This past week we had the pleasure to sit down with three of the cast members from the upcoming highly anticipated movie adaption of City Of Bones: The Mortal Instruments to talk about the movie. From knife fighting to molding to fit fan expectations, the cast covered many topics for us! Read on below!
What was the most interesting part about being trained to be Shadow Hunters?
Lily: Well I figure out in the beginning of the movie what are Shadow Hunters, so my skill level isn't as up to par with these guys. I got to learn how to knife fight, which was really fun, I had done sword fighting before in other movies, so switching the blades up was pretty interesting, and in heels, the whole deal, was pretty fun.
Jamie: I worked quite closely with Jean Frenette, the stunt coordinator on the movie, and I was able to go out there a month before we started shooting, and it was great to be able to work with the stunt team to work to hone my skills a little bit and put down a style of fighting, like really have a specific style of fighting that Jay's had. So that was really interesting and exciting for me.
Kevin: Yeah I would agree with what Jamie said, I think because, especially Shadow Hunters, the characters are so defined by fighting and by the way they fight. I really wanted to establish what, a lot of what these characters are is the way they look, the way they are, the way they walk, the way they fight, especially. So it was important to not just have some generic style of fighting. I mean Jean Frenette is incredible anyway with setting things up but, it was very tailored to, Jamie who's very tall, very lean, and sort of the way he moves around, it's very much different than the way I move around. So I think he tailored the way that we fight to our own kind of physical makeup. And then we had Nuno [Capitao de Salles], who's our physical trainer to get us into shape-shape. So it was very much tailored to creating these characters that when you see from afar, because most of the time we're fighting together and there are scenes where you see Jamie and I fighting together with Jemima and Lily and you can tell, even in the wide-shots, who's who by the way that we're moving around, so it was great. And it felt very, it was sort of like "learn this and do it this way otherwise it's wrong". It was sort of like "well you do this thing well, so we'll throw a little bit more of that stuff in there". So it felt more like a team effort than it did, "just figure out how to do these 25, or 150 moves and then just do it the way that the stunt guy does it or we're screwed". It was more "Jamie can do all 150 and then we'll just shoot it with Jamie". And that's what we ended up doing.
You guys are getting on the ground floor of a new franchise, what was it like becoming these characters that people already love in the books?
Lily: I was a fan of the books before I was cast. So I read the first one and was a fan, so I already had expectations taking on the role, so for me I already had this precedent in my mind. But I had done "Mirror Mirror", taking the "Snow White" character that's even more world-wide known, everyone has an idea of who she should be, so I kind of learned to somewhat separate people's expectations and my expectations, and then you know, I'm an actor but I'm also a fan. So it's trying to put little bits of Lily in there, but staying true to how Cassie wrote her, but I think most of my character came into play once everyone else got into the room, you feed off of everyone else's energy and once you find the right space, Clary become Clary. I think everyone feeds off of everyone's energy and all of us as ourselves contributed so much to how our characters were.
Jamie: I think there's always going to be a preconceived idea of what these characters should be like. You know, when you read you naturally create images in your head and if you don't you probably aren't reading very well. Like Lily said, there are expectations and you have to manage those expectations. It's an honor to be able to play any character in a book series, that's loved by whoever, out of many millions, or even if it's just one person, it's hard to play that character full-stop. I guess what we have to do is we have to take on board what Cassie given us, the sort of bible there, for me I also wanted to please the fans, so I looked to what they wanted, and had to do stuff for me. It's sort of those three things combined that, we worked around it and hopefully did something that was comfortable.
