7th July 2019

The Hunters Of Shadow Convention 3 – Nicola Correia-Damude Meet & Greet

Michelle tDiE supporting material, The Descent is Easy 0 Comments

Let us first say that Nicola is incredibly well spoken, thoughtful, kind and down to earth. She also has the most stunning smile you will ever see.

Now, on to the quotes….

Nicola, as soon as she sat down and spotted the person who had made her fanbook: First of all.. My fanbook?!? This lady here is the most incredible woman. Me and my husband were going through it yesterday and just going ‘OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!’ It’s like a work of art, it should be in a museum. It’s phenomenal. Thank you again!!

Fan: I loved that Maryse walked Magnus down the aisle and the emotion you showed in the scene. Did you talk about this beforehand? Walking Harry down the aisle? And how did you feel with where Magnus and Maryse ended up?

Nicola: (blows out a long breath…) I remember getting the script. It was in the script that she was going to walk Magnus down the aisle. But it all happened so fast, the show getting cancelled. We were all told ‘Yay we’re definitely getting a season 4! See you all in August!’ and we’re all ‘Yay great!’ and then that happened so we had no idea what they would do… we all had some ideas what was going to happen in season 4 and we just had no idea how they were going to do it in two episodes. So the scripts came and we’re all like ‘oh my god what’s it going to be??’ and when I got to that point in the script and it said “Magnus comes around the corner” – I got goosebumps reading it then, and I have goosebumps now – so I read “Magnus comes around the corner, escorted down the aisle by Maryse” and literally my husband was in the other room and I went ‘OH MY GOD BABE!!’ I was so thrilled. (Nicola rubs goosebumps on her arm). So I knew. It was in the script.

What was so beautiful about shooting that scene, was that normally we don’t get the music that you hear when you’re watching it, because having music in the background means you can’t hear the sounds in the room or people talking. But what the director did that was so beautiful, was that all of the walking down the aisle stuff, all of us, Matt and Paulino who plays… erm… he plays… I forgot my husbands name…

Fan: Robert

Nicola: Yes! Hah! I’ve got Luke now, so I’ve forgotten Robert’s name. But all of it, me and Harry, the flower girl, everything with her.. we hadn’t heard the song yet and the director said I’ve got the song, and I’m just going to play it and you’re going to walk down the aisle and we all just started bawling right away. There was literally no acting in any of the scenes walking down the aisle, that’s just Harry and Nicola crying. Cause the song is so beautiful as well, right?

And in terms of the character development… what’s so beautiful, is that there’s been all this stuff that I’m sure some of you have done as well as other fans, who juxtaposed Maryse and Magnus facing off at the first wedding and then walking him down the aisle at the second wedding and this just makes my heart explode. What’s so beautiful about that relationship is that Maryse was fairly closed and had made a lot of choices about putting business before family, in a way that was detrimental for her and her family and seeing her open up to her family and realise that this was important was one thing, but to have Magnus be the person she relates to the most… After rejecting him, he’s the only one who understood what she was going through when she was de-runed. Luke did too, with what happened to him later, but at the time, the two of them ending up being friends and such important allies is a great symbol for what needs to happen in the world right now. If we could start seeing what we could gain by connecting with people around us, the world would be a different more beautiful place. So for me it was a symbol of everything. It was so important.

And also it was so fun, because Harry and I finally, after having one scene together going ‘I hate you!’ ‘I hate you!!’ and then all of season 3 it was me and Harry hanging out and it was really lovely.

At this point Nicola stops, and realises that her translator has been taking notes, and is frantically scribbling

Nicola: Oh god you have to translate all of this! I’m so sorry!!

After the translation is done, Nicola says (in French) that she speaks French a little bit, but not enough to do that! But she does understand, so when she’s nodding along, it is because she does understand

Michelle: Sort of on a similar vein in regards to Maryse’s journey. We’ve got a SH podcast where we did breakdowns of each episode, and since the show got cancelled we’ve been doing character episodes for the 8 main characters and we asked people to let us know if they wanted us to talk about any of the other characters and the most requested character was Maryse Lightwood

Nicola: Awww, great!!

