We sat down with him - along with fellow fansites Fangirlish, TMI Movie News, and TMI Institute. He's a great man.
Can we just talk about how awesome you are in this movie?
JCB: Stop it. You guys liked it then?
You were awesome. We loved it. You seriously brought Jace...
JCB: 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.
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.
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.
I mean, it's got to be good to hear though. I mean, point blank, the
fans were mean to you at the 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 others
were sitting behind us, and they were like, "Holy sh*t. 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,
"F*ck 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 f*cking stinks like
sh*t, 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.
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.
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.
It was seriously so much fun walking 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?
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 think it'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."
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. It was perfect.
JCB: It's a great moment. Aw, I'm glad you guys... I'm
really happy. I'm really happy.
So, Jace is kind of a jerk.
JCB: Yeah, a little bit [laughs].
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.
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, or do you feel like Jace...?
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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