Mandy Moore reflects on 'A Walk to Remember': 'It gives me a warm feeling inside'

Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Mandy Moore says her movie A Walk to Remember gives her a "warm feeling inside."

The 32-year-old actress and co-star Shane West shared memories about the film in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in honor of the romantic drama's 15th anniversary.

"I think that it was such an overwhelmingly positive, memorable experience for me because it was my first leading role and it was the first film I worked on away from home," Moore said. "It just gives me an all-encompassing warm feeling inside."

"There are very few times in your career when the memories and the relationship you have to a project match the relationship that an audience has to the project -- but this movie is as special to me as it seems to be to the people out there in the world," she said.

"It genuinely was a phenomenal experience," West added. "It was a great experience, it was a lot of fun, everyone bonded on set and off, and it happened to turn out to be a success. You couldn't ask for anything more."

A Walk to Remember is based on the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, which follows the romance between modest high school student Jamie (Moore), who is secretly ill, and her rebellious classmate Landon (West). Moore and West were 17 and 23 when the movie opened in theaters on Jan. 25, 2002.

"Shane was so cool. Everything about him -- the way he dressed, the little cigarettes that he smoked, and the music that he listened to. He was the character to me and there was definitely a part of me that absolutely fell in love with him," the actress admitted.

"I don't know if I could discern the difference between him and the character at that point in time because, again, it was my first experience doing anything like this and I was a 16-year-old, impressionable girl. I was just so caught up in the moment and the experience," she said.

A Walk to Remember earned over $47 million at the box office and has remained a favorite among fans for years. Moore said in an "Ask Me Anything" conversation Wednesday on Twitter that she and West are "working on" a cast reunion.