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| Jamie Campbell Bower leads an attack as Jace Wayland in 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones', premiering today. |
Jamie Campbell Bower lights up a room with his presence. It could be his warm, inviting smile or the fact that he comes up to a group of blogger ladies he only knows from a few brief interactions all giddy and gives us high fives. There's a feeling in the air of excitement and celebration. Jamie's been waiting all year to know how Shadowhunters would react to film. It's been sometimes an uphill battle with fans for
The Mortal Instruments series when it comes to Jamie playing the seraph wielding, snark-ridden Jace Wayland. I, for one, was always a fan of Jamie as Jace from the moment they announced him. I pulled up a season of
Camelot on DVR and said, "let's see what he's made of." I learned quickly that Jamie had the guts and drive for Jace. But as he sits down in a chair next to me and three other die-hard TMI super bloggers, it's clear that he wonders what
we thought of the movie, having watched it the previous night at a press screening in LA. He grins at us all, waiting for us to spring to life with our comments on the film.
Katie (MundieMoms): Can we just talk about how awesome you are in this movie?
JCB: Stop it. You guys liked it then?
Katie (MundieMoms): You were awesome. We loved it. You seriously brought Jace...
Kristen (TMI Movie News): Our site penned Jacealiciousness. You nailed it!
JCB: Oh, thank you. Well, look, you guys are the most important people that we need to make sure that we please as well, so if you guys are happy, then we're happy.
Katie (MundieMoms): Well, we were even talking about this last night afterwards, we're like, okay, you could not have cast a better Jace because your mannerisms, the looks you gave, the comments you said and the way you said it... You were just great. You wanted to slap you, but you wanted to hug you at the same time.
JCB: Stop it! You can do both! You can do both of those things.
Katie (MundieMoms): No, you brought book Jace to life perfectly. There's not one thing that you could change to make it better.
JCB: Thank you, that means so much.
Erin (Fangirlish): I mean, it's got to be good to hear though. I mean, point blank, the fans were mean to you atthe beginning. We were assholes. We were really jerks. I feel like you should know that people are gonna change their minds. The whole theater last night was like, "Wow." I mean, we walked away and even MTV was sitting behind us, and they were like, "Holy shit. We underestimated him." We've had that moment, I've seen, where like, "And that is why Jamie is Jace." He is Jace.
JCB: Yeah, I mean, look, I put a lot of work into this. Maybe if there wasn't a negative reaction at the beginning... I mean, I try and put 100% in whatever I do. Maybe if there wasn't a negative reaction, would I have...? It's like when somebody tells me I can't do something, I'm like, "Fuck you. I'm going to do it better than you can possibly imagine." Literally, like, I will focus on something so hard. It's like my mom and dad when I was a kid, I wanted to play the drums and play the guitar and my mom and dad were like, "You don't need lessons for that." And I was like, "Right. You don't know, you don't know. I'm gonna like..." They're like, "Don't be ridiculous." And I like went out and I like tried to do the best that I possibly could. So, in a way, I suppose I probably should be sitting here thanking people for saying negative things. Yes they hurt, and yeah, it's damaging and I don't think anyone should have to go through any form of... Look, outrightly, it sucked. It was bullying and it fucking stinks like shit, and I don't like it. I've said that. But whatever, people say things, sometimes there's no hand to brain or brain to hand or brain to mouth coordination. I'm exactly the same way sometimes. I can say vicious things, and then I go, "Oh my god. What did I do." I should be thanking those people maybe, because they pushed me to a place where actually I seem to have pleased them [laughs]. But I'm not saying go back and do it again.
Erin (Fangirlish): We were part of the people who put together the book of fan pictures for you.
JCB: Which is upstairs in my room, and I look at it every day.
Erin (Fangirlish): That's so sweet, because we were really, really freaking nervous. We actually are starting other volumes because I have so many pictures. I have like over 5,000 pictures and I just couldn't fit them all into one volume to get to you. You are way loved.
JCB: No really, that book's insane. I showed it to my friend yesterday, and he's just like, "That's beautiful. It's crazy, but it's beautiful." I was like, "I know." I do feel incredibly blessed to just have that support. I get very emotional just thinking about it.
(Institute note: I think this was about the time Jamie put his head down on the table, clearly a little emotional from all our love. I patted him on the arm, trying to at least tell him it was okay. Gosh, this guy is super sweet, and we love him more for that!)
Katie (MundieMoms): It was seriously so much fun watching you just embody Jace. The banter that you and Simon have - between you and Robbie - is so spot on, and the lines you guys have and the relationship and the chemistry you have with Lily... What was one of your favorite moments to film?
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| On the black carpet at the TMI premiere (Photo by Amber Pruitt) |
JCB: There's one line that didn't make it into the movie which I really wish had. I mean, look, it was Jace, like, I made him such a prick at this point, but I really wanted him to be a prick to Simon at that point. It's where they're standing over the bed and Simon's going, "They have runes to make you blah blah blah to make you hungry." And Jace goes, "No." And I was like, "No, you're an idiot." And I really wanted it to stay in, and Harald was like, "We can't keep that in. We just can't. It's too mean. It's too mean." I was like, "Okay, fine. I get it. Whatever."
