Lily Collins talks intense ‘MORTAL INSTRUMENTS’ training with Static

Fans have heard from multiple actors that training for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was intense. Fun, but intense.

Lily Collins recently spoke with Static Multimedia about training three months before the film went into production last August and training throughout filming, which included a variety of stunts.

You mentioned training. What did you do?

I trained with a personal trainer for three months prior to filming, and I’ve always been a physical person. I love fitness and stuff, so that wasn’t the hardest part. We did stability and strength training and endurance training, and then with the stunt department, it was the same stunt department who had done Mirror, Mirror. So I really felt close to them, I knew them really well. We did sword fighting, acrobatics, aerial work, mortal combat, martial arts, every day, leading up to filming as well as getting up at maybe 4:30, 5 in the morning before filming to go in the gym and we all went through it together, so we would just get up early and just look at each other and be like, I can’t believe this.

Static also asked Lily if she could relate to Clary.

Are you fearless like your character?

I would like to think that I am feisty and fearless. My mom and I travelled to many countries when I was growing up, and I have jumped off a cliff in Paraguay, and jumped off a cliff to go swimming, and I swam with sharks. So, I would like to think that I have done some things. I think I like to take risks, not be unsafe, but like take as many risks as I can.

Are you good in unexpected dangerous situations?

I’ve done enough martial arts training now and I think I would be kind of good in a situation but I try not to put myself in dangerous situations. I think having been able to play some of the characters that are strong females who get thrown into these positions and have to act quickly and I think I have learned kind of a lot from those characters. And also my best friends and the women that surround me in general, are all really strong females in their own way, and witty as well as physically strong. So I think it’s also about how you handle them intellectually and mentally, and if you go through something traumatic, how do you pick yourself up afterwards? That takes a lot of strength as well.

Head over to Static to read the full interview