Video: Robert Sheehan interviews with Page to Premiere at San Diego Comic-Con

Robert Sheehan talks with Page to Premiere's Kimmy West in an exclusive one-on-one interview at San Diego Comic-Con. In the interview you will see Robbie joke about his reservations before diving into the expectations a book to movie adaptation typically brings, his laziness to social media sites in which he confesses his preference to "speak to people by the mouth," the hots he has for co-star Jemima West who plays his love interest later on in the Mortal Instruments series, Isabelle Lightwood,  his favorite line from the film, and a special message urging viewers, among other things, to read The Mortal Instruments! 

Don't forget to watch until the very end of the video for some off the wall interview moments with Robert Sheehan - I am particularly bias towards the time frame 6:20 to 6:54 - Why is that so? Well, I was playing cameraman during this particular interview, and even behind the camera lens I couldn't resist Robert Sheehan's piercing green eyes and charming personality - especially so when he tells me I'm gorgeous! 

Watch Robbie's charisma in the video below as he talks about The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones:

What is your favorite interview moment from this video? Let us know in the comments below! 

The Guardian interviews Robert Sheehan on 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones' and more

The Guardian's Megan Connor got up close and personal with Irish actor Robert Sheehan, engaging in an off the wall interview from Sheehan's persistency in his auditioning for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones' Simon Lewis, to celebratory plane-ride drinks, his acting, and upcoming roles we can expect to see him in.  

"Sheehan, who did not undertake any formal training, is outspoken, prides himself on being self-taught and makes his own views on drama schools clear: "For me, acting is a personal thing. Someone telling you how to act the same way as everyone else – they can go fuck themselves, basically."

"As it went, it took him the audition and six or seven further tapes, made and sent to the US off his own bat, to ensure he got the role [of Simon Lewis in the upcoming adaptation of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones]. "I cannot stress enough how much I persisted," he laughs. "With any film of that scale there's a committee that has a very specific idea of what they're looking for, but I just kept thinking that if I showed them something else, maybe they'd want that instead."

 Robert Sheehan, putting everything he has, into every role he's given. With nearly two weeks left until The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones hits theaters, fans everywhere cannot wait to see that "something else" that Robert had brought into the role of Simon Lewis.

What does one handsome green-eyed Irish man with a mop of curls atop his head do in honor of finishing up a highly anticipated audition process? Naturally, the charismatic Robert Sheehan, another auditionee, and a newlywed couple they met on the plane had a few drinks, or two, or enough for the flight attendants to confiscate the whisky, only to be returned once the flight had ended. After officially landing the role of Simon Lewis, Robert re-opened that bottle of whisky to celebrate only to find out that whoever had confiscated his whisky, had poured salt in it, ruining it - rude.  

To read the full interview by Megan Connor, click the link HERE!

Tell us what you are most looking forward to seeing Robert bring into the role of Simon in the comments below!    

NEW INTERVIEW: 'Mortal Instruments' star Robert Sheehan is one to watch

Mr Robert Sheehan peers into the bottom of his cup, brow furrowed in disappointment. "Would you look at that!" he says, displaying the remnants of his soya latte. "My coffee's gone! It was just froth."

It's a hot and sticky day in central London - hardly rollneck and double-breasted blazer weather, despite what the photographs above would have you think - and we've ducked into London's Institute for Contemporary Arts in search of shade. In cut-off denim shorts and yellow moccasins and with his dark hair tied back, the 25-year-old actor is virtually unrecognisable from the shoot that took place just a short time ago. Out of the sun and away from the camera lens, he's finally able to relax.

"Forget keeping your feet on the

ground - you can't sing the humble

song all your life. It's counterintuitive

to being an actor"

"I'm quite tempted to have a beer, you know," he goes on. "Shall we? I've seen yours and got a bit jealous." He doesn't take long to talk himself into it - it's a sunny day, after all, and well gone noon - and before long we're trotting dutifully back to the bar. "It might even be a good idea, actually," he adds. "I was planning on going back after this to have a siesta."

"Oh I looove a siesta," purrs the barmaid in a thick Spanish accent, overhearing us. "Really?" Mr Sheehan perks up. "Would you like to have a siesta with me? We could cuddle. It'd be nice." Did he really just say that? The rogue. It's a typical example of the audacious Irish charm that won him so many fans in his star-making turn in the BAFTA-winning Misfits (if you haven't seen it, "Nathan's Best Moments: Season 1" on YouTube should serve as a quick-fire introduction). But as I'm soon to discover, there's much more to the young actor than that.