Michelle: So what do you think it is about her journey that makes people connect to her so much?

Nicola: I think Maryse is representative of what can happen if people do what we need to be doing in the world. We’re living in a really scary time, right? It felt like progress was happening and now… especially with what’s happening in the United States and I know there’s stuff happening in this country, too… You feel like we are moving away from progress. Especially with LGBTQ rights, womens rights, acceptance of people, just human rights in general, and that’s without even starting to talk about the climate and everything else…

I think the thing with Maryse is that she starts out in a place that represented pain for a lot of us. She caused her children a lot of pain. She caused herself a lot of pain. And over the course of the three seasons she changes in the way that I think we all wish that people in our lives could do. And they can, but not everyone chooses to. And I think what’s specially about Maryse is that she made a choice. She didn’t wake up one day and was different, because that’s not real. That’s not real life. She chose to work on herself and become a better person.

What I love is for example in season 2, at Max’ rune ceremony, the party at Magnus’ house, you see her trying with Magnus. She’s like ‘oh god, I’m in a warlock’s house. But that’s okay.. I’m going to try…’ and the thing where she goes “I hear you like to drink…” and gives him the bottle and it’s like oh god, Maryse, what are you doing? But she’s trying! She knew she made a horrible mistake trying to get Jace killed. She acknowledges that and she reaches out to him to changes. Her journey is very realistic, to what people need to do. It’s hard work. People don’t just forgive you, you have to earn that. I think that’s why she’s so special. And to me the thing that is really key about Maryse, you see it in my first episode in season 3, when we find out she’s going to get de-runed and Alec says ‘Let’s fight to keep your runes! I’m going to fight for you!’ and Maryse says ‘Don’t fight. Because I did these things. I hurt people. I deserve this punishment so I will take the punishment and then I will make up for what I have done.’

I think if we had that attitude of ‘I admit what I did and I’m sorry and I’m going to do something about it’. That to me is the only way to really apologise and move forward. I think that’s what people have connected with. That it’s possible. Let’s do what she did. And it was written very realistically and we saw the struggle of it. She takes responsibility and it’s something we’re really lacking in all of our culture right now.

Nicola pauses, looks at translator: Can I just add one more thing before you translate? I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!!

What I think a lot of us are dealing with, with sexism and homophobia etc I think is a lot of people say ‘I’m not sexist! I’m not racist! I’m not homophobic!’ and they get defensive. When what we need is for people to say ‘You know what? I think I am a little bit. Or at least I was. And I don’t want to be… so help me fix that.’ And then we could help people fix that. But if we don’t admit it, then we end up with what’s happening in the United States right now, with people going ‘I’m not racist, I just don’t want these people in my country’ and I’m sure it’s happening here too with immigration. Just admit ‘I’m scared’.

Or if a parent, rather than disowning their gay child, could say ‘I just don’t understand… But I want to…’ so if we could just be honest about that and if we could take responsibility, then things could get better really quickly you know?

Fan: What did you put into Maryse, from yourself and what did you take from her, for your personal life?

Nicola: It’s funny. Maryse and I had very little in common in season 1. I’m a very empathetic person. I hate conflict. That first episode when I come in and I’m like ‘ARGH! You’re all terrible! I hate you!’ and they’re all crying… It’s horrible! It’s fun to play, but so horrible. So we had very little in common, so what I tried to bring to Maryse from the beginning was the element of myself that somewhere in the back of her head was that this wasn’t how she wanted to be.

Maryse season 1 was very hard, but I was trying to have a little bit of Nicola in the back going ‘It could be better’, and I think that’s in the writing as well. That scene with Isabelle where she says ‘you remind me so much of me’ and then the next minute she’s all ARGH again. But there’s those little moments where she’s trying. Maryse and I became much more similar as time went on.

What I also related to with Maryse is the career element. I am a working mum. I have a busy career. I question… I think all working mums… well, women in general. We’re always forced to question whether what we’re doing is right. Am I too focused on my career? Am I not focused enough? So I related to that struggle a lot.

