I didn’t know anything about Mandy Moore prior to meeting her. I’ve still never seen “A Walk to Remember” and I’ve never listened to any of her music. The reason why is because my responsibility, in addition to portraying that character, the subsequent responsibility in this film for me was to make Mandy as good as possible. I don’t believe that watching her act with Shane West was going help me very much.
I didn’t really know what to expect of her. I had this idea and people kind of tittered a bit when I said prior to doing the film that I was doing it. They’re like, “Mandy Moore?” because of the long blonde hair image and all that went with it. So what I basically found out about her was she’s got a backbone to her, which I really like. We disagreed at times and she didn’t back down, and she didn’t feel any need to apologize. I love that in people. I like that because I found it very difficult to be with people who are always attempting to agree with me. I don’t need reassurance that I’m okay as a person, whether I am or not I can’t really do much about that. So I liked that about her. I like the sense of how she can equally be rather mischievous or evil, or just downright mean if she needs to be – if she’s pushed to it. It’s just that she’s a very, very classy lady and she doesn’t resort to such crass weapons. She can be a tough little cookie when she wants.
What did you disagree about?
Just flippant, lighthearted things mainly, generally to do with music. I collect music and obviously Mandy has a wealth of experience from the inside of it. But to be honest, I have probably a more expansive knowledge of the history of music. We would argue about things like that really. It was very interesting to have her throw her point of view at me because sometimes it didn’t change mine at all, but it was good to know so that I could attack their side all the better the next time. A lot of times it really did have to make me not concede but definitely look at things from a different light. From her I got to learn about the constraints of a recording contract and how little freedom you have in this day and age. And so perhaps why, historically, we’re in a little bit of a musical drought in terms of real dynamic originality.
Tell us what you’d like us to know about yourself.
I have an English accent on account of the fact that I’ve got an English mother who was born in Birmingham. She’s recently deceased - four or five years ago. My father’s an American who is from Twinsburg, Ohio, where most of my existing family is from.
I moved around most of my life. What happened was that my dad originally was a test pilot with the US Navy and McDonnell Douglas. [Later he ] got into computers. We’d move houses a lot because we’d be buying them, doing them up and selling them. Basically that’s why I’ve moved around so much. I’d say that the accent I have right now is largely attributable to Cambridge University, which kind of put me over the top.
Did you get your start in modeling?
I did that as a financial thing but I never told anybody in acting that I did that. I think that LA doesn’t really understand what fashion is, just in terms of the fashion industry. They have lovely clothes here and people do dress well from time to time. I mean come on, wearing dental floss just doesn’t count.
Back in London [modeling] was amazing. You’d tramp around London earning no money at all, doing 8 or 9 appointments a day all around town – no discernable order. You learned the city like the back of your hand, you learned how a very fast-paced industry worked, and if you’re attentive, you start to figure out what photographers want and need. By the end of it, I was doing make-up and hair and styling for the sheets, and putting together my own sheets. I knew pretty much everyone in the industry. It was good to learn about that.
