Jamie Campbell Bower talks bulking up for MORTAL INSTRUMENTS + more with Teen.com
Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace Wayland
After unveiling their first report from The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones set visit last October on Valentine’s Day, Teen.com shared a follow-up report focused on Jamie Campbell Bower (Jace Wayland).
Bower spoke to reporters about bulking up for the role, doing his own stunts and more:
Teen: There’s a lot of action in this film. How did you bulk up before shooting?
Jamie: Physically, I’ve trained really hard for it. I started training four months — three months before we started shooting, and I sort of toyed around with different physical forms and at the end of it, what I wanted was to get to a point whereby we’ve seen this sort of big jock kind of character before and I didn’t want that and I didn’t really think that that was something that I believe, particularly, you know, with my younger cousins or whatever being girls that they’re really into — you know, the 15-year-old markets — I don’t know if that’s as sexy as it once was anymore. I think it’s more about the rock star or the girls that I, you know, the 15-year-old girls they’re into, like, skinny motherf****** from bands and the sort of lost souls and all that kind of s*** and I love that and I think that’s really cool. Ultimately, at the end of that, what I wanted to do is I built up the muscle, and then I just trimmed everything down and just got super lean and it was really tough; really, really hardcore. I did a lot of stunt training; a lot of fight training and physically kind of ruined myself, but in the best way possible. It wasn’t like I was doing stupid s*** because I was doing stuff that was good for me, but, you know, you wake up at 5 o’clock every morning, and do three hours of training, then you have a half an hour to eat, and then you go back and do another two hours, then half an hour to go and sleep, and maybe have a shower if you’re lucky, and then go through lines or learn the piano and all this kind of stuff. Yes, it’s exhausting, but it’s part of what I enjoy about it.
Teen: Can you talk about your runes (a.k.a. tattoos)?
Jamie: Each tattoo has a specific power, so I’m covered in them and I have real tattoos as well, so my real tattoos have to get covered and then runes get put on top of my real tattoos. I think I should just get runes tattooed all over me, then at least I wouldn’t have to spend three hours in the makeup chair because I’d spend fifteen hours in the tattoo parlor and be done with it for the rest of my life.
Teen: We see you doing a flip in the trailer. What was that like?
Jamie: Harald [Zwart, the director], when Lily and I first got here, before we started shooting, we did a lot of pre-production stuff and fight training and sort of just warming up to being here while everything is going on, it’s nice to have those moments. So we were doing a lot of stunt stuff and Harald was like, “I don’t want any wires; I don’t want any wire work. I don’t want that. I want it to be very much — If you’re going to do something, if you’re going to do a flip, then you need to be able to do a flip. If you’re going to do a jump, you need to be able to do a jump” and all this kind of stuff. So for me, learning how to do flips onto tables off the mini-tram was really exciting because that’s me doing that in the movie. That’s nobody else. That’s not a facial placement. There’s no wires there. That’s me jumping from the floor onto a table doing a flip in midair, which I know sounds really stupid, but the 14-year-old boy inside me goes, “That’s f****ing awesome. That’s so cool.” I really appreciate those moments and I appreciate the fact that Harald’s been able to do that. And yeah some stuff isn’t going to look as, you know, necessarily as slick as something like, I don’t know, Crouching Tiger where there was a lot of wire work and all that kind of stuff. We know that it’s real and I know that it’s real and I love the fact that we’re able to do that and it is very physically demanding, yeah. But there’s a big payoff at the end, a big, big payoff. Hopefully. [Laughs] It’s nice to be able to go to bed at night and go, “Yeah, I tried my hardest… Oh well, we’ll see.”
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TMI Source 
i have read all the reports and il ove dedciated everyone is to their role (besides doing a great job at protrayign the role). Jamie, you are amazing! and you see ladies, jamie worked out and got Jace’s physique, (which it toned so there’s muscle but lean aka jamie’s built but lean). i like that. i’m not sure i like it when it’s too huge, like body builder. kellan lutz’s type of phisque is nice. I really like darren kriss’es, blake’s from glee and chord overstreets physiue too as well as jamie’s , paul weasley and ian somhalder among others. but there is such a thing as being too huge
Ugh I don’t like huge men they don’t look attractive at all, they remind of some strange creatures LoL but Jamie is looking Fine with a captial F. I admit I too had my doubts but no more ladies Jace Wayland has indeed come to life.
Reblogged this on Showtown.
Jamie is just PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has the best of everything to portray Jace!!!
He looks like Jace and has the build of Jace. Cassie even describes Jace’s arm on page 177 as :”His arm was lightly muscled and downed with golden hairs fine as pollen.”as he reached over Clary to open the carriage door on their trip to The Bone City. So she says LIGHTLY muscled – not HUGELY musceled. So Jamie is like I said just perfect. He is also an extremely gifted actor. I would never even want to consider anyone else for this role. Anyone else would spoil the story. Thank goodness we have Jamie!!!! Love you Jamie!!! xxoo <3<3
Honestly, I’m fighting the urge to do just a HUGE, “HA!” in all those people’s faces who kept going, “He’s NEVER going to be Jace!” Or “UH! He’s so UGLY!!! I want ALEX!” NOW LOOK AT JAMIE and TELL me… how the holy h*ll is he NOT Jace?! He’s PERFECT!!!
And THANK you Jamie!!! I get where he didn’t want to be TOO muscled and yet not too lean. I find it disgusting with the men/boys who are nothing but pure muscle. That’s not sexy, that’s just nasty. I like them muscled but, yes, with some lean in them so it’s just right. And I love how he worked so hard to be the Jace uh, THEY, said he’d never be and to prove them wrong.
I’d say his hard work as paid off already! Now everybody is raving on about how hot as h*ll and sexy he is and how he has become the pure visual of the Jace millions of fan girls have fawned over since CoB was first published. WAY TO GO, JAMIE! I am MORE than sure you will not fail to prove that you are our Jace Lightwood! I look forward to seeing the Jace you have brought to life!
I really think Jamie has proved that he IS Jace. I’m happy. Can’t wait to see the movie.
oh and to all you jamie haters, ha! t you were told you jamie was awesoem and a great jace for many reasons, besides his looks! and to those who now support him, welcome to the team!
I am so excited! 🙂
No what really pissed me off were the idiots who called themselves “fans” I call them fakers who bashed Cassie for supporting Jamie? really? how mature.
…what are you, stupid fangirls? There are still thousands of MI fans outside with the opinion, that JCB is a horrible Jace, that he is not gorgeous, not amazing, and still looks more like a drug junkie than a well trained Shadow hunter. For me, this interview sounds more like a lame excuse for his physical inadequacy and for the fact, that he failed to build adequate muscle-mass. It is just laughable, that Alex, Magnus or Simon are more beefy than Jace in this movie, and this is just a fact!
^^
Thank you, that’s exactly what I was thinking! He’s just making up an excuse for the fact that he could not get buff in time for this movie. And wow, he only started training four or three months before it started filming? He practically had a year and a half!