Robert Sheehan Interview The Mortal Instruments City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments City of Bones opens on 21st August, based on the bestselling fantasy book series by Cassandra Clare. Stars Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower and Robert Sheehan joined director Harold Zwart in London for a press conference with fans. Check out what Misfits star Robert Sheehan in particular had to say about his role as Clary’s Mundane best friend Simon.

Was Simon a fun character for you to play?

There’s always comedy to be juiced from being the guy at the back of the group who isn’t doing any of the slaying, who’s doing all the cowering. Also tumbling into this world and being the normal eyes on this very very abnormal world. You get to frown and ask “What the hell is going on?” every five or ten minutes. The audience do in truth need someone like that. It’s my character and it’s also Lily’s character Clary. We’re very much the normal people tumbling into this crazy world. But yeah it was lovely fun. The good thing about Simon was Harold (the director) saying it’s got to be real. My instinct tends to be towards performance (gives crazy jazz hands), towards gesticulating wildly in every other direction. You may have seen it in my other works…  But it was the director reining me back saying it has got to be absolutely real. This guy is very normal, somewhat elitist and bookish. It was a new discovery for me; it was very fun and very enjoyable.

What kind of training did you have to do to get into shape for the film?

My training was very much sleep… just sleep in. Have a good sleep. The rest of them are going to go and do some stunt choreography for a bit. You just show up for the filming bit and put a t-shirt on, or take it off. Ladies that also happened!

What’s it like being part of such a popular franchise that already has a big fanbase?

The others have been on more of a promotional tour than me, because I’ve been working on a small film. But I was at comic con and then the LA press, then Toronto. Even just that has turned me upside down, it’s been fairly hysterical. There’s been a feverish anticipation among the fans and whenever we show up for a premiere there’s been hundreds of fans who have been waiting there for like 12 hours camped out. It absolutely bowls me over. I remember we were in Toronto and we’d done some stuff then the next day we did morning television and I promptly went back to bed afterwards. I got back up and having done a premiere the night before the thoughts of another one ahead was…just the thought of mustering the enthusiasm. But the thing was once I got there the fanaticism and the energy just coasted me along, it was infectious due to the fans.  For me thankfully adrenaline has kicked in in the key moments. Like right now for example. It’s been a an absolute eye opener.

Comic con was my first direct experience of the expectation. I’m not a very savvy social media person. I’m not on checking the traffic. I don’t know how to use Twitter very well. So it was there that I first realised wow the anticipation is huge. Since then it’s been building and building. When we show up to premieres it’s almost like Beatlemanina. We get out of our cars and there’s like hundreds of people there screaming. It’s very hard to compute at times.

Rob what’s the reaction been to your latest project Love Hate?

Well to be honest since Love Hate has come on English TV I’ve not been here I’ve been on the continent. I’ve been away working. So all the reaction I’ve been hearing about has been remote.  But certainly as regards to the show being an honest depiction of the Irish gangster underworld, honestly even though I’m in the show I’m not an authority to ask on that subject. I didn’t approach the role in any methodical way; I didn’t spend any time with real members of the Irish criminal underworld. What is is.. it’s fairly honest in the sense that a lot of the storylines that Love Hate has, have been taken somewhat form the Irish media about stories that have happened and modified slightly. They’ve changed and been dramatized but there is a basis of honesty for a lot of the crime the characters undergo. There’s a lot of honesty in what they do because these things have actually happened and been reported in the media. The rest is just good writing by one man who straps himself to the beats and writes the whole thing. It’s one man who’s written all three series. But that’s about as much evidence as I can give about that.

There’s a lot of elaborate CGI and special effects in the film what was it like to work with that?

That was a luxury of being a mundane in this movie. I wasn’t laboured down with any of the shadow hunter technology in this movie. Though if Harold ever writes a book there’ll be a whole chapter on how to scare an actor, without using too much CGI.

If you could choose to draw a rune in real life what would it be?

I’d make the get up in the morning rune. To be completely awake! That’s one thing I could really do with, to get my motor running in the morning without heavy amounts of caffeine. If I could draw that on myself every morning! Even after eight hours of sleep I’ll wake up and for the first few hours I’ll have one eye closed and nearly be hit by a bus. If I could be one of those morning people that would be a great rune to have.

