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Lily Collins

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES directed by Harald Zwart, written by Jessica Postigo from the novel by Cassandra Clare, with Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. An eOne release. 130 minutes. Now playing. For venues and times, see listings.


If the hordes of teenage girls lined up outside the Scotiabank for hours have anything to say about it, The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones will be the next Twilight. And Lily Collins is ready for it.

“If this becomes massive, that’s very humbling,” she says. “And very exciting, because I was a huge fan of the books before I was cast.”

Based on the first novel in Cassandra Clare’s young-adult series, City Of Bones follows Brooklyn teenager Clary as she discovers she’s connected to a supernatural world hidden just behind our own, where young warriors called “shadow hunters” track demons and keep a delicate balance between various threats.

Playing the lead in a big-screen adaptation of a bestselling YA fantasy series was a little different for Collins from playing Snow White in Mirror Mirror.

“This is the biggest thing to date that I have done in terms of the fandom,” she says at the Trump Hotel the next day, perched on a couch in a fuchsia dress and looking nothing at all like her character.

“You know, I am personifying a literary character lots of people know about, [who] is way more modern than Snow White. Whenever people read the [Mortal Instruments] books now, my face will always be attached to them. That is very strange, but it’s also very cool!”

Strange and cool, but also potentially limiting.

“I don’t want people to only ever see my face when they read Clary,” she says, “because I think every young girl can be Clary. There are so many things about her that anyone can relate to.”

The key to her performance, Collins says, was keeping everything as real as possible. If you were an ordinary teen thrust into a world of leather-clad demon hunters, how would you handle it?

“Everyone goes through [an] identity crisis as a young kid, and sometimes it never goes away,” she says. “I think that Clary showing things like confusion and vulnerability shows a real strength. She finds strength in her weaknesses it’s never weak to show a vulnerability. That’s why I think she stands out as a literary character, because she’s very strong and empowering to young girls, but also very normal, not like some kind of otherworldly creature you can’t relate to.”

The wardrobe requirements were a little tricky, though. Shadow-hunters have a tradition of dressing like fetish club patrons, and neither Clary nor Collins is particularly comfortable with that.

“Any awkwardness wearing the dress or the shoes or whatever could be pawned off on Clary,” she says, “because Clary was super-awkward in them as well. So I could kind of have this character arc with Clary along the way.”

Collins is looking forward to seeing how Clary evolves in subsequent adventures. She’s signed on for three films in the Mortal Instruments series, and Constantin Film has already greenlit the second chapter, City Of Ashes. Production starts up in Toronto next month.

“Hopefully everyone likes the first one,” she laughs, “because too bad – there’s already gonna be a second one.”

Interview Clips

Lily Collins on shooting a fantasy epic with a minimum of digital enhancement:

Download associated audio clip.

Collins on what’s coming next:

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normw@nowtoronto.com | @wilnervision

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