‘A Walk to Remember’: Are Shane West and Mandy Moore Married?
There are certain movies that define their time period. A Walk to Remember was one of those films for many fans. Though it was Mandy Moore’s first starring film role and only Shane West’s second big film, the two were able to bring their characters alive in a way that made the film an instant classic. Now, on the movie’s nineteenth anniversary, let’s take a look back at the chemistry between Moore and West that made the movie such a hit.
‘A Walk to Remember’ was a classic teenage romance
The 2002 film put a different spin on the teenage love stories that dominated films at the time. While it had some of the classic tropes, bad guy falls in love with a good girl, it also was much heavier. When Landon Carter falls in love with Moore’s character, Jaime Sullivan, he discovers that she has cancer. He spends the rest of the movie making sure that Jaime gets to do everything on her bucket list before she dies.
The movie, which was adapted from Nicholas Sparks’ novel of the same name, was actually inspired by Spark’s sister, Danielle Sparks Lewis. She also dreamed of being married, like Jaime, and after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, her boyfriend at the time proposed.
Did Mandy Moore and Shane West date?
West was instrumental in helping Moore get through the film.
“Shane was so wonderful. I didn’t know what I was doing and he’d done movies and he was on a critically acclaimed TV show,” Moore told Entertainment Weekly. “He had a lot of respect as an actor and I was just the total newbie. I didn’t even know how to hit a mark, I was so fresh-faced and naïve. I felt incredibly lucky right off the bat that I had someone who was as willing to work with me and who was patient and understanding. He was just the perfect partner for that.”
After spending so much time pretending to be in love, the pair actually did fall in love with one another.
“I think we both [fell in love],” West told Access Live. “I was in a little punk rock band at the time and doing acting for a while and she was doing the pop star thing for a while and this was kind of her first lead in a film. So we were definitely opposites attract. So I think at first I’m not sure if we loved each other – or liked each other – right off the bat, but it quickly changed. The writing helped, the direction helped, and the fact that she is one of the sweetest people ever.”
The two never dated despite having feelings for one another.
Are Shane West and Mandy Moore married?
West is still on the market. Though he has never married, he has been connected to stars like Evan Rachel Wood, Bijou Phillips, Step Up star Jenna Dewan, and Monica Keena.
Moore, on the other hand, is married to Taylor Goldsmith. The two met in May of 2015 after Moore posted something about Goldsmith’s band, Dawes, on Instagram and he sent her a note. At the time, Moore was still in the process of divorcing her first husband Ryan Adams but she and Goldsmith still fell in love. They were married in November 2018 and are now expecting their first child together.
