It was quite the weekend as Shadowhunters fans in the UK were treated to a rare appearance of the cast members on their shores for MCM Comic Con London. Kat McNamara, Emeraude Toubia, Alberto Rosende, Chai Hansen, and Jade Hassouné appeared at the convention on October 27th and 28th.
As well as signing autographs and posing for photo ops, the five actors found time for two panels and a press conference, for all of which Basic Stuff Magazine was in attendance. Both panels came with a strict spoiler ban, and with good reason (major plot points for the end of the series were leaked recently in a prop & costume auction, devastating fans).
Spoiler ban aside, the cast shared a wealth of information. Here’s the highlights from Saturday’s Q&A panel.
On who would win in a fight
“Probably Isaiah,” Kat went first when asked which cast member is the best fighter and why.
“[Isaiah’s] just big and, like, quick, and strong,” added Alberto. He also suggested that Chai would be a strong contender (calling him the “Monkey King,” a nod to his role on The New Legends of Monkey), along with Dom and Harry.
“I think Isaiah just looks at you and you’re, like, done,” Emeraude chimed in. Alberto and Kat backed up her point. “None of us would want to fight Isaiah,” said Alberto.
But despite his obvious physical strength, Kat seemed to think that rather than fight you, Isaiah would “just charm you out of fighting” and win. “He’d make you give him everything, [but] you’d feel like you won,” Alberto concluded.
The conversation then digressed into injuries. “I feel like Dom is always injured, but still does the fights,” Jade joked. “He’s, like, ‘I just broke my leg. Oh, let me do a backflip.’”
All this talk of fighting nearly led to a (friendly) on-stage scrap between Chai and Kat! But Kat decided that she didn’t want to fight him – which, if you ask us, sounds like a smart decision.
Definitely a smart decision! (Leonie H./Basic Stuff Magazine)
Favorite on-set memories
Alberto shared his favorite moment from set, bringing tears to everyone’s eyes (okay, maybe that was just us). It was the moment when he first heard the word “action.” “I didn’t realize, especially at the time, for me it was a big deal; it was my first time working,” he said. “But at the same time, I didn’t realize the journey that one word really meant. We shot 55 episodes of television, and we’ve been able to share this whole world with you, and now we’re here in London with all of you guys, all because of that one word.”
Kat shared that when shooting the final scenes at the Institute set with everyone, she took extra care to remember that moment because it really drove home to her how much they had all become a family, Jade adding the memories he’ll miss most are ones where the cast and crew were “just hanging out.”
At the wrap party, Alberto said he snuck a bottle of champagne and a small group of people into Simon’s room and opened the bottle in there with everyone as a toast. Emeraude couldn’t comment as her answer would be a spoiler, but she did admit to stealing a lot of things from set… Alberto pointedly refused to admit that he also stole a lot of things, which sounded a little like an admission of guilt to us, mister.
On the books and the show
When asked about scenes in The Mortal Instruments books that they were excited to film for the show, the actors struggled to come up with anything they could talk about without spoiling Season 3B. Chai liked the relationship Jordan had with Simon in both the books and the show.
Alberto mentioned that while he was personally very excited for the scene where Simon gets the Mark of Cain from Clary, as a fan, he thought the show’s decision to have Meliorn give him the Mark instead was “pretty cool.” “Stuff like that, I think we have more frequently in our show,” he said, mentioning the different fan experiences of the same event in both media forms. “It’s different in a really interesting, cool way.” He then continued talking about the kinds of differences they get – whether it’s a scene that comes from the books but the dialogue is different, or there’s a common moment but the show has taken a different route to get there.
Kat shared one of her own experiences with a scene change from episode 2×20, “Beyond Still Water.” “In the books, Raziel kills Valentine with a bolt of angelic power,” she said. “But then the way that they changed it in the show, to have Clary actually step up and finally kill her father, it was a turning point for her. Not only in the fact that he had been kind of a weight that she was carrying, that she finally had to just say, ‘Enough is enough.’ And it was [also] the first time that she actually did something really dark and really twisted. Something shifted in her after that, and I think we’ll see more and more of that as things progress. But a lot of the things that happened in the books that I really want to happen in the show haven’t aired yet, so I can’t talk about them.”
