Question:
You told us that you’re a big fan of this series. Did you read all the books beforehand?
COLLINS: What I did was I read the first one and found out they were making it
into a movie, so that’s when I sent out emails and called and said, “What’s
going on? Who’s involved? How can I get involved? How can I audition?” And then, I continued to read the
series. My mom then read the series
because she always loves these kinds of books as well. But then, when I was cast, I stopped reading,
because when it comes to bringing a story to life that spans that big of a time
gap, I didn’t want to get confused as myself knowing Clary’s future. You never know your future in real life, so
why would Clary? I didn’t want to get
convoluted with information, and then especially from script to script, because
we had so many reincarnations of the script that it would just get confusing as
to what I was supposed to know. So I
just tried to focus on the first one. I
re-read the first one and then just kept going over the script. Now that we’re on the second one, it’s all
about the second book, and I’m not trying to focus too heavily on the
third. Obviously, for the writer and for
production and all that, they need to know characteristics in the future to
introduce hints now, but that’s up to them.
I’d rather just focus on one at a time because I don’t want to act
differently than I should. It all gets
very confusing.
What
is it about your character that appealed to you?
COLLINS:
Well, I’m very close with my mom, and I always have been. So, the fact that this relationship between
her mom and herself is what spurs on this journey in the first book and
introduces her to this whole world was something that I felt extremely strong
about when I read it. I loved that she
never allows herself to be a victim.
Nothing ever truly defines her.
The romance doesn’t define her.
This new world that she’s thrown into doesn’t define her. Her morals never change. She’s always Clary. She’s just Clary in two different worlds and
she’s trying to find herself like any young girl would. And, it’s a story about self-discovery. I love the fact that the relationship between
a child and her parents is what this is about.
It’s about finding your voice in growing up, but also realizing that
your parents aren’t these otherworldly, non-human things. They’re just older versions of you. And, it’s seeing your parents in a new light
and respecting that. That was something
that I hadn’t seen in other franchises like this. Also, it’s got a comedic undertone. She’s quite sassy and feisty and doesn’t put
up with Jace’s crap. I’ve said this
before, but it’s very like Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. She doesn’t just sit on the sidelines. She propels the story forward, and I thought
that was really important for her character, but also very appealing to play.
The
character is 15 and then 16 when she’s going through all this.
COLLINS:
Yes. We aged it up in the movie. We never reference age, but we assume she’s
around 18.
When
you were that age, what was the 18-year-old challenge for you?
COLLINS:
It was nothing like this. I graduated
high school, and then I always wanted to go to college, but I also wanted to
work at a young age. At that point
though, I was pitching talk show ideas to the networks and I was a
journalist. I was always auditioning
while I was doing journalism, but I was just waiting for that yes. I wanted to continue journalism. I got told no all the time, like my ideas
were irrelevant. Basically now, Twitter
and Facebook have allowed for what I wanted to do, which was having young
people have a voice. That’s before that
was around. They were like, “C’mon. Who wants to hear from a young person?” And I was like, “Really? I highly doubt that’s true.” I just had all these ideas, and I was
passionate about communicating them to a bigger [audience] in media, and I was
told no so much. But it was that
decision of do I go to school and try to work at the same time or do I work and
try to go to school at the same time.
The first semester of college I went off to Minneapolis and Denver. I did the conventions. I went to Washington, D.C. to do the
inauguration. I went and interviewed
with Nickelodeon for the whole election.
So it was like do I go to school and sit in a classroom or do I play a
role in history. It was like I’m not
going to get credit for this and I may have to leave for this semester so do I
take this chance and this opportunity?
And again, [these are] high class problems. I’m not saying these were major life defining
[moments], but for me, I was always on this path of what I wanted to do and I
was told no so much. But I never let the
no’s define me and I saw beyond that. I
just thought I never wanted to have any regrets. And I don’t want to have any opportunities
pass me by that I look back on and go, “Oh my God! Had I done that, it could have been a
life-defining, growing up moment for me.”
My mom raised me that way. I just
never wanted an opportunity to pass by that could have taught me something bad
or good. It’s like it takes the bad to
know the good and the good to know the bad.
COLLINS:
To go to something that you just said, you’re saying that now it’s harder as a
journalist because everyone is self-reporting and people are tweeting answers
to questions you’re not even asking, and that takes away from a question during
a junket. We’ve been tweeting about the
movie along the way at the press mall tours to give an insider’s look to the
mall tour. But I personally have not
been tweeting or using Facebook or anything like that – and this could change
because I’m not saying ‘never say never’ – but I love old Hollywood and the
fact that there was a sense of mystery about actors, and junkets were junkets
for a reason. Interviews were interviews
for a reason. Barbara Walter’s most
fascinating interview was like, “Oh!”
You needed to watch it because you were like, “What am I going to learn
about this person that I feel like I don’t know anything about?”
I
want to be approachable and relatable to everybody, of course, but there are
other ways of me doing that. I feel like
all the time it’s this influx of information to people that are not even
asking. It takes away from an interview
or a junket situation. It’s this
constant information about me that I just don’t necessarily think is
important. And it’s interesting to hear
because, of course, on the other side, it does make journalism a little bit
harder because all the questions are already answered without you having to ask
them anymore. There was a moment when I
realized that if people start to know me well as Lily interviewing and as my
personality, they won’t believe me as a character as much. If they know me so well as being happy and
this personality or whatever, then I can’t play that gritty girl who is a
loner. I mean, I could. I would hope that I could prove myself, but
I’ve done that where I’ve watched a movie before, and I’ve been like, “Oh my
God, I just heard about the best pizza they had last week and now I’m watching
them.” It’s weird. It’s stupid.
