'd like to emulate. If I'm ever upset about something I might think back to this experience and consider the kind of person she was and how she would handle the situation."
Next Page: Focuses on the Lives of Young Characters |
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