Cassandra Clare posted an entry to her LiveJournal blog on her thoughts of Jamie being cast as Jace!So, yes, it's true: Jamie Campbell-Bower has been cast as Jace. I am thoroughly, totally, extremely, and utterly delighted!
Now, most of what I feel like I should say I said in my interview with Hollywood Crush. But a few more notes:
So, as it says in big letters on my website, I don't choose the actors for the movie. {For those of you, happily not very many, who have asked me to "reconsider" one or both of the casting choices — I do not have the power to do that even if I wanted to, which I don't. That is what it means to sell movie rights. It's like asking me to go tell the people I sold my last house to to repaint their living room, even though I no longer own the house, because you don't like the color.]
So no, I don't choose the actors, but the people who do have an enormous amount invested in finding the right one. They had casting calls in multiple countries. Then there was quite an incredible process of first just auditioning, and then auditioning for the director, and then finally auditioning with the main star (in this case, Lily Collins). Screen Gems auditioned an enormous number of people for this part, known and unknown. I first heard about Jamie when I heard from the producers that he had done an amazing read for the director. I don't know how on their radar he had been before, but I know that was enough to have him brought back to test with Lily. And that was the audition they sent me to watch.
Which I replied to with, I believe, the one word unfuckingbelievable. (Sorry for the swearing.)
He was Jace, down to the snark, and the vulnerability, and the humor and the romantic side. (You'll be happy to know one of the scenes in the audition was the "greenhouse scene", and the chemistry between Jamie and Lily was intense.) So then after that I just sat around and hoped they picked him. There were other actors in the mix (names I think you largely wouldn't recognize, at least not in a discussion of the casting for this film) and I wanted Jamie but — beyond saying I liked him, I knew I was the smallest cog in a big machine. For casting a lead role like this, all the producers (there are like eight, nine of them), the financial guys, the head of the studio, all have to agree that this guy is the best.
And they did.
So I feel lucky, kind of in that way where you might if you put a quarter in a gumball machine, hoped for a blue gumball, and got it. YAY blue gumball. But it could have gone another way.
So just to answer some quick questions I've gotten on Twitter, and then everything else is pretty much in the Hollywood Crush article:
1) When did I know Jamie was cast?
Pretty much when you all did, when I woke up and saw all the articles. I called the studio to confirm.
2) What does Lily think of him? Do they have chemistry?
They have amazing chemistry.
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3) Who are they going to cast next?
I don't know. My guess would be Alec or Simon but that's just a slightly informed guess.
4) Will it take as long to cast the next characters?
Things should go faster from here on out. We're still in pre-production — things really start blasting ahead in production. Which leads to the next question...
5) When will the movie be out?
I don't know. Production start date isn't set yet.
6) Will Jamie be wearing eyeliner and have long hair in the movie?
I had no idea what this was about until I remembered oh yeah, he is in a band, and some of the pictures of him online feature him with eyeliner. Which can be removed. I do it every day! They'll cut his hair, they'll work him out, they'll give him contacts — if you can't imagine how that's going to look, then just think of other movie transformations you've seen in your life. And Jamie is already a tall, blond, hot guy, so he doesn't have that far a road to travel.
Now I know there will be some people happy about this as I am, and a lot reserving judgment, and some who are unhappy. This is always the way of things with books-turned-movies casting. (I am ancient enough to remember the furor and petitions over Dan Radcliffe and Tom Felton and they were only, what, eleven years old?) You have every right to feel the way you feel and to do whatever you feel like you need to do. No actor choice can possibly make everyone happy, because everyone's personal vision of the characters is their own. And that vision belongs to you, and nobody and nothing should change it. I think when people see Jamie as Jace they'll be happy and surprised as I was. After all, to quote an unnamed person I showed the audition tape to:
"One: you have just won the lottery. Two: He must keep the British accent."
I guess we'll see about that last one. :) It could happen.