What was your favourite costume to wear?

My Nike high tops! Grey, pink very cool and very vintage.

At the heart of this big fantasy adventure is quite a relatable love triangle. What was it like to work on that aspect of the story as Simon?

I think the thing with Simon is that even as he’s tumbling into this crazy other world, in a way Clary is very much his focus. She’s the hand that he’s holding onto. It’s funny that as he’s experiencing this world the thing which irks him the most isn’t the downworlders and the demonic forces, it’s the fact that Clary is falling for this other guy. That’s the thing for Simon, because he’s probably I think an old romantic, the he’s seeing this happen and that’s the subtext for his journey, until he puts his hand to the fire and declares his love for her. So that was nice because that’s his focus and that’s his thread throughout this world.

Director Interview The Mortal Instruments City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments City of Bones opens on 21st August, based on the bestselling fantasy book series by Cassandra Clare. Stars Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower and Robert Sheehan joined director Harold Zwart in London for a press conference with fans. Check out what the director in particular  had to say about working on the poplar new franchise.

Was the fact that the film has such a strong female lead one of the things that attracted to you to this project?

You could say that Karate Kid was a bit for my son and this one was a bit for Stella my daughter. She needs some good role models. She’s way too young to see the movie, but she saw it before the monsters were added so she loved it then. Now I think she’s going to be a bit terrified!

Speaking of which what made you decide to make particular the action so adult and at times scary?

People ask me didn’t you consider your audience before you made it, but I really wanted to make a great movie that I’d enjoy watching too. I think to dumb things down just because people are younger… I don’t think I’d do that. I think they can take quite a few things. I think audiences are much more sophisticated than when I was younger. Which isn’t that long ago by the way! I think people like to be scared. I was constantly thinking what would I show my own kids, I think it’s fine so long as there’s not too much gore and blood, or girls in jeopardy which I think can get too boring after a while. I think they can absolutely take a few good jumps and I was inspired by the exorcist and the thing. I love the idea of something evil cracking apart and trying to reassemble itself. I just tried to make it as realistic as possible.

Can you tell us about the casting process?

Lily was already on board when I decided to do the movie and in truth she was part of why I wanted to do the movie. Jamie was always a hot candidate for Jace. I was aware of some of the chit chat out there and absolutely ignored that. I thought that was totally irrelevant. I thought he was perfect for the part. In my mind I always think about something I learned from advertising. You shouldn’t give people what they want they deserve so much better. I thought the two of them were already perfect. Robbie didn’t look anything like Simon o we had to do some work with the glasses and I thought Robbie did a fantastic job with his accent which was completely convincing. These guys were already the hottest candidates and I had conversations with Cassandra and we all looked at the chatter online and we thought, we’re going to go for the ones we think is best.

As for people like Jared Harris and Lena Heady, we just wanted to fill the film with the best actors possible like the Harry Potter series. No matter how tiny the part is we wanted really great actors delivering lines with the biggest conviction. Alec also is a complex character and I think Kevin Zegers does it very well.

Funnily enough Isabelle was one of the interesting characters. Doing these film’s in Hollywood you get presented with the ‘hotties’ and we id reading with the ‘hotties’. But we wanted her to be more than just that, none of them were Isabelle, so we looked high and low and finally we found Germina in Paris.  She’s an incredible right idea. She was a very smart, intelligent, tough and matter of fact kind of girl.

So I felt all the way very confident in what I wanted and I had the support of the author. So we pretty much ignored what some of the fans thought. Overall there was a great response to Jamie, it wasn’t a lot of fans but it was just as he said that those few suddenly had a very powerful voice through the media. I guess so you just have to trust your own instincts.

What’s it like being part of such a popular franchise that already has a big fanbase?

I went to a book signing with Cassandra at the LA book festival with my wife. We went past the next building and we saw this massive line and we thought, what are all those people wanting for? Then we went inside and we realised that line around that building connected with the one into ours and they were all waiting there for us. It was the first time I ever saw these screaming fans. Then they got up and asked questions and they were really smart intelligent questions. I thought the way Cassandra deals with them too was like a stand-up comedian. She just keeps them laughing and she answers back and gives them attitude. She’s just a very cool lady.