Kevin: Yeah I mean, I think it's at the end of the day, for me especially, we were making a film. And I think sometimes you can get a little caught up in, we certainly appreciated that there was a built in fan base for the books, but you know, I speak to my friends about a book that I've read and everyone has a different opinion of it anyway. So I think to assume that everyone would expect the same thing from Jace would be a mistake anyway. So I certainly understood that there was an expectation of what my character should be, and what Jamie and Lily's character should be, everyone. At the end of the day we're making a film, and in order to, you're not creating the exact person that was written on the page, you're creating a person that has the same essence as that person. Once that's executed, you know, everyone has a different opinion anyway, so if you try and please everybody you're going to end up with some sort of watered down version of nothing. So I would rather go full-on with an idea of my character, and be willing to have a few people go "oh well that's not…", but at the end of the day they're pleased with the character, than sort of stay in the middle and try not to offend everybody or try and keep everyone happy. And I think we all sort of spoke about that. And then once you're doing a film, you're also just shooting a film. The idea of everyone's expectations, we don't really have time to say "I wonder if the Harold's really happy with, or I wonder if the fans are happy with" you sort of just get in the rhythm of we made our decisions, we know who we are, we know what we're trying to execute with these characters, and once the film's put together, let everyone sort of watch the movie, whether they've read the books or not, and enjoy these characters.
It seems like there's a lot of green screen in this movie and CGI, so how was your experience shooting together?
Lily: There wasn't too much green screen, maybe, like extending the height of the library, and there was a guy in a green suit pulling me when I was going through the portal. They pretty much had all the sets built for us, they had the characters, a lot of prosthetic work, so it wasn't too difficult pretending. I mean there was one sequence, at the end of Hotel Demort, where the werewolves come in, we kind of had to imagine, that sequence was very much about teamwork. But we had all prepped so heavily before the movie, whether it was in stunt training, rehearsal, hanging out in Toronto. So the teamwork and the camaraderie was so organic, we lived in the same place and trained together. I think once we added costumes it really was just us running around in the other environment, as a part of this new team. We were all held together by Harold, and he was a great captain to keep up all together. On the note of CGI and pretending people were there, there wasn't that much, it was a real privilege to feel immersed in a world that the audience feels immersed in.
Jamie: And even like the demon stuff, there's a sequence with Madame Dorothea, where these characters, she takes on a separate form. But even with that, she was still there, the actress playing the part was there and the thing you see is just additions done in post, the majority of the physical work is being done by CC[H Pounder], holding Lily. So that in that sense, there isn't much CGI, sure the werewolves, but what I'm really keen to put out there that this a world that, the movie isn't based in a world of werewolves and vampires, they're just additions. It's not like we're trying to recreate the werewolf or the vampire, as an image, like some modern movies. They exist in this world but ultimately the story is about this girl who goes on this incredible journey who finds out who she is, and her heritage. And to bring it back to your question of us as people and camaraderie on set, yeah we became really tight. You sit there sometimes like, "yeah we had a common interest and a common bond" that happens on movie sets because you do, you're there making a movie, but sometimes when that structure falls away friendship die. That hasn't happened, like we all became so tight and I figured we're all brought together for a reason, and I don't really know about. But for some reason it's all helpful to all of us, we all get something out of it.
What drew you to the part that ended up being your role?
Kevin: Well for me, the movie was pretty much cast, I know Jamie was already in Toronto, and for whatever reason Alec was one of the few roles they hadn't cast, so they sent me the script. I felt that there was a lot to do with the character, I liked that he was a noted guy. I like any characters that you can't really put your finger on, I didn't like that he was one way or another, he's very much in different situations with different people reliable, but he can also be very aloof. So in retrospect I liked the idea of bringing a character with his sexuality to such a big movie, I think it's not, especially now that the movie's about the come out, you start to think of people seeing it and you see the scope of what we just did, and if even ten times that many people will go to see the film, that's a lot of people that are going to be introduced to what is a gay character as one of the main characters in a big movie. I think it's about time and I think it's such a non-issue, especially for the people we just met [at the signing] who were of our generation and younger. I think to me it was an honor to be able to say "I can create this really strong, kind of badass character and have him also be gay", and sort of kill some of the stereotype of the prototypical gay character. And this character, it's explored slightly in this movie, but not enough so that that's just what it about, he sort of "a, b, c, d, e, and f" and then there's the question of his sexuality. And for me that's such a cool opportunity to sort of break some of the stereotypes.
