Pop-Culturalist.com

Andrew J. West is one of Hollywood’s most versatile leading men. He’s starred in the most buzzed-about television programs and films including Greek, The Walking Dead, and Once Upon a Time.

His latest project, So Cold the River, is a supernatural thriller that follows a documentary filmmaker whose research on a town’s mysterious benefactor unearths an unexplained evil. Andrew shines as the benefactor’s grandson who is trying to escape his family’s reputation and past and establish himself as his own man.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Andrew about his career, So Cold the River, filming in his hometown of Indiana, and collaborating with writer-director Paul Shoulberg.

PC: You didn’t dive into acting until a little later in your life. What was that pivotal moment when you realized this was the career path for you?
Andrew: It’s strange because there really was one specific moment—it was a turn-on-the-dime thing that happened. I was a very strange, introverted, very shy kid all through elementary school into high school. The thought of ever doing something where I would get on stage or get in front of a camera was out of the question. But when I went to Indiana University, where I’m from, I thought that it’d be good for me to give it a try because weirdly, it was something that was always in my mind. It was almost like a dare to myself to attempt something that scared the crap out of me.

So, I started taking acting classes in college. It did scare the crap out of me, but it was more of an elective. I wasn’t a theater major or anything like that; I was doing it for fun, and I met some friends in the class. College was still going on. I’m going into my senior year for my philosophy degree. A friend that I made in one of the acting classes was directing this theater show, SubUrbia by Eric Bogosian. We were at a party one night and she was casting the show. She was like, “I think you’d be good for the lead of this show. Will you please come audition?” I was like, “Yeah, sure.”

Then, I never showed up because I was still too scared. It was a fear thing back then. But I guess they did a round of auditions, and they didn’t find the guy. She came back to me, and she was like, “Please, please, please. Will you come read?” Long story short, I went, I did the reading, and they cast me. During the rehearsal process, I made some friends that are still my closest friends today. We’re sixteen, seventeen years removed now. It was this weird transformational thing that happened during this very short rehearsal process.

After opening night, I was talking with my buddy Derek who I met doing that show. We had become very tight very quickly. We were like, “Let’s give this a shot.” By the time we graduated a few months later, instead of going to grad school, which is what I thought I would end up doing, we jumped into a truck and drove to LA. We figured out how to get into audition rooms. That happened eventually. That’s how it worked out. It was that one show.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Andrew: There have been a lot of influences in different ways. Purely from a creative standpoint, there are actors that I really look up to and whose work I really admire, from Henry Fonda to Philip Seymour Hoffman to Ben Mendelsohn, people who I pay attention to what they’ve done, as well as actors who are still with us and what they’re doing. I learned a lot from what they’re doing, and they’ve definitely have had an influence on me.

But there are other nuances too like my wife, who’s an actor, and the way that she approaches this life, and how she prioritizes things. She taught me a lot over the years about how this career should be compartmentalized into a broader life. My manager, John Pierce, has been a big influence. He was the guide for me when I first started.

PC: If your two kids wanted to follow in you and your wife’s footsteps, what advice would you give them?
Andrew: Oh, God. Please don’t. [laughs] If my kids wanted to do this type of thing, I would tell them what I’d tell anybody who decided that this is something they wanted to dedicate their professional life to: “You’ve got to be doing it for the right reasons.” The right reasons are because you can’t really see yourself doing anything else, because you really love it, and because it’s something that you need and have to do because you have this thing in you that there’s this necessity to express something through this particular medium.

Also, really learn what it means to be an actor from the creative and business side. If it’s the stage that you want to do, really develop a relationship with that medium. If it’s film and TV, develop a relationship with those mediums and really understand them and the power that they have, how they’re unique, what they can accomplish that maybe music, creative writing, or painting can’t accomplish, and vice versa. Those things are important because if you don’t have that, then you’re probably not going to last for decades and decades. Also, save your money, kids.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success throughout your career. When you look back, is there one particular moment that stands out to you?
Andrew: There have been a couple. I did this show a long time ago called Greek on ABC Family, back when ABC Family was a thing. I’m dating myself, but back when that was a channel. That was cool. That job changed my life for many reasons. I met my wife doing that job. It was also my first long stint on a TV show—that felt like a success. I got used to working and I got used to what it meant to be showing up at a job week after week and really working.

As a working actor, you spend a lot of your time in the state of anonymity, running around to auditions, hoping that you land a job and get to show up to set and do the job. Maybe you get lucky and you get a pilot and then it doesn’t go. It’s a fun life, but you’re just this worker bee.

When The Walking Dead came around, suddenly, it felt like there was a bit of attention on it. Suddenly, producers and casting directors knew my name; they’re calling about me. That was new to me. That had never happened. I’d been working for a while before I did that. It was a strange experience, but it was eye-opening. It was the first taste of, “This is that next level,” which was a fun experience.

Then, working on Once Upon a Time, it felt like that, too. I was so lucky to jump into a show that had a huge fan base and was very successful for so many years. I got introduced later on and got to ride that train. It was cool to get to experience something like that. I’ve never been such an integral part of a hit show like that. That was fun and a high point.

PC: Tell us about So Cold the River, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Andrew: So many things drew me to this project, not the least of which was the writer/director who is a very close friend of mine. I’ve worked with him before [Paul Shoulberg]. He’s a super, super talented guy. That’s just reason one of a hundred.

It’s based on the novel by Michael Koryta, who is this terrific, terrific genre writer. I’m a big fan of his novels. He’s a fellow Hoosier, he’s also from Indiana. So Cold the River is set in Indiana, and the cool thing about it too is that I’m born and raised in Indiana. I went to IU.

