West and beyond; TV and film actor looks to make his mark

BYLINE: Joey Guerra -- Keep an eye on Shane West. The 21-year-old actor has only a few major roles under his belt, but he will likely make hearts flutter in the romantic comedy "Whatever It Takes," opening Friday in theaters.

West knows a few things about getting noticed. He plays Eli Sammler on "Once and Again," the ABC drama starring Sela Ward and Billy Campbell about two divorced parents who embark on a complex relationship. West plays Campbell's son on the show.

Before that, West made guest appearances on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (instant cool factor), "Sliders" and "Picket Fences." He also earned praise for his portrayal of Angel in a stage production of "The Cider House Rules" at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and had a small role in the Barry Levinson film "Liberty Heights."

West doesn't yet have the teen-crowd clout of actors such as Freddie Prinze Jr., Paul Walker and Chris Klein, but he already plays the part of a star. Before sitting down for a recent interview, West took time in his limo to have an artist reapply his makeup, which had partially worn off during his day of press appearances and high school newspaper roundtable interviews.

The young actor also hopes to make a mark on the movie world beyond the fluffy teen comedies and romances he seems perfect for at this point in his career.

"It's not an area of movies that I want to be remembered by. I love teen movies, and I think they have a place and they will always be around, . . . but that's not what I want to continue to do," West says. "If I'm remembered for doing teen movies, then I don't think I'll have had the career that I want."

In person, West is tall, trim and the picture of fresh-faced coolness in a clingy black sweater and silver jewelry. He sports a heavy bracelet and a chain with two small locks on it, which he kept from a photo shoot and wears "like crazy now, almost religiously."

"I think "Whatever It Takes" has heart to it," says West. "A lot of teen movies nowadays don't have plots. They'll start off with a plot, but they get lost somewhere in the middle. We loosely based it on "Cyrano de Bergerac" and stuck to it. I think we created some memorable characters in the film."

In the film, West plays Ryan Woodman, a high school nobody who pines for resident popular babe Ashley (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). It remains an unrequited crush until Ryan hooks up with school jock Chris (James Franco), who is also Ashley's cousin. Chris is after Maggie (Marla Sokoloff), Ryan's lifelong best friend. The two strike a deal, with expectedly disastrous results.

"From sixth to 10th grade, I was just like (Ryan)," says West, who was born in Baton Rouge, La., and grew up in Los Angeles. "I used to look forward to going to school every day to look at the most popular girl in school, but I was too shy to actually do anything. But in the end of 10th grade, a senior girl developed a crush on me. All of a sudden I was thrown into the popular group. It was kind of weird."

West found other parallels between himself and Ryan. In real life, he is good friends with Sokoloff. West met Sokoloff, who has a regular role as Lucy Hatcher on "The Practice," through mutual friends.

West was also roommates at one time with Aaron Paul, who plays another friend, Floyd, in the film.

"I've known Marla for four or five years. We actually studied together. She would come over to my apartment, and we'd read the lines," West says. "I walked into the first day of that shoot with Aaron and Marla on my side. That was really nice. I think it helped for the chemistry. They were very easy to get along with, and I know a lot of movies don't end up that way."

Despite his relative ease on the big screen, acting wasn't always high on the list for West. He dabbled in sports, drawing, writing and music before stumbling into acting. It took West more than two years to land his first professional role, a guest spot on David Kelley's critically acclaimed TV drama "Picket Fences."

"I was forced to take drama as an elective to help me graduate (from high school), so I did a couple of really bad productions of the "Nutcracker" and "Snow White." That was about the extent of my school training," West says. "I did it for fun at first. Somewhere along that way, it started to become very passionate for me."

West balances his budding career between television and film work. He works on "Once and Again," which is in its first season, from July to March, which allows him to tackle big-screen roles from April to July.

It leaves him little free time, but West says he has no complaints about the hectic schedule. In fact, being part of " Once and Again" allows West some unexpected benefits.

"The writing (on "Once and Again") is so magnificent, and the cast on the show is a great group of people. It feels like I'm shooting a short film every day. I'm definitely there for as long as they want me," West says. "I come from a divorced family as well. It's more therapeutic than it is really me memorizing lines."

Even with a regular acting gig and upcoming big-screen roles, West hasn't abandoned his love of music, which he says is also a passion. He plays lead guitar and writes songs for Average Jo. The rock band formed six months ago and will soon begin working on a demo to shop around to record labels.

"We just played our first gig about a month ago. It was a night of five bands, all unsigned, just playing," West says. "The crowd came for a lot of the other bands, but in the end people were coming out telling us we were the best band of the night. All the other bands were kind of like death metal, and we were, like, poppy punk."

But what's an increasingly in-demand actor to do when he just wants to hang out without cameras and crews? In West's case, work. He is writing a script he hopes to get produced soon for a teen-angst film about "screwed-up teen-agers with a road trip involved."

Somewhere along the way, West's personal life manages to makes an appearance. He has a significant other in his life, who he prefers not to name.

"It's hard. I've had a girlfriend since November, and doing the band and doing practices, trying to keep relationships going with friends, doing the show, now doing this press tour," West says. "Having a girlfriend fills up more than 80 percent of your time. It's more or less trying to figure that out around everything else."__The Houston Chronicle (March 23, 2000)