Jamie: The money, I was desperately poor. No, I guess when I got the sides for the audition, there was this sort of "rock star element" that I really liked about Jace. The vulnerability about him, that I really dug about his, his attitude isn't really carefree because he does care about a lot of things, he just choses to not show that. Like I said, we aren't trying to recreate the vampire, but what I really did want to do is I wanted to do, I was really bored of seeing the archetypal jock superhero, it really angers me. Because it's not an accurate representation of what real life is. So for Jace I very much wanted to make him lean and skinny and wily and aggressive and dangerous and all these things that actually kid's love, like they love the rockstar. My cousins are 15/14, they're all about the damaged rockstar and that's what Jace is, he's incredibly damaged, and I love that. That's what really drew me to him I suppose, it means I get to throw a sword around as well.
Lily: I liked the fact that this series in general, it's not about romance, it's not about drama, it's not about action, it really stems from, it's an ensemble piece, but the catalyst to start this whole experiment with Clary really finding out who she is, this whole journey is her finding her mom. It's a through line of the entire series, that I feel you never really waver from that, and especially in this first movie, yes there's a love triangle, a love cube really, there's the action, there's a comedic undertone, which I don't think is in any other teen franchise, and there's the drama, but it's about this one girl, who no matter what gets thrown her way, you know she doesn't deter from her passion and her seeking to find her mom and I'm really close to my mom, so that to me was something I thought was really admirable about her. You know, teens always talk about how much they hate their parents and parents don't understand their teens, but at the core of it, if you're mom was taken from you, you're going to go after her. This girl puts everything else aside and makes that her priority, and that sometimes is at the risk of herself or her friends, but she puts that in front of everything and she does it with passion and loyalty and she never falls victim to anything. And I really liked that she wasn't weak, and it was fun being a redhead.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones comes out August 21st in the United States, and we cannot wait to see it! Did you enjoy our interview? Who would you like to see us interview next? Tweet us @HitZoneOnline, and make sure to follow @MortalMovie for all City of Bones updates!
Posted By: Gabi
What was the most interesting part about being trained to be Shadow Hunters?
Lily: Well I figure out in the beginning of the movie what are Shadow Hunters, so my skill level isn't as up to par with these guys. I got to learn how to knife fight, which was really fun, I had done sword fighting before in other movies, so switching the blades up was pretty interesting, and in heels, the whole deal, was pretty fun.
Jamie: I worked quite closely with Jean Frenette, the stunt coordinator on the movie, and I was able to go out there a month before we started shooting, and it was great to be able to work with the stunt team to work to hone my skills a little bit and put down a style of fighting, like really have a specific style of fighting that Jay's had. So that was really interesting and exciting for me.
Kevin: Yeah I would agree with what Jamie said, I think because, especially Shadow Hunters, the characters are so defined by fighting and by the way they fight. I really wanted to establish what, a lot of what these characters are is the way they look, the way they are, the way they walk, the way they fight, especially. So it was important to not just have some generic style of fighting. I mean Jean Frenette is incredible anyway with setting things up but, it was very tailored to, Jamie who's very tall, very lean, and sort of the way he moves around, it's very much different than the way I move around. So I think he tailored the way that we fight to our own kind of physical makeup. And then we had Nuno [Capitao de Salles], who's our physical trainer to get us into shape-shape. So it was very much tailored to creating these characters that when you see from afar, because most of the time we're fighting together and there are scenes where you see Jamie and I fighting together with Jemima and Lily and you can tell, even in the wide-shots, who's who by the way that we're moving around, so it was great. And it felt very, it was sort of like "learn this and do it this way otherwise it's wrong". It was sort of like "well you do this thing well, so we'll throw a little bit more of that stuff in there". So it felt more like a team effort than it did, "just figure out how to do these 25, or 150 moves and then just do it the way that the stunt guy does it or we're screwed". It was more "Jamie can do all 150 and then we'll just shoot it with Jamie". And that's what we ended up doing.