“There’s a lot of cool stuff in the next parts [Season 3B] that is from the books,” Jade promises. “Especially since they were like, ‘Oh, I guess we have to do it all now!’”
“3B’s pretty wicked,” Kat concluded.
Kat McNamara and Alberto Rosende, thinking hard about their answers. (Leonie H./Basic Stuff Magazine)
On accidents, embarrassing moments, and inside jokes
Alberto divulged an inside joke that kept coming up among the crew. He said that the scene in episode 2×07, “How Are Thou Fallen,” in which the Angel Ithuriel was screaming in agony, took many takes and “that man was screaming for a very long time.” He then told us that every once in a while when things got quiet on-set, someone would start imitating the scream and the whole studio would join in – and that sometimes people in on the joke would do it when someone new was on set and that person would have no idea what was going on!
When asked if anyone deliberately tries to get the others to fluff their lines, the response was an immediate chorus of, “Dom!” Alberto jumped in to defend him like a true bro, but he did say that if anyone got Dom to smile, it would take him a while to get back into character. Kat added that he would get a glint in his eye just when he’s about to laugh and after that, “you’re done, you’re all done, everybody’s done, you just can’t.”
On their all-time favorite TV characters they’d like to play
Jade was quick with his pick – Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer – to cheers from the audience (Kat said she’d totally pay to see Jade in a tight leather jacket). Alberto struggled with his choice, telling everyone that he’s “having one of those moments.” “‘I like TV, I’m on TV, I like TV.’ And you’re like, ‘What’s your favorite TV [show] ever?’ And my brain is like, ‘You’ve never watched TV, not once.’” Apparently, he was having an existential crisis. Alberto finally settled on an answer, stating that he’d love to see a reboot of Pinky and the Brain. He got very excited when the panel host told him that Animaniacs is returning.
Kat would want to play Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones, praising actress Lena Headey’s skill and the way she’s so “vile and sinister, and yet you love her and admire her anyway.” Emeraude was unsure at first but ultimately went with a safe bet between Wonder Woman, or Batgirl, or Catwoman.
Jade Hassouné and Emeraude Toubia sharing a laugh at MCM London 2018. (Leonie H./Basic Stuff Magazine)
On traits or hobbies they share with their characters
Alberto mentioned that he played guitar a little bit before the show, and actually continued with it because of Simon. Eme’s link to Izzy is a mutual love of wearing heels.
Kat talked about how she always had a healthy respect for visual artists due to her grandma, a watercolor artist, painting with her when she was a little girl. “I wouldn’t say I’m an artist in that sense,” she adds, “but that’s one thing that I’ve always admired.”
Jade praised how real all the fight scenes seemed, how hard they all trained, and how amazing the stunt team is. He stopped himself before spoiling anything but promised some “really cool fights” coming up in 3B. He then continued that a shared trait between him and Meliorn was a mutual love of meditation, and a love of plants and nature: “I think it’s important for my health, my balance, my well-being.”
Chai teased that his shared traits with Jordan are they both have long hair. We gotta agree, they do look similar! Chai did go on to expand that his approach to Jordan was to bring more of himself into the character in an effort to make Jordan appear more natural.
On the fandom
Kat’s favourite thing about the Shadowhunters fandom is that “in this world that we have right now, where so many people are fighting and in conflict over things, the Shadowhunters fandom is a group of people from all over the world that [have] come together to support a story that really is ultimately about love, and about acceptance and unity. And I think more than anything, that’s what we really need right now in the world.”
Check out our full gallery of photos of the weekend here.
Shadowhunters returns with Season 3B starting Monday, February 25, 2019 on Freeform.