Mr Sheehan's poor PR agent doesn't quite know what to think as we pass him on the way back. "Have you finished the interview?" he asks, with a hint of anxiety. "Oh, we're just having a craic," comes the reply. Craic - pronounced "crack", and Irish for banter, roughly speaking - seems a fairly accurate summary of the interview so far; half an hour in, my question sheet remains untouched. Not that we've been sitting in silence: topics of discussion have included Ms Paloma Faith, who Mr Sheehan interviewed recently for Hunger, Rankin's glossy biannual; the benefits of Sudocrem; the west coast of Ireland ("I will not dispel any Father Tedassumptions! If anything, I will enforce them!"); how to dress for parties, and much more. Despite this meandering, tangential approach, though, conversation always seems to drift inexorably back to one thing: acting.

When it comes to his chosen trade, Mr Sheehan has a knowledge that's matched only by his enthusiasm. He recounts highlights of his acting career passionately and at length, from an early performance in The Cripple of Inishmaan - "we rehearsed it in a community hall in a small village called Shanahoe" - to his more recent role in the gritty, critically acclaimed crime drama Love/Hate, which has become one of the most successful Irish TV shows ever made. He's passionate about Irish theatre, too, singing the praises of his friend, Mr Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, who he recently saw in Dublin performing Mr Mark O'Rowe's one-man show, Howie the Rookie. But it's his latest film - the one that we are ostensibly here to discuss - that has the potential to thrust Mr Sheehan into a much larger, brighter spotlight: the three-part fantasy drama, The Mortal Instruments. Hailed as the next Twilight, it certainly has the credentials; the book series on which the films are based has collectively spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list, and what's more, it's aimed squarely and unabashedly at the prime "young-adult" market. "To be honest, your readers - they're not the target demographic. This film ain't gonna be for them," he laughs. But he's still keen to talk it up. "I was really pleased with the tone of it; it doesn't take itself too seriously. I haven't seen Twilight, but those characters certainly seem very serious about something. And that's fine, but The Mortal Instruments is not that. It's teenagers being irreverent about stuff that they don't understand."

The first instalment, City of Bones, is released in August, and Mr Sheehan is already signed up for the remaining two parts. If the hype proves justified and this series does for its stars what the Twilight series did for Mr Robert Pattinson and co, will smaller, home-grown projects such as Love/Hate have to take a backseat? Mr Sheehan hopes not. "The landscape has shifted," he explains. Television always used to be ranked below film, and it used to be the case that you'd aim to work your way from one to the other. But things have changed. Everyone responds to a brilliant TV script as much as to a brilliant film script now. So while I might have to leave some of that stuff behind, you know, the movie business is not the be-all and end-all."

And does he worry about keeping his feet on the ground? "I say, forget keeping your feet on the ground," he grins. "Go, man! You can't sing the humble song all your life. It's counterintuitive to being an actor. Of course nobody wants to be seen as a prick," he concludes. "And it's not like I'm ungrateful. But I'd rather be seen as a prick temporarily than a bad actor permanently."

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones hits theaters on August 21st!

Interview and Photos were found at MR PORTER

SET EXCLUSIVE: 'Mortal Instruments' star Robert Sheehan on playing Simon Lewis

How many guys does it take to convince a group of women to run off to Nevada and get married? When you are Robert Sheehan, it just takes one.
And for all of us sitting in the center of the City of Bones while on The Mortal Instruments set in Toronto last fall, it was easy to see why the Irish actor tapped to play Simon Lewis has such a huge following for his work on shows like Misfits and Love/Hate.

