Pandemonium Con 2 – Luke Panel
Moderator once again starts the panel by asking Luke to look both ways, not just to his left, where the question queue is, so everyone gets to look at his face from all angels
L: Halfway through, how about you give me a ‘hey!’ and I’m going to move over there?
Fan: Do you think Jonathan would have a parabatai, and if so, who?
Luke: Good question… (hesitates)
Fan: Do you think it would be Clary?
Luke: She’s not my biggest fan…
Fan: But if he turned good?
Luke: Probably not… who would be my parabatai?
Audience: Underhill!
Luke: Huh. Yeah. (pauses) or…
Audience: Sebastian, if you hadn’t killed him
Luke: Yes! Sebastian! And it would be funny, because it would be me and Will. So yes! Will’s my parabatai. There you go, I said it, it’s official. Someone go and immediately ask him.
Fan: What’s the best pick up line you’ve heard, received, or done?
Luke: (laughs) I mean… So, I genuinely don’t think anyone has ever tried picking me up (audience AWWWs) It’s just because I look creepy! It’s my face. (laughter) But there was a night out in Toronto… Dom and I went out… (Luke pauses and makes a face and everyone laughs) You know it’s going to be a good story. We’d gone to get dinner, it was like 9 o’clock and Dom’s like (In a British accent) ‘Mate, let’s go to a club!’ and I was like ‘Nah’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s gonna be great!’ so we went to this full on club, and of course Dom wants to get a table. And you know that when you get a table in a club you have to buy a minimum of two bottles of alcohol. So he bought two bottles of I don’t even know what. And then he’s like ‘We need to invite some girls!’ and I’m just like ‘You know what? Knock yourself out…’ but Dom’s like ‘Those girls over there? Tell them to come to our table!’ and I’m like ‘NO!’ I would never in a million years walk up to a stranger. And he’s like ‘Just do it! Just pretend you’re in character!’ and I was like (Luke makes a scandalised face and everyone laughs)
Anyway, long story short he dared me to go up and tell them that ‘I’m so sorry’. And they would say ‘about what?’ and… (Luke stops, blushes, puts his face in his hands and takes a good 5 seconds to continue the story) and I would say ‘That you’re missing out on spending time with us.’
(audience whoops and cheers)
Luke: That is not what happened. I went over, and they were in the middle of a conversation and I literally walked up to them, walked around their table, and walked back to our table.
And Dom was like “You loser.”
That’s my best story.
Fan: If the creators of Shadowhunters gave you the opportunity to create your own character, what would it be?
Luke: I feel like a half Shadowhunter, half Warlock could be cool. Obviously the most powerful being to ever exist. Actually, I could be 1/3 seelie, 1/3 warlock, 1/3 shadowhunter. But like, be a nice guy and just be really really powerful so no one could challenge me. And my name would be.. Xavier.
You’re welcome.
Fan: If you were offered to play Spike in the Buffy reboot, would you take it?
Luke: It’s so hard because that is one of the best shows ever made. I LOVED Buffy. And I would not want to ruin it. But I just don’t think I could say no, because I love it so much. And apparently Joss Whedon is involved in the remake, so I would trust that he would nail it. So yeah, I would take Spike in a heartbeat!
Fan: Was it difficult to play a villain?
Luke: Obviously, there were days where it’s hard once you leave the set. There’s days where you are strung up in a cell in a straight jacket and chains and you’re crying all day and that specific scene I’m thinking of where he’s like “You’ll never love me!” or actually, that wasn’t the line, it was “You’re supposed to me my princess!” – I said that line close to 60 times because we shot from so many different angels and you’re just screaming all day and you’re so exhausted by the time you leave.
When I did the film The Girl in the Photographs where I play a serial killer that was a lot more intense. It’s not a fun thing. Specially for someone like me. I hate any kind of violence so it’s really funny that I keep playing violent people. It feels like this ickiness you can’t get away from so you go home and you just want to shower and try and get rid of it, but it’s really hard. But at the same time, I love playing those characters, because there’s stuff going on, there’s something interesting, as opposed to that person that’s just always happy, which I’m not sure I could play, because I think I’d just get bored.
Young fan walks up to the microphone
Luke: Hiiii! How are you doing this morning Annie? (to audience) Annie is 10 years old.
Annie: Which character do you relate to most?
Luke: Great question! I think I relate most to Simon, specifically from the books. When I was reading them I thought that he’s a bumbling idiot, but in the best possible way. Don’t tell him I said that! But yeah, I think Simon. If it were a real world, that’s the person who I would be. With about 20% of Alec’s OCD.
Fan: What’s your honest opinion on Jonathan?
