Lily Collins on Scott Stewart: He’s “what ‘Mortal Instruments’ needs”

Lily Collins and Scott Charles Stewart teamed up to battle vampires in “Priest” and now the actress and director will reunite for “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones,” which is scheduled to begin filming later this year.

I dug up an interview from last week when the stars of “Priest” talked to The Film Stage and surprise, surprise, the topic of “The Mortal Instruments” came up.

Collins raved about Stewart’s visual effects background and the world that he was able to create.

“This was his second film, so he’s relatively a new director, but he comes from a visual effects background so this world that he created has always been in his head.  We didn’t necessarily know what it was going to look like ultimately, but he did and he knew how to get there.”

Collins noted that, despite “Priest” being the second film he’s directed, Stewart was like a pro on set and was really able to get the most out of his actors, something that will be quite important for “Mortal Instruments.”

“He was surprisingly such an actor’s director, yet it’s only his second film.  He really knew how to connect to each of us in a way that we understood.  He could talk to me and get something out of me that he wanted to get out of Cam or Paul, but he would give us different scenarios and connect with us on a different level.  He’s just calm.  Sometimes it’s eerie when you have all this stuff going on and it’s a really freaky film with things flying everywhere and fire and he’s like, “we’ll get it, we’ll get there”.  It puts you in a really calm place.”

Collins gushed about Stewart and how she feels like he is the guy to bring the “Mortal Instruments” world to life, both creatively and hands-on with the actors.

“I saw the 3D footage…and was blown away,” Collins dished about ‘Priest.’ “I kept thinking, he created this alternate world and this is what ‘Mortal Instruments’ needs.  ‘Mortal Instruments’ is this other completely different fantasy world and I have complete confidence that Scott can take it there because he did with ‘Priest.’ He’s fun and funny too.  I don’t feel like there was tension ever with everything that was going on on-set, because he makes it really comfortable.”

Source: The Film Stage