Witty Robert

Robert, who had signed all of our copies of City of Bones before we met up with him on set, had some of the funniest things to say in his autographs. From asking several to marry him (which brought on the group marriage offer) to just telling us he loved us, we were more than easily won over by his quick wit, warm personality and great understanding of the importance of his portrayal of Simon to the fans that love him.
To me, seeing Robert in that signature Made in Brooklyn shirt, glasses overshadowing gorgeous, intense eyes and the most epic red kicks that I still think about today, I felt even more connected to Simon at that moment. I'd just watched the first season of Misfits and was itching to get a Nathan reference out of him, but it was even important to me to ask him what he enjoyed most about playing Simon.
TMI INSTITUTE: I know that all the fans that I’ve talked to absolutely love you for this role and so what is the best part in playing this character?
ROBERT: There are so many, you know. I’m not just saying that, but it might be the fact that this story is already loved, and it’s already out there and it’s quite exciting, and quite weird to even sign Cassandra’s book because it feels like she’s put a beautiful book together and a beautiful story and here we are kind of clumsily signing it, “yea yea, thanks for reading”. But it’s nice that there’s this kind of mass of people that love this story already. And it does feel like your entering into that harem just by playing the character and being accepted, and it certainly feels like I’ve been accepted already by the feedback that I got and the films not even out yet. I could have made absolute balls of it. But no, it feels very welcoming I think playing this character and I’ve never gone into something which has had such prior knowledge before. I’ve done character in books but not any book to this epic scale. And that’s quite pleasing, quite comforting.
HYPABLE: What have been the biggest challenges playing Simon? Did you reference the book as a tool to build your character?
ROBERT: I was being surrounded by the hotshot action movie stars out there and they being very cool and very active amongst the action and me having to kind of, remain somewhat passive, that for some reason, is almost as exhausting as you were, you know, I’m not just saying that, not trying to big myself up but it’s an exhausting thing.
PAGE TO PREMIERE: What was your favorite scene that you’ve shot so far?
ROBERT: Umm, I really liked the conversational stuff that I share with Lily’s character Clary because you know this film is beautiful and epic and magical and big but there still exists in the film an arc of a relationship breaking down and then rebuilding essentially between Clary and Simon. And we shot a scene basically where Simon declares his love for someone. But yea we have a lovely scene where I kind of catch Clary and Jace in missionary, right there in the corridor no. But I catch them and it kind of crystallized what hasn’t been said between the three of us for the last while since we got together.  So then I kind of, in a round-about way declare my love to her and then I storm out. It was a beautifully written scene and essentially it was an argument between two people. Despite the fact they’re surrounded by this magical world it’s about these kind of unspoken feelings and it felt really real and quite dramatic and I think movies like these need those kind of scenes in order to feel real, you know?
NEXT MOVIE: How much of a leap was it for you to step into this crazy world after being a part of Misfits and does anything supernatural surprise you anymore?
ROBERT: Well Misfits was like the only, Wait no, I’m trying to think. I’ve done a couple Sci-fi things. Misfits was about 3 years ago and since then I’ve done, well not any sci-fi stuff you know but it feels like a long time ago but I also know that here  it’s kind of just coming out or becoming popular which is great but yea. Everything Sci-fi, to be honest everything normal surprises me. You know, sometimes I look up at the sky and go god that’s weird. Something doesn’t have to be in the sci-fi genre in order to inspire or shock me. I suppose having that experience in sci-fi with Misfits , Misfits wasn’t sci-fi, Misfits was the odd brain child of a great strange man called Howard Overman who thought of the weirdest stuff you could possibly think and put it in a T.V. show and that’s what Misfits became. It was important to him and the show as well but that show always worked without the powers just about some people having a dysfunctional life and the powers almost became the manifestation of insecurities.
MUNDIE MOMS: What was your first impression of Simon either when you read the book or when you read the script?
ROBERT: I read an earlier draft of the script; Simon represented what was normal in Clary’s life. It seems like he’s the representation of the life she gets taken away from by discovering her magical abilities. I read the script several months ago, and in one draft Simon doesn’t get taken along for the ride, which is in God’s hands, and it’s great for me because I don’t get taken along for the ride. But she returns back to some resemblance of a normal life, back to her home. It felt like Simon was very much the foundation of her normality because he’s been  her best friend all these years and yea he just developed in the script to a little bit of a rock for her and all the while harboring these feelings of love. I think he’s the only normal perspective in a world full of magical people, including Clary, everyone is magical in some way and he is essentially the only normal guy in the script and I think that’s very important in the script because you go off the deep end quite quickly and magically and it’s nice to have a normal guy perspective on everything. Trying to digest what he’s seeing happen so quickly and that’s really what he represented in the script for me.
BOOKSHELF BANTER: What do you have most in common with Simon’s character?
ROBERT: I think Simon is a pioneer of counter culture, he’s very much like a bohemian guy and that’s very much what I am. In that sense I’m drawn to things that define themselves by being on the fringe; culturally, musically, theatrically all that stuff. I think that’s how young people find each other a lot of times by what kind of culture they are interested in, what they have in common. He feels very much like a New York kid who is constantly discovering things. New York being a hotbed of creativity. The fact that he’s in bands, and he’s just kind of reaching out creatively all the time and I’m drawn to people like that. And I’d like to think I am one of those.
TMI SOURCE: So what do you love most about The Mortal Instruments?
ROBERT: This is because of Cassandra Clare first and foremost, but there’s a real sense of tangential adventure about the series in the sense that it feels like a character falling down the rabbit hole. Much in the wonderful inhibited sense of adventure and unpredictability about the books and about the script. I read the scripts first and that’s what I really felt was quite amazing and fantastic and filming that kind of stuff as an actor, it’s the absolute best. Every single day there’s a new color and a new bit of the tapestry. I like the general gist of the adventures in the script and obviously the series.
FANGIRLISH: Is it hard to bring a character to life that people love so much and are invested in to the big screen?
ROBERT: Yea, I was thinking about this the other day when I got asked this and you can only really have one interpretation of the character and put that out there and the thing about books and the thing about adaptations being a disappointment to people is that every single person has a different image of what Simon is and how they see him. You can only do your best to please the people who love the book and do it from where you think is the best place. If I got caught up in trying to interpret how the fans might like the character the best I think I’d go crazy so I’m just kind of taking my interpretation and hoping for the best really.
TMI MOVIE NEWS: The book is good for teens and its good for adults, and I think that Simon is an integral relation to that. From your perspective, how will this movie appeal to teens and adults?
ROBERT: I think in the script they wanted to mature the characters I think in age and also the fact that they are having these relationships. So I think the relationship, certainly the triangle of love if you will call it is quite a complex one and one that will appeal to people because it’s very well written and its quite a classic love triangle in the sense that there’s the younger quieter character and then there’s the blossoming love and so on. It’s written in such a way that it’s not in my opinion Twilighty. It’s actually very real and it just happens in some little conversations between friends and I think the relationship side of this between brother and sister or Alec and Jace they’re written quite maturely and that I liked a lot about the script and I think that’s why it will appeal or certainly please adults because they won’t feel like they’re being patronized and then teenagers also same thing because teenagers are adults in my opinion, they’re just people that are younger you know, it’s the exact same for me adults and teens alike. I always knew when I was a teenager when I was being patronized or spoken down to and I think a lot of movies do that because they think their demographic is stupider than them you know? Like they think people from 12-18 can’t grasp certain concepts when in fact of course they can. So umm, I think the movie will appeal to adults and teens absolutely the same. Maybe teens possibly more because they’re more absorbent and more influenced by the things they like so you never know.
Thinking back to meeting Robert, he was different - much more serious than I'd ever seen him in other interviews. I chalk that up to being surrounded by an intimidating group of super fans of the series. He did well under pressure, don't you think? Check out the other set interviews below and look for our interview with Jemima West and Kevin Zegers tomorrow at 3pm ET/12 PT.

