Cassandra Clare addresses Alec casting…again

With filming on The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones set to begin in less than three weeks, casting is coming to a close. But three remaining characters–all of which are garnering significant attention–have yet to be cast.

One of those characters is Alec, who has been–next to Jace–the most closely watched castings.

Rumors have–and will continue to–swirl until an official announcement is made. But it shouldn’t be too far away, as filming begins in less than three weeks.

Cassandra Clare, as she always does, reached out to fans and addressed their concerns about Alec’s casting…again.

One of the things that she shared was that the original actor the studio had lined up for Alec (the one that Clare was told to hold back on when Jemima West was cast as Isabelle) fell through do to scheduling conflicts.

But Clare revealed that “they’re in negotiations with someone.”

Here is Clare’s breakdown of the casting process, as well as some Alec casting tidbits:

As far as Alec goes, it’s more than just IMDB: rumors are all over. That also happened when Jace was cast. It took a while to separate out what was happening from what wasn’t.

I thought maybe it would help if there was a bit of a breakdown of how this works. Casting is a creative matter (the director, producers, etc. looking at auditions or readings or previous work and deciding) until an offer is made to someone. “Would you like to play Alec?” That does not mean that person is cast. They have to want to play Alec. They have to have their agent negotiate the terms of a deal that everyone is happy with because you do actually get paid to play Alec. Or anyone. 🙂 And you have to promise not to run off in the middle of filming and whatnot. This requires paperwork to be signed by everyone.

The final bit of casting is the “confirmation letter” which everyone signs and once everyone signs it then Alec is cast. Now I generally know that they’re looking at specific people, even a specific someone, but that’s about all I know while the legal department churns through the paperwork. When the confirmation letter is signed, then the studio will generate a press release. When they generate the press release and send it out, THAT is when I am allowed to tell you who Alec is. Usually until the press release goes out, I DON’T ACTUALLY KNOW the answer to the question beyond “they’re in negotiations with someone.”

And I am absolutely and totally and completely not allowed to say who they are in negotiations with, because then I am betraying a trust that has been placed in me not to reveal that, not only by the studio but by the actor (not that they know who I am :D) — it really ought to be their decision, too, about what they want revealed about what they are doing in their career. I don’t, like, want the intimate details of my mortgage payments all over the ‘net, and it’s sort of the same thing.

And it is a good idea to wait until things are confirmed, because false reports aren’t  helpful. I know Alec is sort of a sore point (and I still feel bad, believe me) because I said I could announce him and then it turned out I couldn’t: There was a mixup and it was thought the confirmation letter was signed but it wasn’t, because the movie schedule had changed (it changes with every new draft of the script) and suddenly the actor wasn’t sure the new dates would work.

And in fact they didn’t. That actor isn’t going to play Alec. The scheduling didn’t work out. So. It is indeed a good thing I didn’t announce it then, annoying as it was for everyone at the time. I want you to be able to trust me and so not giving you information that may not pan out is important to me.

As of this literal moment, I have not gotten the press release/go-ahead to say who Alec is, which means that the confirmation letter isn’t signed. Which means we do not have an official Alec. That could change any second. But I am not witholding information about who has been cast as Alec to be mean (seems pointless, and Variety would just carry the story anyway because they’d get the press release as it is meant for, well, the press). And I can’t tell you when Alec will be announced because it isn’t planned ahead like that: “We will announce Alec on the seventh of August, at nine am!” They wait for the confirmation letter to go through. Asking “When will we have Alec?” is like asking “When will it rain?” or “When will we have a car that runs on dandelions?”

So basically in sum-up, I don’t have an answer to those questions — we will have an Alec, and soon, because they cannot make the movie without him — and I will, as I have always promised, tell you as soon as I am able, and I will give you only the information I know is definitely true.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is slated for an August 23, 2013 theatrical release in the U.S.

What are your thoughts? How anxious are you to learn of Alec’s casting? Sound off in the comments!