It shouldn’t take you out of a movie, but I just feel like [that happens]
when you have so much information thrown at you about a certain person, and
some of it is just so silly, and it’s funny to read. It’s great.
I love that you can read these things.
Sometimes
it’s funny. But, for me personally, I
don’t want someone watching a movie of mine and being like, “I saw a bikini
shot of her the other day.” At least, if
it’s taken by a paparazzi, that’s out of my control. But if I’m going to Tweet a picture of myself
in a bikini, and then someone is watching a movie and I’m supposed to be this
gritty character, they all of a sudden get taken out of the movie because they
remember that picture. I see a movie as
an experience, and I would like them to be able to [have that]. When I watch a movie with someone like
Natalie Portman or Meryl Streep, or the women that I admire like Sandra
(Bullock), Julia (Roberts), any of them, I don’t see them playing a
character. I see a character. I can only hope that one day I’m half as
amazing as they are, but at least I want that same experience of watching
someone play a character and not thinking about them as the person.
Do
you limit yourself in terms of the amount of Tweeting or Facebooking or
Tumblring?
COLLINS:
I don’t do any of that. I’m not on any
of that. I have an official Facebook
page. I have an official Twitter just to
at least save my name. I tweeted when I
was first cast three years ago as the character and as myself when Twitter was
just up and coming. But then, I stopped,
and then there was more backlash that I had stopped than there was if I didn’t
update. I was like oh my God. It’s been fun over the mall tour to do it
with Jamie and Kevin as a group for the movie and to show fans the experience
we’re going on. That’s fun, but then I
come away from that situation, and I’m back in L.A., and I don’t want to be
doing it on my own. It’s just not
something that I’ve ever felt the need to share. I enjoy reading other people’s [tweets]. I mean, that’s fine, but I just don’t feel
it’s necessary for myself.
Do
you feel there’s too much information out there in terms of people and celebrities
that tweet every day?
COLLINS:
Yeah. It’s completely person to
person. If you love doing that,
great. Like I said, I enjoy reading
certain ones and I’m not against Twitter or Facebook. I’m not against anything. Like I said before also, I never say
never. So I could totally change my mind
next year and be like, “Right now it would be fun.” There is just a lot of information,
especially when a news story could break on a major news station based on a
picture someone tweeted of themself. It
didn’t take a journalist asking a question to get a news story. It took a picture of someone selfie-ing
themselves to make nationwide headline news next to news about Obama and
bombings. It’s so bizarre to me. And that didn’t even take a journalist to get
there. It just took social media and
that’s amazing. It’s the power of social
media. It’s an incredible thing. It’s just something that I necessarily have
not become obsessed with like a lot of other people.
How
did you prepare for the stunt work that you did in this movie?
COLLINS:
Well, the second movie I’m excited because apparently they’ve got a lot more
fighting for me. My potential is just
shown in this first movie, but we all trained the same. I trained three months before I got out to
Toronto with a physical fitness trainer, and then every day with a trainer and
the stunt department before or during work, but never in my costume. So then, obviously, once I got to wearing the
heels and the dress, it made it very difficult.
But Clary is awkward anyway in that outfit so it worked for me. I could just say, “Oh, it wasn’t Lily. It was Clary.” But yeah, we did a lot of training.
We
all pretty much did every stunt except for one for each of us. I was thrown up against a wall at one point
by Dorothea (CCH Pounder) and I was not allowed to do that. Jamie was thrown across the table in the same
scene and slammed again a wall. He
couldn’t do that. But he did that
flip. We all stayed behind the camera
watching, and I was like, “Oh my God, I don’t want to go back to my
trailer. I want to watch Jamie do
this.” We had seen all the practices and
everyone was so supportive. Also, we
were nervous as heck, like oh my God, what’s going to happen? But it was great because we all sweat together. We all trained together. That created such a bonding atmosphere,
because when you go through those things together, they’re at 3:00 or 4:00 in
the morning every day, you’re like, “We can do anything together,” and that’s
what the Shadowhunters are. So it helped
in that sense.
COLLINS:
Yeah. I did more knife fighting in this
one which ended up not being used. We
were trying to figure out what Clary’s first skills were, which again, this
will probably be more in the second movie.
It was hand-to-hand combat martial arts.
But for Clary, at the beginning, it was all about endurance, keeping up
with the guys, not falling behind, and not doing it in six-inch heels. All of the training did help with the hours
we were shooting and just keeping up with everyone and the self-defense. You’ll see the skills more defined in the
second one.
You
mentioned the sequel to this film. What
else do you have coming up?
COLLINS:
I just finished a film called Love, Rosie in Dublin. I was shooting for two and a half
months. I’m British. I aged ten years and have a 10-year-old child
by the end of it. It was the most
amazing, life changing experience for me being a mom. It’s terrifyingly heartbreaking and at the
same time so hilarious. It’s kind of
like Bridget Jones meets Love Actually meets Notting Hill and then a bit of
Juno. There’s so much in there. It feels like it was such a small crew and it
was very much independent, but at the same time, it has this big feel. It’s Sam Claflin and I and an amazing cast
like Suki Waterhouse, Jaime Winstone and Tamsin Egerton. It’s just a really cool European cast. So I did that, and then Stuck in Love just
came out a while ago.
What
about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?
COLLINS:
I’m signed on for that for the role of Elizabeth Bennet. It’s just when that happens that we’re still
[deciding]. That is something that I
have, but I’m just not sure when.
Are
you still interested in being a journalist?
COLLINS:
Yes. One day we’ll go back to it at some
point. I still love writing so I can do
that from wherever I am. I can be in my
trailer. (laughs)
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