Luke: I don’t think that he really… (hesitates) Like, ok, look! I know that he’s evil. But I really don’t feel like… (hesitates, then glares at audience) I heard that! She said ‘excuses!’. Let me give you some excuses. He was injected with demon blood as a child. And here’s the thing, we talked about this just now in the Meet & Greet and like, when Dom was possessed by… hang on, not Dom! When Jace was possessed by the owl and did horrible things, we all gave him a free pass. And when Clary was under the influence of Jonathan, we all gave her a free pass. But I never got a f— free pass! He was injected with demon blood and then he was sent to hell to be tortured! Like, I know, it’s not ‘oh, poor Jonathan’, but I would have liked to see a world where he got the love that most people deserve.
It was really funny, when I met Jocelyn in the last episode when she comes back for the… you know, the doom prophecy (laughter) and our trailers were next to each other and I saw her name on the door and I was like ‘right’, and I stormed over and knocked on her door and was like ‘Hi I’m Luke!’ and she’s like ‘Oh, you’re playing Jonathan!’ and I’m like ‘Yeah. (agitated) Why did you give me up?!?’ and she’s like ‘Because you kept killing things!’ and I was like ‘Buy new things!’ and she goes ‘You killed our caretaker when you were ten’ and I was like ‘Well, maybe I didn’t know that was wrong!’
But seriously, I would have liked to see a world where we saw a bit more of that side. And maybe it’s just me, but I tend to believe the best in everyone, and obviously not everyone is redeemable, because some people have psychological issues that you can’t get away from, but I do think he wouldn’t be anywhere near as messed up if he had been raised by a loving family.
(AWWW)
Fan cosplaying Clary walks up to the microphone
Luke: I saw you walking across the street this morning as we were pulling up to the lot and I was like ‘That’s Clary!’ (laughter) If I had my phone to hand quick enough I would have taken a video.
Fan: If you could have any rune, where would you have it, what would it be, and why?
Luke: It would be an iratze and I would have it on my neck, just like in the show, because I think it’s really cool. It makes me feel tough, even though I’m not. And I would use it when I’m out drinking with my friends, like Dom, people who are going to force alcohol down my throat, I’d be able to run to the bathroom, activate it and I wouldn’t be drunk.
Fan: Surely it’s not a hardship to go out drinking with Dom Sherwood?
Luke: It is if you have to wake up the next morning!! But if I had the iratze, I could keep drinking and keep going to the bathroom and iratze myself, and keep drinking and going to the bathroom… Also I would be pretty much invincible, but that’s a side issue.
Fan: Who would you have liked to film more scenes with?
Luke: Harry for sure! (cheering) He was one of the first people who sat me down when I first joined the show and was like ‘Do you have any questions?’ and I’m like ‘How do I fight?’
I’m not the most coordinated person ever and I was so scared. And he gave me videos of martial artists to watch and he told me that I didn’t have to be technically proficient, I just had to look like I was and put my own flair on it. So I would have liked to work with him and I think that could have been a really cool story line as well.
Fan: You’re such a funny and easy going person
Luke: That’s subjective…
Fan: How did you get into Jonathan’s character? Especially that last scene with Clary.
Luke: Music, honestly… I mean, obviously you do a lot of research and I actually worked with this guy who was a psychologist that worked with the FBI to track serial killers and he profiles them. And I worked with him in 2015 for a film and when I went into this role I spoke to him again and asked what this person would be like… I obviously had to give him a real world example because it doesn’t quite work to say ‘so, he’s a demon…’
It was about finding out what kind of characteristics a person would have if they were tortured by a foster parent, if they had murdered someone when they were ten, all those sorts of things. And he painted a very precise picture for me of what Jonathan would be like in the real world. Even little things like the fact that he would have disassociation like, if I were to say hello and give you a hug you would go ‘hi, how are you’ and as a normal person I assume you would hug me back and think that was really nice. You wouldn’t think anything of it. Whereas Jonathan, because he’s never been hugged before, he would think that that was a romantic advance or he would think that this person was the love of his life. There’s this disconnect that happens.
So I did a lot of work and research around that and I knew a lot of the triggers for him but then to get into the headspace I had a playlist of music I would listen to every day, featuring such hits as ‘I miss you’ from Blink 182, cause nothing says emo like Blink 182. And there’s a song called ‘White Trash Hero’ by Archers of Loaf. I can literally listen to 10 seconds of that song and get really angry.
