Shane West is the right man for the job on ‘Nikita’

An article by Sam    Comments Off

Shane West, star of The CW’s Nikita (Thursdays, 9 ET/PT), never got into any of the more recent spy television series like Alias or Dark Angel.

Old school Miami Vice was more his thing.

“But we’re not wearing pastels and I’m not driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini,” says West.

It was over a decade ago when West, now 32, first gained attention on Once and Again and then again in 2004 when he joined the cast of ER for five seasons.

“I’ve been very fortunate, especially with the two series I have done which were critically acclaimed and won awards and things like that,” acknowledges the Baton Rouge, La. native.

After his run on ER, West turned to his other passion, music. He went on an American and European tour with the celebrated punk rock band, The Germs. “I’d like to get back to that,” says West, who had earlier folded up his own band, Johnny Was, rather than compromise to make a record deal. “It’s a crazy dream come true. An absolute rush playing with those guys, being part of that scene.”

Then West, who after touring made some independent films which ultimately may never find distributors, decided it was time to get back into “the mainstream” and venture into his first pilot season (auditions for potential new TV series) since Once and Again.

“The (movie) industry is so destroyed right now anyway,” says West. “If you’re not Leonardo DiCaprio or Tom Cruise you are not even being able to audition for a lot of movies nowadays for lack of finances and all that kind of stuff.”

Nikita was West’s first choice but he was truly surprised they considered and then chose him to play Michael, the male lead opposite actress Maggie Q.

Read the rest of the interview here