That was really fun. That banter scene with Robbie was fun. One of my favorite scenes actually in the movie is when Alec and Jace go and introduce Clary to Hodge, and Alec and Jace just have this - it's a very short interaction - but it says so much about these two people. I don't thinkit's even a minute; I think it's maybe just under a minute. But it's just very light, but concerned, and Kevin brings this sort of brotherly love and Jace is trying to sort of brush him aside. That was probably my favorite scene to shoot because I was just there, like, hanging out with my brother. Kevin has become like a brother to myself and Lily. He is like our brother. So, like, I was just there, just hanging out with my brother, saying something that was on the script. I wasn't even really thinking about the script. I was like, "Okay, here we are. This is fun."
Katie (MundieMoms): It's great because you have this look where you're looking at Clary like you're kind of fascinated by her, and then you have Alec in the background and it's his look that says it all. He's looking at you and then he looks at Clary and looks her up and down and looks at you, and you just see the disdain like he just wants to kill her, but you can see when he's looking at Jace that he really cares about you. It said it all. You're just looking at Clary and Clary's like, "Oh my gosh, what kind of world did I get into?" That whole moment, it just said it all without saying much else was perfect.
JCB: It's a great moment. Aw, I'm glad you guys... I'm really happy. I'm really happy.
Erin (Fangirlish): So, Jace is kind of a dick.
JCB: Yeah, a little bit [laughs].
Erin (Fangirlish):
What's his redeeming quality?
JCB: His redeeming quality. His loyalty. His loyalty to his family and his loyalty to those that he loves. He feels that the world is against him. I think that's how a lot of people feel sometimes. It's how I certainly felt as a kid. I think his redeeming quality is his sort of undying loyalty to his family and to who means most to him. For all his cockiness and for all his banter, he's pretty unsure of himself. He's a bit lost, and I love that about him. I love damaged goods. I'm all about damaged goods, mate.
Amber, The Mortal Institute (Ok, yes, I'm proud of my big Q&A moment with Jamie, and I love his reaction):
You had a lot of vulnerability, like in the scene right before the greenhouse scene where Jace sticks his hand through the portal. That moment just melted my heart. So talk about Jace's vulnerability and how you got into that. Is that you in general. Do you feel like Jace...?
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| Jamie on the black carpet in LA. (Photo by Amber Pruitt) |
JCB: In any performance, there always has to be a little bit of yourself in there; otherwise it sort of can look like you're acting. Yeah, I'm pretty vulnerable. I'm a pretty vulnerable person. How did I get to it with Jace? Well, the reason Jace is such a prick at the beginning is because I knew we had this moment in the greenhouse that was coming and that's why... Like, without that scene, you would walk away from the theater going, "Who was that guy? What the hell was his problem?" So, filming the greenhouse scene was like probably the most terrifying day for me, because it's like his entire moment. That is a huge character point for him. So, the vulnerability aspect of it... I sort of took a lot of... I made a mood board when we first started shooting of just images: no words, just images. So I used a lot of fan art that I'd found, stuck that up, images of Jace and Clary that people had like drawn and stuff, stuck them up on the board. Pictures of myself, pictures of Lily, and then pictures of people like Heath Ledger, who was incredibly vulnerable - that incredibly vulnerable man - but beautiful, and very strong at the same time. Images like that, and like River Phoenix, and then I wanted the aggression side, so I used the idea of like James Hetfield from Metallica... So when I would get to the vulnerable bits or when I was sort of losing track of what it was, I'd go back to the board, and I'd be like, "Okay, this board here is Jace's brain, but who am I going to be out of his brain today? Okay, so there's a bit of Jamie in there, but there also has to be a bit of whoever."
Kristen (TMI Movie News):
So is the hands through the hair gonna be signature?
JCB: [laughs] That was actually a reshoot! We added that in for a bit of sneakiness.
Kristen (TMI Movie News):
It was twice, right? I didn't miss any extras?
JCB: Yeah, I mean, there's obviously when he kills the ravener at the beginning - and takes off his shirt. It's the reveal, come on. It's movie magic. I mean, it could have been this slow motion (makes jesture running hand through hair). There could have been a number of them.
Katie (MundieMoms):
I love that scene, though, with Jace. He comes in, kills the demon, and then he's kind of like looking at Clary, but then he kind of picks her up, consoles her, and then he turns back into the, "Well, I did just save your life," which, by the way, is like the best line ever.
JCB: Thank you.
Katie (MundieMoms):
Thank you for bringing Jace to life. You were just fantastic.
JCB: Thank you guys for supporting the movie, and thank you for saying the things that you said. I really mean it, like, you guys, it means a lot to me.
Kristen (TMI Movie News): Jacealicious!
JCB: Jacealiscious! You guys are so much fun!
HERE IS A LITTLE VIDEO I GOT OF JAMIE ON THE BLACK CARPET ON AUGUST 12TH AT THE LOS ANGELES PREMIERE.