A lot of people don’t know this, but in Southern Indiana, there is a historic resort called the French Lick West Baden Resort. It’s the largest domed structure in North America or something crazy like that. I had heard about it when I was living there, but I never went there. It was ironic that moving to California and starting this career is what brought me back to actually go see this really cool thing that existed in the southern part of my state that I’d never seen.

The novel is about this documentary filmmaker played by Joy Lenz, who is down and out. Her career has gone south a bit, but she gets this opportunity to make this film about a very mysterious figure by the name of Campbell Bradford, who disappeared, but he had these strange ties to the resort. It’s a really historic, famous resort with all this lore attached to it that actually exists in southern Indiana. It’s a real place.

She has to go there to investigate essentially and find out who this guy was and what his ties to this place were. The deeper that she dives, the more she finds that this resort wields a strange force and power. It starts to reveal things about herself, about other people, about her subject, but that’s just the beginning of it. Comparisons to The Shining are unavoidable because you have this grand lodge and there are these evil forces at work, but two stories diverge from there.

This mysterious figure, Campbell Bradford, I play his grandson and I’m a groundskeeper for the resort. My character is Josiah Bradford. I’m this very disaffected misfit guy who feels that my family has been cursed because of my grandfather. Even though he’s been gone for a long time, I feel like I’m under the thumb of this reputation that he has and this reputation he’s created for the family. I’m this very unhappy, simmering figure that’s wandering the grounds, but then some very strange things about my character are revealed through the course of the film, too. It’s this really interesting movie based on a really fascinating book about my home state and this really cool, real historic place that exists. It comes out in theaters on March 25th and shortly after On Demand.

PC: Like you were saying earlier, the resort itself feels like its own character. You all stayed and filmed on the property. How helpful was that in bringing this universe from the page to the screen?
Andrew: Oh my God. There’s no other way to make this film because the West Baden Resort, it’s an omnipresence. It’s a character and the setting, tone, and vibe of the film. We lived there. We never left, really. We would take shuttles back and forth to the other resort that’s on the adjacent property because the casino was over there. We didn’t have the casino. We got to take the bus to go to the casino and blow all the money we were making doing this. [laughs] But yeah, with a film like this, you couldn’t make it any other way.

Pegasus Pictures (the production company behind it) is an Indiana-based company. They did it perfectly in terms of making sure we were all there. We all stayed there. We were just a part of this place. I’ve never been in a hotel or resort quite like this. It had this personality and this presence. It had this history that you could feel and there was this vibe. I loved being there.

It was creepy, but I also loved it. I was there for the duration of the shoot. It was about six weeks. I think it’s Erica’s room, Joy’s character, in the hotel where we did a lot of scenes. They did set dressing for the room. They changed a lot, and the resort is keeping it—it’s the So Cold room now. You can stay there. You can rent that room. It’s all this set dressing, the wallpaper, everything. It’s a lot of fun that it’ll remain like that.

PC: That’s definitely on my bucket list to check out now.

Andrew: You’re going to go and you’re going to be in the middle of nowhere. You’re going to be like, “Where the hell am I? Why did Andy send me here?” [laughs] Then, all of sudden, there is this massive dome structure that pops up out of a field. You’re going to be like, “This is amazing.” It’s on a natural mineral spring. Like I said, there’s also a casino. It’s cool. It’s worth it!

PC: Without giving any spoilers, there’s this really chilling scene that happens about halfway through the film where your character is being interviewed about his grandfather and there’s a switch that happens. You handled it with such nuance. As an actor, how did you create the space for yourself to dive into that particular moment while keeping it grounded?
Andrew: It was tricky. That was hands down the most challenging scene of the entire film. I had lots of conversations with Paul about that scene. We worked on it a lot. We did a lot of rehearsals. Paul helped me tremendously in finding those moments. The guy is so dedicated. He makes sure that there’s time. We were talking about that scene before I even got to Indiana to start shooting. There were many conversations about that scene in particular. We worked it and we worked it, so that by the time we got to the day where we were shooting it, it actually went pretty smoothly. You can prepare as much as an actor, but then whatever happens in front of the camera happens, you don’t want it to feel manufactured.

You just hope you get there. No matter how much you work it, there’s always a bit of trepidation and a bit of anxiety: “Am I going to get there? Is this going to happen? I hope it does.” But luckily all that prep created this strong foundation and being in that place. I’m not sitting on a sound stage somewhere; I’m in the lobby of this very, very creepy grand setting. All of that helped tremendously. You have to know there’s that change that happens. I have to know where I am at the very beginning and who I am. Then know very, very specifically where I am going to end up. It’s a tricky thing, but a lot went into that, a lot of planning and a lot of work.

PC: You talked about this a little bit earlier, but this film was filmed in Indiana. You’re from Indiana. What has it meant to you to get to highlight and showcase your home state in such a big project?
Andrew: It means a lot. It definitely means something. It’s hard to specifically pinpoint what that is. It’s hard to not have a certain amount of pride about where you come from. I lived the first twenty-two years of my life in Indiana. It’s very much a part of who I am. It’s always going to be a part of who I am. To see it represented is special.

Look, it’s almost like it doesn’t matter what movie I watch or book I read, if there’s a reference to Indiana or my hometown, I’m always like, “Hey, I know that place! I’m from there. They did this right, or they didn’t do this right.” You have this personal ownership over that thing. It’s really fun. It’s just special. You always hope that you’re proud of something that you get to work on, but to have it also have that connection makes it so much more special and exciting in this strange, inevitable way.

To keep up with Andrew, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. So Cold the River is out in select theaters and will be released On Demand on March 29.

Photo Credit: Shanna Fisher