Jace hasn’t exactly had it easy the past couple of episodes. At the end of season two, he died and was then brought back to life. Lilith, the mother of demons and Jonathan, is now out to destroy Jace, and she’s willing to do it by any means necessary. She has also chosen Jace to be her own personal minion — dubbed the “Owl” — and her anti-love potion has erased Jace’s love for Clary!
And this has all gone down in the first five episodes of Shadowhunters season 3. Well, don’t expect Jace’s life to turn around any time soon, Dominic Sherwood teases. The Owl version of Jace is going to make our beloved Shadowhunter do some truly terrible things to the people he loves. But he still has hope that Jace and Clary can find their way back to each other. Check out our full Q&A with Dominic below!
Is Jace going to get cut any slack in the episodes to come?
Dominic Sherwood: It doesn’t really seem to get any better. We just read through 320 today, and it kind of gets better, but not really. It’s difficult to say without giving anything away. I guess the short answer is nah, not really. There’s always something going on with Jace, whether it’s his doing or someone else’s doing.
One of the things I loved about last week’s episode were the scenes between Jace and Simon. Their bromance is so fun, are we going to see more of it?
Dominic Sherwood: Yes, I hope so. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I think there’s so much more to that relationship than just butting heads, because it’s clearly not that. The reality is that they not only share this secret with each other in relation to becoming a Daylighter and that being because of Jace’s angelic blood, which will be a problem for both of them because it will cause problems later on down the line. It’s more than that. They both have this deep love for Clary, and I think as a result they have found that they are very similar people. They’re very self-sacrificial. They’ll do anything for the people that they care about. As a result of that, as much as they want to sort of play that they really hate each other, they really don’t. They actually care about each other immensely, and that’s just hidden under layers of pride. I hope we see more of those scenes because Alberto [Rosende] and I always read them and go, “These are going to be fun.” Fortunately, the wonderful addition of Chai Hansen, who just fell right into our group. It was like a piece of our puzzle was missing, and he just fit it. He’s so much fun and has quickly become one of our dear friends. He’s really great to work with as well. That was a really fun few days.
On the other hand, now Jace doesn’t remember his love for Clary. What can you tease about Clary’s reaction to this massive change in her boyfriend?
Dominic Sherwood: It’s going to be bad. Poor Clary. Poor Clary and poor Jace. It’s rough. But there’s turmoil in any relationship. There are trials and tribulations in any relationship that you have to fight through and overcome. If you truly love each other, you’ll find a way to get through the other side. Albeit, our trials and tribulations are the product of evil demons and revenge and death of brothers and all this crazy stuff going on. But the aim is always to figure it out, as it is in any relationship.
If anyone can do it, it’s Clary and Jace.
Dominic Sherwood: I think so, too! I don’t know what’s going to happen. All we need is like a good week of just everything being cool, everything’s good for a week, and then we’ll be back on track.
Even though this directly impacts Clary and Jace and their relationship, will this sudden change in Jace’s behavior affect the other characters?
Dominic Sherwood: Yes, this is something that we had to look at quite carefully. It’s a difficult line to tread, especially when we looked at the relationship between Jace and Alec. We saw at the end of the last episode where Jace drank this anti-love potion, you saw him physically stand taller and become the Owl. We worked hard on a deadness behind his eyes, a different facial expression, walking, talking, and moving a different way. What was difficult was, in this next episode, you have a dinner with Maryse, Izzy, and Alec. Now it can’t be obvious because these are people Jace has spent his entire life with, so we had to work hard on finding the duplicitous side to Jace and the Owl. But it’s the Owl version of Jace pretending to be the real version of Jace. It was a really complicated thing.
Has that been fun for you as an actor to play these Jekyll & Hyde-type characters?
Dominic Sherwood: Yes and no. It is a lot of fun and a huge challenge, as I am a wildly challenge-driven person. It’s really important to me that I’m constantly facing new challenges and finding ways to overcome them just as a person and actor a well. What you’ll see later on is that this Owl version has the kind of darkness and venom of Lilith, which makes him do some really awful things and say some really awful things. I can’t say too much, but I almost want to prepare you because that’s how bad they are. Consider this your preparation for how awful it’s going to be. You’ll see it a couple of times. I can’t say anymore, but it is quite hard, especially when you work with other actors and you say and do these things. The other actors are so fantastic that they react naturally, and it’s heartbreaking to watch. For me, having worked with these guys for three years, to see them in this emotionally crumpled state is really hard, but then I have to stay in that really dark sort of evil, venomous place. It’s very exciting and a lot of fun, but it can be draining at times.
With Jace being the Owl, being brought back from the dead, and Lilith’s manipulation, are all of these conflicting things going to really weigh on Jace even more so in the episodes to come?
Dominic Sherwood: Yes. We have an episode where we see both sides — the Owl side and Jace side — in tandem. I can’t explain exactly how that happens, but you see the evil and what affects that evil has had on Jace and his psyche.