What I got from Maryse was a couple of things. One of the reminder that you can change at any time. Maryse is significantly older than me. When I started the show I was 32 and Matt was like 28. (lots of eyerolling and laughter) Maryse is meant to be about 20 years older than me, in angelic time. So what I’ve taken from Maryse is that as you get older your life changes and sometimes you wonder if you are who you want to be. What I got from Maryse is that you can change your life at any point. It’s never too late to change your life and to reinvent yourself. That has been huge for me and I think about that a lot. The scene with Luke in the bar where Maryse says ‘I’m lost’, and he says ‘We’ll get through it, we just have to figure out what’s next’ – so that was very inspiring to me and I’m trying to take that forward in my life.

Fan: What did you think when they told you Luke was going to be your love interest?

Nicola: Well we’ve all seen Isaiah… there is NOTHING wrong with that!

There was a rumour that this was going to happen in season 2, when we shot that scene where I apologise to Luke and everyone was like ‘Huh! That’s interesting…’ and the writers wouldn’t tell me anything, and we’re all like ‘oh my god is this going to happen??’

I thought it was amazing, because I think Luke is the best possible person to bring her back to family and that she was the best person for Luke, to have a strong adult in the world that he hadn’t had since Jocelyn died. And I know it doesn’t follow the book, but I think for the story we were telling for Luke and Maryse, it was perfect. I also think it was really nice for the kids, like Clary and my kids, it was nice for everyone. We ended with a real family. Which I thought was lovely.

Fan: In all of your career, which character that you’ve played is closest to you? And on your website it says you sing, but I’ve not been able to find any songs..

Nicola: I’m on a TV show that you guys can get in Europe now, called Burden of Truth, and that character is most like me. I read for this character and my husband was helping me with the lines and he was like ‘oh, it’s you. Right. They should give you this, because this IS you’. Loving kids, loving people, she’s very much like me. Sometimes you get to play a part where you’re basically playing yourself and other than the smalltown element, she’s basically me, and that’s nice occassionally!

And with the singing. I was a professional singer until I was about 24. I did a lot of musicals. I recorded a self produced album, but I never distributed it. So it’s out there, with my family, on CD. I have been talking to some friends of mine who are singers about just doing some fun stuff together, but I decided that singing was very personal to me, and I decided that trying to make it a job was too stressful, so I decided to focus on acting as a job and singing as something that I did for myself. But I will see if I can put something online for you!

We are told that that had been the last question, but someone asked if she could just very very quickly ask something related to this, very very quick.

Fan: What’s your favourite musical role?

Nicola: I did a bunch, but I played Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar which was definitely my favourite!

Nicola thanked us all for coming, we took the group picture and she wished us a great rest of the convention.

<3

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13th April 2019

Pandemonium Con 1 – Matt Breakfast

Michelle tDiE supporting material, The Descent is Easy 0 Comments

Breakfast with Matt

Matt: “Does everyone eat? Everyone should take food if they want food! It’s important to have nutrients!”

Girl is making herself a sandwich

Matt: “You should take cheese and meat, since it’s your birthday! Do you have a candle for it? Do you want fruit on there, too? Yoghurt? Smear it on top? That’s probably gross… Let’s not do that. Instead have two pieces of cheese! And maybe mustard? Put butter on it and then toast it!”

Michelle: “So it’s actually Breakfast Making with Matt”

Matt: “Yes, absolutely! What you do is you take… What are those? Yoghurts? Oh, that’s a pretty good choice. They have pretty fruit on them.”

Fan: (to Michelle) “You don’t have any food.”

Michelle: “That’s because we’re all waiting for individual instructions. That’s how it works!”

Fan: “Can I have an apple?”

Matt: “You can have… you can have ONE.” (hand over one apple) “No, have as much fruit as you want. Everyone should have an apple. Or a plum. Just imagine if the plums are good. That would be a game changer..”

Matt: “Are we missing anybody? Do we have the right number of people?” (two people are missing) “Two people? Ok, we’ll wait for them before we get started.”

Everyone helps themselves to stuff while Matt straddles his chair, than kneels on it and starts rocking it about.

Matt: “Alright, so how is everyone doing this morning? You’re all doing well, I can tell. Which condiment do you want? You should mix them. Mayonnaise and Ketchup is a good mixture. With French fries. Throw in some tabasco. Spice it all up.” (picks up HP sauce) “What’s this?”

