Wrong Casting Choice for Jace


I love this book series. When I heard they were making the movie, I truly hoped that Alex Pettyfer would be cast as Jace. I think he would have been excellent. And apparently the producers/director or whoever agreed, since Alex was the first choice. I'm really disappointed that he turned down the role. I think he would have made the movie 100 times better. Jamie Campbell Bower kind of ruined Jace for me. If City of Ashes is made, I hope they recast Jace. As annoying as recasting is normally, I think it would improve the movie overall.

-Lizzie Belle-

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I have to respectfully disagree :) JCB is the perfect Jace, in my humble opinion. Physically and otherwise. I originally pictured Alex pettyfer, but JCB did the job with a crappy script to work with.

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I personally LOVED JCB as Jace. I agree at first I had my doubts, but I fell in love with him in the movie- and now I can't picture anyone else. I suggest youtubing some of his interviews! Extremely charming and fun personally that will make you fall in love with him :)

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I absolutely agree with you! I enjoyed the books and the movie was mostly satisfactory but what ruined it for me was Bower. He's just so creepy and gaunt; he looks more like one of the undead than the romantic hero. When he tries to suck out Lily's tonsils in the kissing scene I just wanted to barf. I find Simon annoying in the books but in the movie he was just adorable and I would have preferred her ending up with him. You know your movie is in trouble when the nerdy best friend is more appealing than the hero. I also found myself hoping they would recast Jace, though I doubt that will happen, if the film happens at all.

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I thought Jace was fine in the movie... but the movie lacked something for me. I enjoyed it quite a lot... but some of the plot was very confusing and didn't seem to really add up.

I have recently just read the books now and by god, I wish they had kept to the original story. I don't see the need for them to have changed pretty much the last 3/4 of the book. I don't want to spoil it for you all so I will not mention plots. However, from what I could make of the movie, there was so much that was not explained, or explained well, visually or verbally on screen. Especially the end - I found it rather silly where Hodge called on the Demons then tried to redeem himself... And bringing the wards down? They have now downplayed the wards breaking at Idis in the third book

I found Alec to be much too striking, which probably had more to do with the costume department not downplaying his looks.

Simon was great in the movie. Luke was fine, though absolutely not how I have re-imagined him in the books since reading. But I like that actor anyhow, and I found it funny he portrayed a vampire in Being Human, and was now a Werewolf in City of Bones lol.

I think what they wanted from the actor that portrayed Jace was the whole alienating look, the angelic beauty he radiated, and let's face it, he carried it well with the long hair. I just think he needed to eat more and pack some more muscle on lol.

Magnus I found ok at the time... but after reading the books he was totally not as flamboyant or magnificent as Magnus Bane The Magnificent in the books. And where was the blue hair!?

Valentine, the first time I saw the movie, did not appear threatening or particularly devious as I would have thought him to be. Definitely not as clever, or influential as he was in the book, now that I have read it. Nor as insane.

I do hope they keep Simon's little jokes though. I like the DND and WOW references. :)


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I think what they wanted from the actor that portrayed Jace was the whole alienating look, the angelic beauty he radiated, and let's face it, he carried it well with the long hair. I just think he needed to eat more and pack some more muscle on lol.


Holy crap I just said the same thing in another thread. JCB lost too much weight and there were 2 scenes that they filmed after the actual filming were done and he looked much better . It looked like he put n a couple of pounds and it helped to fill in his cheek bones. I thought he did a fine job however, his hair was an issue for me. He needed to wash it.

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JCB - excellent choice. Tall and thin, thin yes, JCB did play the role with gusto, like him in TMI: City of Bones, heck, liked the cast.

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I thought he was a good choice for Jace. I liked all of the male casting choices. I thought Isabelle and Clary were poorly cast. I thought of Isabelle as more of an Amazon build when I read the books, she's meant to be a bigger, stronger build than Clary. I thought Ellen Page would have made a good Clary, and Phoebe Tonkin would have been a good Isabelle.

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OOH Phoebe Tonkins would be a great Isabelle

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Twilight fans felt the same way about RPatz in the role of Edward Cullen.

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Hate hate hate Jamie!!!! Goes to show you businessmen have no authority at trying to be creative.

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I loved him. He was the best thing about the movie.

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I agree. The wrong guy. I'm sure there are a lot of teenage girls that think he's hot, but to me he is borderline ugly and certainly not manly.

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He looked hot in the Twilight movies, but he was the wrong choice for Jace. They should have gotten someone with more angelic looks and he was too skinny to pull of the shirtless thing.

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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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