Cassandra Clare answers casting question about adult characters in TMI movie

This was posted on Tumblr:

“Hi Cassie! :) So we’ve all been talking about casting news that includes Magnus, Alec, and Simon, but not so much on Hodge, Luke, Jocelyn, and Valentine. I was just going to ask, did any big stars audition for the adult roles?

— s0muchskill ”

For the adult roles, people don’t so much audition. When you’re a younger actor, you tend to have less of a body of work, whereas if you’re asking, like, Dame Judi Dench (I pick her randomly because there is obviously not a role for her in the movie so no one will think I am giving oblique hints!) she has a huge body of work you can look over to see the vast range of roles she can play. 

So it is very unlikely anyone would ever ask her to audition. It tends to be much more a “chat with the director over lunch or Skype to make sure you’re simpatico, that’s it” kind of thing. So it’s just not a question of like the hundreds and hundreds of auditions that came in for Jace and Alec and Izzy. (As for Lily and Jamie auditioning together, the moviemakers are aware that the chemistry between Jace and Clary has to be a centerpoint of the film, so that was nonnegotiable, but testing together doesn’t always happen.)

With the adults there is a definite “well, if this person then this person but not this person” thing — like, Luke and Valentine have to be very different. It’s all very complicated with lots of moving parts. These days I tend to be amazed that any movies ever get made at all.

Posted by Ruby