The non UK people explain that HP sauce is like BBQ sauce while UK people sit in the corner, shaking their heads in silent judgement, because it is NOT.

Matt: “Made in the Netherlands. So the Netherlands is making your HP sauce? What’s up with that? Now the mayonnaise… I bet you didn’t know any of this so it’s important that you know all of this. This is made in Dublin. Your mayonnaise is from Dublin. HP is from the Netherlands. The mustard is made in Germany. And the ketchup… is from the UK, from Middlesex. Well. A little world tour there of condiments.”

Matt: “So what’s going on? What are we discussing? Does anyone have any questions? Otherwise I will just ramble..”

Fan: “When did you arrive in London?”

Matt: “I arrived in London on Friday morning at exactly 09:59. At the London Gatwick airport. And I proceeded to take a vehicle that travelled me to my destination, which is the place where I’m staying. And then I went and had indian food in a place called Thai Shum. It’s very good. I went there last time I was in London. They had a special on peppered Lamb, which was excellent. I also had Roti. Do you guys like roti? I could eat it forever.”

Fan: “I don’t know what Roti is”

Matt: “It’s a flattened bread, like a Naan. Fried bread. It’s very thin and very good.”

Fan: “You should try the Gun powder potatoes”

Matt: “I saw them on there! But then I’m filling up on potatoes but I want to be eating the lamb… I mean, you can only eat so much, but you can try… you can but try…”

(last two people arrive)

Matt: “Welcome! We actually had one of the most amazing conversations while you weren’t here. It was all about condiments.”

—

Matt talks about Alec throwing a birthday party

Matt: “Alec doesn’t know how to throw a birthday party. He could throw a party but he might get overwhelmed. Did you ever plan someone’s birthday party?”

Fans: “No.”

Matt: “NO? never?”

Fan: “You don’t plan other people’s, you plan your own.”

Matt: “You plan your own? Yeah, actually that makes sense. You can be like ‘I want this!’ and you can make demands. I think that’s how it works in the States, too. One time someone planned a surprise party for me, and I was very upset about it, because I wanted to stay home… but I had a great time in the end, anyway.”

Fan: “In America, people take you out and pay for you, in Europe it’s the other way round”

Matt: “I’ve heard about that! I think it’s a good system that you’re paying and everyone kind of makes fun of you on your birthday and that way…”

Fan interrupts and says that it’s really expensive.

Matt: “Well let’s say you save up all year, you’re saving money on all these other birthdays. Either way it’s a wash, it’s a zero sum game.”

Fan: “Don’t buy a car for a birthday”

Matt: (slightly confused) “Don’t buy a car, no… Just don’t have friends! I see what you’re saying. It’s financially wise to not have friends!” … “Actually, that is a terrifying option. You should have friends. Just stop buying them drinks on their birthday. Any other questions.”

Fan: “There’s the episode where Alec is playing pool with Underhill and he says Magnus is 800 years old. What does that mean?”

Michelle: “It means Alec was drunk.”

(laughter)

Fan: “Does it mean that Magnus is 800 years old?”

Matt: “No! No no no. I think we randomly throw around his age. I know there’s a certain age for Magnus but on the show, we like to play around with ‘what is it? Who knows? He’s old as all hell!’ What really is the difference between 400, 800, 900 a thousand. Everyone wants to live forever.”

Fan: “Have you ever done the maths for 800 years and 17000 lovers? It’s like one a week.”

Matt: “We did do the math, yeah. We’re on set and we have a huge amount of time on our hands. We have paper and pencil and we have phones. We were able to do the maths so we did all kind of calculations. What’s his minimum given the fact that he could only… engage with one person an hour.” (laughter) “What’s the minimum age? What’s his maximum age? What would be a normal thing, like one person a year?”

Fan: “Does he say relationships or… things?”

Matt: “Interactions.” (pauses) “Is everybody in here over 18?”

Fan: “It could be more than one at a time”

Matt: “Of course!”

Fan: “It could be two”

Fan: “It could be three”

Matt: “And some days it may have been a thousand. You just don’t know.”

