ianababes asked you:

Hello! Is the film adaptation of The Mortal Instruments still on soon? Are Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower the official and final Clary and Jace? 

Yes. The film isn’t shooting, and until shooting (August 15) everything can still fall apart (she said helpfully.) But, basically, yes.

smokeandbone13 asked you:

How awesome would it be if Logan Lerman got to play simon and Nicholas Hoult play alec? I think all the fan girls would die of excitement before the movie even came out

shadow-wingsrebel asked you:

Hi! First of all, I love your books sooooooooooo much! :D Thank you for writing them. But what I really wanted to say is that a lot of people dont like Jamie as Jace, and want Alex Pettyfer. Personally I think that Jamie will be a perfect Jace :DDDD And Lily is beautiful and will be an amazing Clary!

Noo…people want Alex Pettyfer as Jace? I had no idea. ☺ 

I actually do know this - it’d be hard to miss! I don’t reblog fanart or graphics that use Alex, or anyone other than Jamie and Lily as Jace and Clary (uncast characters, I don’t mind either way, though I never reblog or link to any art that uses a white actor for Magnus, Jem or any other character of color) but it’s not like I’ve never seen it, or seen posts about the casting. And it’s not like I hold it against people who do feel like making graphics of Alex. I have a personal relationship with the producers and directors and casting director that would make it a weird thing for me to do, but you don’t.

The reason I put these two above questions together is because to me they fall under the Dangers of Fancasting topic. (Which makes it sound like there should be a warning movie, like The Dangers of Driving Drunk, where someone gets into a car and whee! plows into a tree moments after making a .gif of Logan Lerman.) I am old *waves cane* and I’ve watched a lot of beloved books get turned into movies — Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Twilight, The Hunger Games. And only once, ever, do I remember the fan favorite being cast. (Alan Rickman as Snape. And even then there were a lot of people who objected because he’s twenty years too old to play Snape, really. But he was so Snapey, it went over anyway. Sirius and Remus’ casting, though, was a bloodbath of horror. And the kids — oh, the kids! For you guys, from what I can tell, Dan and Emma and Rupert are your Harry, Hermione and Ron. But when they actually got cast, man, never have I seen adults go to town on a bunch of ten year olds in quite such a brutal way.)

 I can’t even remember who the fan favorites for Sirius and Remus were at this point, but it wasn’t Gary Oldman and David Thewlis. And while I love Logan Lerman and Nicholas Hoult, because they are both talented and adorable, a huge amount goes into casting — is the person available? Are they willing to be available, in the case of this series, for shooting for six years? (You have to assume that every book will be a movie, because if you don’t, you could lose that actor between films.) Do the director, the producers, and the casting director all agree on them? Do they even want the part? How’s their chemistry with the other actors? Are they willing to play a gay character? Did they promise their grandfather on his deathbed that they would never take a part in a film set in New York? There are so many factors that go into this stuff that it remains unpredictable and getting way attached to an actor before they’re cast can be dangerous, because…

youhadason asked you:

Does it fret you that so many people remain attached to Alex Pettyfer as Jace even though Jamie was cast? I personally think Jamie will do a much better job and Alex Pettyfer wouldn’t have made a good Jace, but that’s just me. Does it bother you that people keep saying that Jamie, who is a tall blond hot guy, doesn’t look like Jace, who is a tall blond hot guy?

People got very attached to Alex Pettyfer as Jace very early on — years ago, when he looked quite different. And when you’ve seen enough fanvids and graphics of someone they actually do become that character in your mind, which I think is actually a lot of what the “Jamie doesn’t look like Jace” stuff is. It’s not that he doesn’t look like Jace, it’s that he doesn’t look like Alex. If Jace looks like a particular person to you, a fixed image in your mind, then no, no one else will look like Jace to you. No one who isn’t in online fandom ever mentions Alex Pettyfer to me. And while I have absolutely nothing against Alex Pettyfer, and wish him entirely the best, he turned down the part of Jace (and Peeta in THG, and the lead in The Seventh Son) because he didn’t want to play teenagers any more; he felt he was too old. And I agree. Mostly when I see people use his image in .gifs as Jace, they’re many years old. He’s grown up from being a pretty boy into being a good-looking man — and that photo is a year old), but Jace, to me, is more boyish — and needs to be someone who can stay boyish-looking for potentially many more years. So no, I don’t think Alex Pettyfer would be the right choice for the role any more. You can feel free to disagree!

The great thing about imagination is that you can picture whatever you want when reading. The difficult thing about actual casting is everyone adjusting that mental picture. There’s always an adjustment period. It’s normal. So no, negative reactions don’t bother me aside from you know, the general sense that negativity is no one’s favorite thing. It’s to be expected and in fact, if it didn’t happen, the filmmakers would probably worry that no one cared. Indifference is much worse than complaints. For those bothered by complaints, that’s a useful thing to keep in mind.

thhe-simple-things asked you:

I love your series and all, believe me. But I was just wondering why Jamie Campbell was picked to play as “Jace Wayland”. In my opinion, I don’t think he was a good pick. He didn’t really match Jace in the book. I expected a guy like the person on the cover of The City of Lost Souls.

This is because fancasting and actual casting tend to value different things. Fancasting is about finding people who fit a sort of general consensus about what the characters look like. Casting is about finding someone who can be the character. Sure, Jace is described as hotter than a recordly hot day in Hottsville, but there are a lot of hot characters in books. Hopefully what makes him different is his Jaceness, and that’s what casting is supposed to capture. Jace has to be able to deliver those lines about how darn sexy he is in a self-deprecating way, or he doesn’t come off as funny, he comes off as an asshole. And what looks good in a still photo isn’t necessarily what works on screen, because what actors have to have is charisma and that means that they can convey beauty with the way they move, an expression, the flick of an eyelash. I see people on my tumblr dash every day going ga-ga over actors who would never make it as models because in still photos they just don’t look like much. But when they’re acting, they project it — they, as my screenwriter says, “shine.”

And that’s why Jamie was picked — out of literally hundreds of actors who auditioned — because he really did shine. Not that none of the other actors are/were good actors; different actors suit different parts, but his audition was the best. It was the most Jace. And this is why they don’t just randomly cast the guy from the front of the book. If all that mattered was exactly how people looked, why wouldn’t they cast basically every book to movie part with models, since there are a nearly infinite number of them and it would be extremely easy to match hair and eye color and height exactly to character descriptions? Fancasting is often a paint-by-numbers matchup to a character’s description. But casting isn’t, and it shouldn’t be. (Daniel Radcliffe wouldn’t be your Harry if it was — after all, his eyes aren’t green and he couldn’t wear contacts to fix that, which was about half the giant uproar when he was actually cast. Rupert wouldn’t be Ron, he’s not that tall. Emma wouldn’t be Hermione; she doesn’t have buck teeth. Etc.)

kaylilewitch asked you:

Hi, just because I’m a very curious, yet impatient reader, I’m very anxious to know who they have cast for Valentine in the movie production. Do you think you could possibly tell?

Sure. They haven’t cast Valentine yet. I believe they have offers out to people. I wouldn’t even know which people. I am a terrible source of movie casting news. I am totally unlikely to know anything before, say, Deadline knows it. I’m not the person who announced either Jamie or Lily’s casting — newspapers did that. If you google for the info and you can’t find it, there’s a zero chance I’m going to know it. I understand why it seems like I ought to, but that’s not how movies work.

I promise to tell you when I have casting news I can share. That’s all I can promise. Believe me, if you’re eager for casting news, so am I. We will have to be patient together.

I should have some other, interesting news for you in the next few days though (non casting related.) Stay tuned for that. :)