Cassandra Clare
Jamie Campbell Bower
Kevin Zegers and Jemima West

Cassandra Clare talks faithfulness of THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS film adaptation and Silent Brothers with Sci Fi Now!

Sci Fi Now got a chance to talk with Cassandra Clare about faithfulness of The Mortal Instruments film adaptation. They also talked the Silent Brothers and her involvement with the film. 

Do you think the film is true to the book?

I feel like it stays pretty true to the spirit of the books. There are some things that have to be compressed and altered because otherwise it would be a 10 hour movie, which I would watch but no one else would. From what I’ve seen in terms of the casting, the costumes and the sets, it looks like they’re trying to stick as close to what was described in the book as possible.

What haven’t you seen yet that you are looking forward to?

I really want to see what the demons look like, I haven’t done yet because that’s mostly special effects, but I also want to see Magnus’ party!

How involved were you?

I was talking to one of the producers and I asked for the casting director’s phone number and he was like ‘Sure!’ and I thought ‘Gad, didn’t nobody give you the memo you’re not supposed to give me that? Fine, alright, I’ll take it!’ I called her and we talked for hours, we would talk every day for months and I had access to theservers and watched everyone’s auditions and we all got a vote on the casting. [Director] Harold [Zwart] ran by the set designs and costume, the more they consulted me the more confident I felt about the movie.

Do we meet the Silent Brothers in the film?

We do get to see the Silent Brothers and it was really fun to be on set with them because they were completely covered in prosthetic make-up. They have their eyes and lips sewn shut, so there’s all these really tall guys on set with all the prosthetics on their faces and then we go to lunch and they can’t eat, so they had these tiny juice boxes in the corner of their mouths, so there’s this long line of terrifying looking dudes in robes all sucking little monster juice boxes. That was awesome (laughs).

You can see The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones in theaters on August 23.