(some fans look shocked at this thought)

Matt: “He’s magical, he’s got magical powers! He can do stuff.”

Fan: “Does he do stuff?”

Matt: “Does he who? Magnus? Magnus does stuff… Magnus does all kinds of stuff… Magnus… erm.. Magnus used to do stuff.”

—

Fan: “What was the biggest surprise for you, for Alec?”

Matt: “On the whole show? What was the time I read it and I was like whaaaaa? I don’t know actually. I don’t know. I’m trying to think. I’m not sure I ever read the script and went WHOA, what a surprise. I’m starting to lose track of what happened in season 1. What surprised you guys? What did you see and think WHOA!”

Fan: “Your face”

(Laughter)

Matt: “Oh, I know! I murdered Jocelyn! I read that and I was like WHOA!”

Fan: “It wasn’t your fault”

Matt: “I know that, but we were definitely all surprised!”

Fan: “What about when Magnus was Valentine?”

Matt: “I liked that bit. I guess it was surprising but I was having fun with it. That was great. Working with him was a lot of fun. He kept throwing that boot against the wall. I’ve told that story but he damaged the wall and he kept throwing this boot against the wall, even when it wasn’t necessary and he did it over and over again and eventually we got the take but we had to keep fixing the wall.”

—

Fan: “What’s Alec’s favourite alcoholic drink?”

Matt: “He’s kind of a man of all flavours. I don’t think he drinks a lot of beer. I think he’s more into… I think he probably just high balls. Maybe Manhattans? Oh! I know! Dark & Stormies!”

Fan: “What’s that?”

Matt: “It’s dark rum and ginger ale and something else…”

Ruth: “Usually limes.”

Matt: “Yes, a little lime! It’s very nice. You ever had dark and stormies? You should have a go, it’s fun! The real place to get a D&S is down along the eastern seacoast as far down as Florida.”

—

Fan: “Does Alec ever find out that Magnus stole his stele to give to Jace?”

Matt: “Okay, so that was actually a point of contention because I remember it was Season 1 and I remember asking ‘Wouldn’t Alec be really pissed about that? Because it’s a pretty serious betrayal? Disobeying direct orders and all that? And I never really confront anyone about it so… I guess the answer is… nooo? I guess he never finds out. And if he ever did find out he probably wouldn’t be very happy. Water under the bridge I guess. Doesn’t matter. Life went on. No problem.”

—

Fan: “Kiss, Marry, Avoid – Clary, Simon, Maia”

Matt: “I don’t think he’s capable of kissing Simon…”

(fans debate about the books)

Matt: “I think he’d avoid.. I mean.. Is murder an option? I like how you made it kiss, marry, avoid. Like, the real version is far better.”

Fan: “I thought you may not want to do that”

Matt: “No, I don’t want to do that. Nor does Alec. He doesn’t want to do any of that. It’s not a fun game for him. He doesn’t really know Maia… Is it just a (demonstrates brief smooch) like that? Sorted.”

Fan: “We’re not getting an answer?”

Matt: “No!”

—

Fan: “Do you have any plans after Shadowhunters?”

Matt: “I’m working on it but a lot of things aren’t filming until February/March. It’s a bit tumultuous at the moment. I wanted to extend my trip out here, but I have to go back, because I’ve got meetings on Tuesday so I’m just figuring things out for February. You never know what’s the right choice and what’s not. With TV you never know. This show looks great, but people may not respond to it. This other show looks terrible but people may hop on the show and it may be a little rewritten and it may become good. So it’s stressful. So what are you going to do because you spend a lot of months on this project and that’s months that could be wasted and if you’re not working on something that people are interested in and your value decreases and it’s less likely you’re going to get good projects in the future, so you have to make good choices and it’s stressful.”

Michelle: “What would you like to do?”

