A Walk to Remember celebrates its 20th anniversary this week! Based on Nicholas Sparks’ 1999 novel of the same name, the movie was directed by Adam Shankman and starred Mandy Moore and Shane West.

 

 

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Celebrating this massive milestone moment, Mandy posted a photo on Instagram and in the caption writes, “20 years ago, “A Walk to Remember” premiered in theatres. It unequivocally changed the course of my life and career and these 2 gentlemen were such a large part of it all. Thanks to all who have found and loved this movie and continue to pass it on.”

 

 

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For the 20th anniversary, Mandy, Shawn and directed Adam Shankman reflected on the iconic film with PEOPLE, and dished on some facts about the film.

 

 

 

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Mandy and Shane had a crush on each other.

 

Adam: “They were teenagers. They were young. You could tell that they had to crush, but they were both dating other people.  Or, I know Mandy was with somebody at that time. She had a boyfriend. I don’t think Shane had a girlfriend at the time. But I could tell that there was certainly a lot of chemistry there.  I just knew nothing was happening because she turned 17 on our first day of shooting and she was super grounded, well brought up.  I just knew nothing was going to happen, so I did nothing to discourage it. And by the same token, I did nothing to push it. I didn’t need to. It was just happening there. But they were, again, well-behaved kids that I saw no need to intervene.”

 

Mandy: “Somehow, we sort of just had this really natural, effortless chemistry with one another, and I think that comes across in the film and that’s hard to get. You can’t really fake that.”

 

 

A Walk to Remember didn’t have much support from the studio prior to its release.

 

Adam: “I remember the head of the studio at the time didn’t really see it as something that he wanted to make,” he says. “So we just boldly went for it. It was a pretty short shoot. We just made it and then people really liked it.  I remember the first time I sat down with Mandy. I remember the first time I talked to Shane. I remember their auditions really clearly.  I remember going to North Carolina and scouting it, and just all the stuff that came with it. I remember shooting days really well for some reason on that one, maybe because it was scrappy. It was really scrappy. And the odds were against us. We didn’t have a ton of studio support. [It] was what it was.”

 

 

Stars like Jessica Simpson and Anne Hathaway were up for the role of Jamie Sullivan.

 

Adam: “I don’t remember this, but Anne Hathaway has told me that she was down to the wire on it. And I was like, ‘Really?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, yeah. I was one of the finals.’  I was like, ‘I don’t remember that.’ I don’t really remember anybody in that game because I was pulling for Mandy. But Annie told me that she was there. She and I are very friendly. So I was just surprised because I just hadn’t remembered that.”

 

 

Mandy says she ‘learned a lot from Shane’ about what ‘acting is.’

 

Mandy: “I didn’t know anything, but I just remember completely falling in love with the process.  It’s really what solidified the idea of like, I want to be an actor. I want to do this. I want to follow through with this. I would love to have more roles and more opportunities. It showed me everything that I wanted to try to continue to do with my life.”

Mandy continues, “Sweet Shane had to teach me how to hit my mark, about looking down to look at it before I completely stopped.  I would say I really learned to sort of trust my instincts, trust being present [and] trust my listening skills because that’s really what acting is. I feel like I’ve taken so much of what I learned on that film and hopefully, have grown and evolved as an actor.  I feel like it was such a fantastic learning experience and baseline for me to sort of work with someone as experienced and as talented as Shane, and be able to take what I sort of just picked up through osmosis of working with someone like him and bring into all of my other jobs.  I think being present and really listening, just being still — all of that were things that I really learned, I think, for the first time being on that set.”

 

Shane created a yearbook during his time on set.

 

Shane: “I was having everyone sign it on any project.  So, I have everybody from the film that signed it and they put in great messages.  I have a lot of Mandy’s hair. I hope, if it’s still in that book. I haven’t looked at that in years.”

Mandy and Shane want to work together again.

 

Mandy: “I would love to. I love him.  I would love to sort of put the band back together with Adam as well. The three of us got to find something to collaborate on. It would be so much fun!”

 

Shane: “Nothing necessarily in particular. Not a specific idea. I’ve joked around — we’ve all three of us joked around, I think it was maybe on the 15th anniversary or 16 or 17th or something, of Adam directing us doing it again. Maybe, obviously, because we’re older, an older love story in that kind of sense.  But if anyone were going to die, it’s going to be me this time. You got to make it a tragedy. We got to make it even now, even Steven here. But I would love to. Maybe when she’s done with This Is Us.”

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