You guys are getting on the ground floor of a new franchise, what was it like becoming these characters that people already love in the books?
Lily: I was a fan of the books before I was cast. So I read the first one and was a fan, so I already had expectations taking on the role, so for me I already had this precedent in my mind. But I had done "Mirror Mirror", taking the "Snow White" character that's even more world-wide known, everyone has an idea of who she should be, so I kind of learned to somewhat separate people's expectations and my expectations, and then you know, I'm an actor but I'm also a fan. So it's trying to put little bits of Lily in there, but staying true to how Cassie wrote her, but I think most of my character came into play once everyone else got into the room, you feed off of everyone else's energy and once you find the right space, Clary become Clary. I think everyone feeds off of everyone's energy and all of us as ourselves contributed so much to how our characters were.
Jamie: I think there's always going to be a preconceived idea of what these characters should be like. You know, when you read you naturally create images in your head and if you don't you probably aren't reading very well. Like Lily said, there are expectations and you have to manage those expectations. It's an honor to be able to play any character in a book series, that's loved by whoever, out of many millions, or even if it's just one person, it's hard to play that character full-stop. I guess what we have to do is we have to take on board what Cassie given us, the sort of bible there, for me I also wanted to please the fans, so I looked to what they wanted, and had to do stuff for me. It's sort of those three things combined that, we worked around it and hopefully did something that was comfortable.
Kevin: Yeah I mean, I think it's at the end of the day, for me especially, we were making a film. And I think sometimes you can get a little caught up in, we certainly appreciated that there was a built in fan base for the books, but you know, I speak to my friends about a book that I've read and everyone has a different opinion of it anyway. So I think to assume that everyone would expect the same thing from Jace would be a mistake anyway. So I certainly understood that there was an expectation of what my character should be, and what Jamie and Lily's character should be, everyone. At the end of the day we're making a film, and in order to, you're not creating the exact person that was written on the page, you're creating a person that has the same essence as that person. Once that's executed, you know, everyone has a different opinion anyway, so if you try and please everybody you're going to end up with some sort of watered down version of nothing. So I would rather go full-on with an idea of my character, and be willing to have a few people go "oh well that's not…", but at the end of the day they're pleased with the character, than sort of stay in the middle and try not to offend everybody or try and keep everyone happy. And I think we all sort of spoke about that. And then once you're doing a film, you're also just shooting a film. The idea of everyone's expectations, we don't really have time to say "I wonder if the Harold's really happy with, or I wonder if the fans are happy with" you sort of just get in the rhythm of we made our decisions, we know who we are, we know what we're trying to execute with these characters, and once the film's put together, let everyone sort of watch the movie, whether they've read the books or not, and enjoy these characters.
It seems like there's a lot of green screen in this movie and CGI, so how was your experience shooting together?
Lily: There wasn't too much green screen, maybe, like extending the height of the library, and there was a guy in a green suit pulling me when I was going through the portal. They pretty much had all the sets built for us, they had the characters, a lot of prosthetic work, so it wasn't too difficult pretending. I mean there was one sequence, at the end of Hotel Demort, where the werewolves come in, we kind of had to imagine, that sequence was very much about teamwork. But we had all prepped so heavily before the movie, whether it was in stunt training, rehearsal, hanging out in Toronto. So the teamwork and the camaraderie was so organic, we lived in the same place and trained together. I think once we added costumes it really was just us running around in the other environment, as a part of this new team. We were all held together by Harold, and he was a great captain to keep up all together. On the note of CGI and pretending people were there, there wasn't that much, it was a real privilege to feel immersed in a world that the audience feels immersed in.
