Although Alexander Gould is perhaps best known as the voice of Nemo in Pixar's "Finding Nemo," he has recently garnered a great deal of attention for his role on the Showtime series "Weeds" as Shane Botwin, the son of Mary-Louise Parker's Nancy Botwin.
In the sixth season of the show, the Botwin family is on the run thanks to Shane's shocking murder of a powerful woman who threatened to kill them. But perhaps more disturbing to viewers and to the Botwins themselves is the fact that Shane seems to feel absolutely no remorse for his actions; which is a major departure for the formerly innocent character.
Crave Online recently caught up with Gould for his views on the changes to Shane's character, where he would like to see Shane go and what's coming up in the rest of the season.
Crave Online: What's your take on Shane's character?
Alexander Gould: Shane is at a very dark place in the show. At the beginning he started off as being very innocent and he didn't know much about what was going on in the whole operation. From that he kind of changed slightly. When he was told about everything that was going on, he became the moral compass for the family and he was the only one who seemed to have his head on straight to know what was really right. As time has gone on, his [perspective] has become so skewed because of the craziness in his life that he is now traveling down a very dark road.
Crave Online: When the writers decided that Shane would murder Pilar, how was that presented to you?
Alexander Gould: I got the script just like everybody else. I was like "Oh my God!" It wasn't anything I was warned about ahead of time. But it was such a crazy twist of his storyline and it was really fun thing that I was able to do. And I loved being a part of that.
Crave Online: They really didn't warn you about that?
Alexander Gould: Nope. I just saw it in the script. But the last script came as much as a shock to me as it was to everyone else.
Crave Online: What do you think drove Shane to this?
Alexander Gould: Over the past few seasons — in season five and even in season four — you see him getting darker and darker. He was [dealing] with some of the gang members who are part of the whole drug community and [Shane] ended up finding more humor in killing and being okay [with it]. And then there's a point in the fifth season where Shane gets shot. And something just clicks in him at that part where he realizes that he's never going to be moral like he wants to be. He's gone down this road and there's no turning back. Past that point, he decides "this is what I know how to do now, so this is what I'm going to do." I think that after he was shot you started to see him getting more violent and more scary and that brings him to this point of being able to kill Pilar without any remorse.
Crave Online: What are your thoughts on his current mindset?
Alexander Gould: Personally, he's been a really fun character to play since he has such a skewed sense of right and wrong and reality in general. But he's really so... unnatural. I like the character. He's just a great character.
Crave Online: Is Shane going to feel any remorse? Or is he going to be really cold about it throughout the whole season?
Alexander Gould: Pretty much throughout the season he's going to be kind of cold. And everyone through the whole season is very wary of him. It's like "is Shane going to kill us? Is Shane going to pop at any point? Or is he going to snap or hurt somebody?" Everybody is walking on eggshells around Shane because they don't want to set him off in any way.
Crave Online: I don't know. Andy seems kind of cool with him killing Pilar.
Alexander Gould: Yeah. It's just a running theme through the season that you're never quite sure if Shane is [sane]. Obviously the family has been living with Shane for his whole life. But you never know the situation. They wonder "should we let Shane out of the hotel room? Or should we keep him all locked up just in case he goes out and decides to kill somebody else."
