There has been a MASSIVE response to Robert Sheehan being cast as our loveable geek Simon. It seems that most are happy with the casting. Robert is most known as the character Nathan, the hilarious and immortal rebel from the British show Misfits. It’s a good show to look at his acting and he doesn’t disappoint. So when Cassandra Clare was asked how she felt about the fans responses to Simons cast she had a lot to say!
*blinks up* *blinks down* I haven’t run across much negativity. Robbie’s probably the best
-received piece of casting we’ve had. I guess what I would say is that first, there’s always an adjustment period, when you adjust your mental image of the character (and everyone’s mental image of a character is different) to encompass what a cast actor looks like. It doesn’t have to replace your mental image. You just sort of mentally accept the actor as a version. That seems to be 99.9% of people’s process. When people say “He doesn’t look like Simon” they mean “He doesn’t look like Simon in my head” (since Simon, not being real, does not look a specific way beyond the general markers given to him in the book — brown hair, brown eyes, medium height, thin. Until we replace actors with the human equivalent of Dr. Who’s psychic paper, where you look at it and see whatever you want to see, there will never be total consensus about what a fictional character looks like or whether an actor matches them. Especially if you’ve gotten attached to a piece of fancasting. All that goes away when you actually see the actor acting the part, because the acting is actually what matters. (Obviously, if they suck, that’s a whole different story, but Robbie is a fantastic actor and I think that’s a large part of the why the response to him was so positive. You tend to trust people who’ve given great previous performances.)
Another fan also asked her which scenes Robert did with Jamie and Lilly during his audition, to this she replied…
Two scenes with just Simon and Clary, one where he first meets Jace, and the one where he catches Jace and Clary kissing in the hallway.
I’m happy that Robert is playing Simon. So what do you guys think? Comment your opinions below.