And there’s a Patsy Cline song, from the 50s or 60s and it’s one of the most beautiful songs in the world, it’s called ‘You Belong To Me’ and it’s all ‘I will travel the river Nile just to find you, you belong to me’ and all that, but if you listen to it as a sociopath, it’s so creepy! So I would listen to that before doing scenes with Kat and I would hear the lyrics repeat in my head. Seriously, go back and watch any of my scenes, but with that song playing and suddenly you’ll be like ‘oh wow, that’s why you’re a creep!’
Fan: What is the most emotionally or physically difficult thing for you as an actor?
Luke: Not counting any of the injuries I’ve had, because obviously that was really difficult to shoot, but otherwise I find it really hard when I have to be restrained in any way. Not just the straight jacket and chains, but also the scene where Jonathan comes in and smashes stuff in the apartment and falls to his knees and starts crying. That whole scene was choreographed in a way that meant I didn’t have a lot of freedom because I had to hit so many marks because of lighting. Basically, it’s easier to light half the stage than he whole stage, because we don’t have that many lights, so for that specific scene I had to hit all of these marks, smash the thing, hit a mark, start to cry, with my head at a 45 degree to the camera… and that was really difficult to do. You can cry and have a scene and have emotions, but when you are doing it and it’s so constrained by your surroundings and the technical elements of filming, it’s really hard.
I remember I did the scene and I felt good about it, and I’m on my knees and I’m in the middle of it and the directors like ‘No! More tears! And tilt your head to the right! Yeah! Yeah! No! Reeeally to the right! No! No! Get the light in your eyes!’ (Luke acts out straining his neck unnaturally while acting and crying) So that was all really hard.
The thing that was really funny about that scene was that we wrapped and I went to my trailer and started to get changed ready for the next scene and I get a call back and they asked me to do another take of that scene and I asked if they needed me to cry again and they said yes, and I’m like ‘are you sure?’ and they’re like ‘100%’ so I’m like ‘okay’. I put my head down again, getting to an emotional place, started crying and we shoot the scene again and they’re like ‘great, we got it!’ and afterwards the directors like ‘Why are you crying?’ and I’m like ‘What do you mean??’ and he says that they were shooting the back of my head… I thought I was going to kill someone. I’m actually going to kill someone.
Fan: Can you tell us how Kimberly-Sue dislocated your shoulder?
Luke: Ah, Kimberly-Sue. Love that girl! This is how you can tell that I genuinely like her. She dislocated my shoulder and I still love her.
It was an accident. Basically there was three reasons that it happened.
First, when I was doing the fight scene apparently my brain was telling my body to be elastic, because it was a lot of flowing movements. And then I went from doing flowy movements, to that jarring push. And my brain was still telling my body to be elastic. So that didn’t help.
The second thing was that they had readjusted me just before they called action. Camera had asked me to take a step to my right. Which would have been fine because she was meant to be coming at me front on, but when I took a step to the side, she was coming at me slightly from the side. So there was nothing to stop my arm from going that way because it wasn’t in front of my body anymore.
And then she was coming at more of a force than rehearsed because she was wearing heels.
So yeah, it was just a really bad combination of things.
Fan: Do you think Clary killed Jonathan with kindness or did she only kill his bad side?
Luke: I chose to believe that just after she left he woke up. Because I can make up whatever I want to. That’s the fun of being in a sci-fi show! I think that he woke up really confused, had no memory, looked around and saw all the dead bodies and just got up and started running. And then he made his way to New York because it’s Toronto and the closest major city is New York, I don’t know how, but he got across the border. And he’s just chilling in New York at the moment.
Fan: So you don’t think he’s a Shadowhunter anymore?
Luke: I think he might still have it inside of himself, the way Clary does, but he’s not aware of it.
Fan: In the book, there’s a scene with Clary and Jonathan from an alternate universe. Do you ever wish they included scenes like that, to see the other side of Jonathan?
Luke: So many! Yeah!
I also would have loved to have seen, and also have that challenge as an actor to play the moment where Jonathan met Sebastian. I would have loved to have scene that. I did try to talk Will into doing it just on my iPhone while we were in Paris… ‘We’re in Paris! Let’s go to the café! And we will film it!!’
Fan: It would have been nice to see the nature/nurture thing
Luke: Yes! And that would have been really interesting. Just the way that Clary was raised and the person Jocelyn was, that whole ‘liberal arts New Yorkers’, and Clary was raised by a single mum cos in my head Valentine’s still not there. I feel that would have been something that would have been great to see and given us a chance to really understand what it would have been like.
And it doesn’t happen in that alternate universe, but it would have been cool to see what would happen if it wasn’t me that was injected with demon blood, but Clary, and how that story would have gone down. Maybe on my 18th birthday I would have found out that I was a Shadowhunter and I’d have really good hair, and go running through the streets going… (tosses hair like he’s in a l’oreal advert)
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