Jamie: And even like the demon stuff, there's a sequence with Madame Dorothea, where these characters, she takes on a separate form. But even with that, she was still there, the actress playing the part was there and the thing you see is just additions done in post, the majority of the physical work is being done by CC[H Pounder], holding Lily. So that in that sense, there isn't much CGI, sure the werewolves, but what I'm really keen to put out there that this a world that, the movie isn't based in a world of werewolves and vampires, they're just additions. It's not like we're trying to recreate the werewolf or the vampire, as an image, like some modern movies. They exist in this world but ultimately the story is about this girl who goes on this incredible journey who finds out who she is, and her heritage. And to bring it back to your question of us as people and camaraderie on set, yeah we became really tight. You sit there sometimes like, "yeah we had a common interest and a common bond" that happens on movie sets because you do, you're there making a movie, but sometimes when that structure falls away friendship die. That hasn't happened, like we all became so tight and I figured we're all brought together for a reason, and I don't really know about. But for some reason it's all helpful to all of us, we all get something out of it.
What drew you to the part that ended up being your role?
Kevin: Well for me, the movie was pretty much cast, I know Jamie was already in Toronto, and for whatever reason Alec was one of the few roles they hadn't cast, so they sent me the script. I felt that there was a lot to do with the character, I liked that he was a noted guy. I like any characters that you can't really put your finger on, I didn't like that he was one way or another, he's very much in different situations with different people reliable, but he can also be very aloof. So in retrospect I liked the idea of bringing a character with his sexuality to such a big movie, I think it's not, especially now that the movie's about the come out, you start to think of people seeing it and you see the scope of what we just did, and if even ten times that many people will go to see the film, that's a lot of people that are going to be introduced to what is a gay character as one of the main characters in a big movie. I think it's about time and I think it's such a non-issue, especially for the people we just met [at the signing] who were of our generation and younger. I think to me it was an honor to be able to say "I can create this really strong, kind of badass character and have him also be gay", and sort of kill some of the stereotype of the prototypical gay character. And this character, it's explored slightly in this movie, but not enough so that that's just what it about, he sort of "a, b, c, d, e, and f" and then there's the question of his sexuality. And for me that's such a cool opportunity to sort of break some of the stereotypes.
Jamie: The money, I was desperately poor. No, I guess when I got the sides for the audition, there was this sort of "rock star element" that I really liked about Jace. The vulnerability about him, that I really dug about his, his attitude isn't really carefree because he does care about a lot of things, he just choses to not show that. Like I said, we aren't trying to recreate the vampire, but what I really did want to do is I wanted to do, I was really bored of seeing the archetypal jock superhero, it really angers me. Because it's not an accurate representation of what real life is. So for Jace I very much wanted to make him lean and skinny and wily and aggressive and dangerous and all these things that actually kid's love, like they love the rockstar. My cousins are 15/14, they're all about the damaged rockstar and that's what Jace is, he's incredibly damaged, and I love that. That's what really drew me to him I suppose, it means I get to throw a sword around as well.
Lily: I liked the fact that this series in general, it's not about romance, it's not about drama, it's not about action, it really stems from, it's an ensemble piece, but the catalyst to start this whole experiment with Clary really finding out who she is, this whole journey is her finding her mom. It's a through line of the entire series, that I feel you never really waver from that, and especially in this first movie, yes there's a love triangle, a love cube really, there's the action, there's a comedic undertone, which I don't think is in any other teen franchise, and there's the drama, but it's about this one girl, who no matter what gets thrown her way, you know she doesn't deter from her passion and her seeking to find her mom and I'm really close to my mom, so that to me was something I thought was really admirable about her. You know, teens always talk about how much they hate their parents and parents don't understand their teens, but at the core of it, if you're mom was taken from you, you're going to go after her. This girl puts everything else aside and makes that her priority, and that sometimes is at the risk of herself or her friends, but she puts that in front of everything and she does it with passion and loyalty and she never falls victim to anything. And I really liked that she wasn't weak, and it was fun being a redhead.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones comes out August 21st in the United States, and we cannot wait to see it! Did you enjoy our interview? Who would you like to see us interview next? Tweet us @HitZoneOnline, and make sure to follow @MortalMovie for all City of Bones updates!
Posted By: Gabi
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