When reading the books I pictured Luke Mitchell (John from The Tomorrow People) I had been watching that show recently and the description in the book of Jace just made me think of him. But when watching the film I quite quickly felt comfortable with Jamie as Jace. Although I have to admit it did feel different from the books, but that's not to say bad, just different.
Jamie talks about that himself in interviews where he is aware in the books Jace is a much lighter character; he has a witty, snarky arrogance about him as well as that darker self-loathing side. But that would be incredibly difficult to portray in the space of 2 hours without making Jace appear to have some sort of multiple-personality disorder.
He's basically saying there just isn't the screen time for him to fully communicate Jace's personality from the books in a way that would feel genuine. Jamie has said in interviews that he made the choice to portray his darker side more than the snarky, arrogant side to give the scene where he opens up to Clary more power. Sadly that power was sucked away again by the God awful Demi Lovato track swelling in the background. *rolls eyes*
That said, despite him saying that I think he did a good job of showing that Jace is both a sarcastic joker and quite dark and troubled. Just the few lines of snark in the first half of the film gave enough of a taster of that side of him and gets it across that Jace isn't just your a-typical moody teenager with daddy issues. So Jamie deserves a lot of credit for managing that with what little he had to work with.
Anyway...
It is really quite saddening to see so many lynch Jamie for his looks; not being attractive enough, not being buff enough, not being Alex Pettyfer enough. He's such a sweet guy, to see everyone become so terribly abusive towards him genuinely made me feel for him. Which is weird, because he is a freakin' part-time model - he clearly is aware he is an attractive young man, but having SO many people buzz around the internet telling you you're not good enough can't feel nice for him.
What's so silly is that in the books Jace is described as being beautiful, not conventionally attractive with a square jaw and chiselled face (which is Alex Pettyfer all over) angelic and ethereal. Feminine features in men is often a mark of beauty and attractiveness - and Jamie certainly has that androgynous look down to a tee.
I saw him state in an interview that fans need to recognise that judging people on their appearance without seeing them perform the role is quite a cruel thing to do, and that spewing all this hatred without any real reason can be hurtful. He qualifies that he wasn't hurt by it, but I dunno... the fact he goes onto say he keeps a fan made book filled with photos of fans holding posters saying "Jamie is Jace" and takes it everywhere with him kinda shows it did affect him possibly more than he was willing to admit.
So please, try to remember the person you're talking about in that way is a real person who may very well read the hurtful, judgemental things you are saying one day.
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