Hollywood Crush: You were uncharacteristically quiet on Twitter when the news broke yesterday that Jamie had been cast as Jace. What was up?

Cassandra Clare: I was asleep! I woke up actually because my agent called and said, 'Before you get online and check your email and get on Twitter, I have to tell you this.' So I was prepared. And I got on and was like, 'Oh my god.' Because, you know, thousands of tweets came in. I did not read them all. I was like, 'It's like a nuclear bomb went off.' So the first thing I did was call the studio, because I'm used to there being a lot of rumors floating around, and I wanted to like a) confirm this, and b) what do I need to say?

Let's get down to the nitty-gritties. Why is Jamie so perfect for Jace?

I have seen his audition tape. They sent it to me because they were so impressed with it, and they wanted to get my feedback. People have been asking me what scene he filmed. The answer is a bunch of different scenes. He did scenes where he had to be funny. He did scenes where he had to be romantic. He did scenes where he had to be angry and badass and he pulled the all of amazingly.

He auditioned with Lily, and he and Lily had incredible chemistry that sort of blazed off the scene. I'm just sitting here watching this on my computer, and you know, he was not the only person they've ever sent me to look at. I've gotten lots of headshots and this and that, and I'm watching the audition and I literally started crying because that was my Jace and Clary on the screen. And it's an incredible feeling to see that even as an audition. This is amazing. He was snarky funny where he needed to be snarky funny, and he was badass where he needed to be badass. And he and Lily were incredible together.

In fact, after all the auditions, because she's done auditions with a bunch of different actors, she wrote to the head of the studio, Clint Culpepper of Screen Gems, and she was like, 'It's Jamie. It's gotta be Jamie.' He told me that, this was before he had seen the audition, he told me that he wrote back and he was like, 'He's a rock star hipster kind of guy. Do you think he can be a badass warrior-dude, as well?' And she wrote back and said, 'That is Jace standing there. When you watch the audition you'll see what I see.'

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Because you’re in this age group where every young actor in Hollywood must be going out for the next superhero fantasy series that comes up, what big franchise role would you love to get?
Hmm. There’s a lot of good stuff out there right now. Because of Twilight there are a lot of supernatural projects out there. But probably a new one. Something that hasn’t been established as a comic book. New and different, a story that hasn’t been told yet. And I don’t know if I’ve read that yet. [Pause] There is one franchise in particular that I’d love to be a part of right now, and it’s called Mortal Instruments. So I’ll say Mortal Instruments.

Have you talked to the Mortal Instruments filmmakers?
[Pause] Mmm-hmm.

The other franchise on the level of Mortal Instruments that seems to be floating around to every young actor is The Hunger Games adaptation.
Great book, great script. And that’s up there too, but I think I may be a little bit too old to play Gale.

I think it’ll depend on how young they go to cast Katniss. But Mortal Instruments and Hunger Games — good answers.
I’m just looking for something good. I’m in for all of it.

For those unfamiliar with The Mortal Instruments, here’s a quick blurb from the Variety article: “Story revolves around teenager Clary Fray’s search for her missing mother, which leads her to a city filled with mysterious fairies, raucous warlocks, vampires and other demons.” Collectively, The Mortal Instruments series of books have spent 28 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers List.