Matt: “I’ve been thinking about that a little bit and honestly, I think I’d like to stick with TV. Movies have a nice quality to them because you see beginning to end and that way you can fully develop a character and go through the full process and that way it’s easier on your mind, if you’re able to carry through the character to the end. And it makes your life a little simpler if it’s a finite completion. With a TV show it’s an ongoing process. You’d hope you’d have a full season of notes ahead of time, if you had a full 13 episodes you’d know where you start and where you end, but commonly nowadays they’re writing episodes the week before, like we did on our show, so you don’t know what’s happening, and that’s frustrating. But I think TV because you get to do more interesting things to do with your character and it’s more consistent acting.”

Fan: “What show would you be on?”

Matt: “I don’t know. I’d like to do something with a modern tone. Maybe something real world. A little comedic. That has elements of comedy. Nothing too comedy.”

Fan: “Have you ever thought of doing stand up comedy?”

Matt: “Nobody wants me to go on and on about things… I’d have fun, but the audience wouldn’t have fun”

Fan: “But they could look at your face.”

Matt: “No, no one wants to see me up there. That’s not how it works. I’d have to wear a mask!”

Fan: “Tell us a joke!”

Matt: “The jokes I would tell would be different. They would be stories!”

Fan: “About oranges?”

Matt: “Sure, why not. Look, I would bomb! Have any of you ever done stand up? It’s brutal! It’s BRUTAL! The feeling of not making people laugh. And at the same time, people will laugh, when they are ready to laugh. Sometimes a person might go out there and tell great jokes and the crowd will sit there like ‘meh’, not in the mood. And then you’ve got a guy in the corner laughing or you’ve got someone with a hilarious laugh, and the audience gets on board. Stand up is brutal! The stand up people I know, they have it rough.”

—

Fan: “Are we ever going to see the pigeon video”

Matt: “Didn’t I show it to? I showed it to some people! But I brought my camera… oh I never uploaded it. I was watching it the other day. It’s on my ipad. It’s at home, back in New York.”

Fan: “Are you ever going to show us?”

Matt: “I might. I do forget things. It’s been a while. You’ll be old and with a family just wondering ‘what about that perverted pigeon video’. (to everyone) The perverted pigeon video is a video of two pigeons trying to have a… you know, a nice time. And a third pigeon is very jealous of the whole thing and hops up and tries to join in. it’s really weird. I was in Barcelona and I was filming it and I’m talking through the process. Anyway. Point is. Pigeons got their business done. Because you know pigeon… oh god (deep breath) pigeon sex… bird sex is very quick. The process is that there’s this one opening, which is this little.. (miming) and they use it for a whole lot of things.. (hand movements) so then they (clap) and then they wander off. It’s a really quick action and then they’re done. It doesn’t really matter to the pigeon. It’s not about the experience or the emotion or attachment. They just want to make those fertilised eggs and then go lay them somewhere to make those hideous babies. Have you ever seen those babies? Horrifying!”

Staff member interrupts to say that the Breakfast is over.

Matt: (pouting) “But I’m talking about pigeons!”

Fan asks about taking a photo. Matt goes to get everyone together but member of sStaff says that no, the Meet & Greet group gets a photo, this group doesn’t.

Matt: “Oh. Oh. Ooookay…” (sounding unsure) “Well, I’ll see you guys for the remainder of the day and tomorrow, yeah? I hope you have a lovely time and don’t let that food go to waste. Eat it! It’s free food!!”

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31st March 2019

Pandemonium Con 1 – Matt Panel

Michelle tDiE supporting material, The Descent is Easy 0 Comments

Just like Matthew’s thought process, this is in no particular order and with no semblance of structure… enjoy!

Fan: We were hoping you could settle a discussion for us.

Matt: (gleeful) Start a discussion??

Fan: No, settle one.

Matt: Ok, let’s hear it. (laughs) I mean, you are asking the wrong person

Fan: Well, it is about Alec so you should be ok.

Matt: Okay, let’s see!

Fan: In the scene where they are closing the rift, and the demon swoops in, and Alec goes running back to Magnus. There’s a discussion as to why he does it… Some people claim it’s to get help. Some people claim it’s to protect Magnus.

Matt: Well, well, well, well, well…

Fan: And you better give the right answer.

Matt: Well… Now let’s get into a little discussion here first. And that’s about the nature of right and wrong. There are right answers to certain questions. Obviously truth does exist. And in this reality that we are looking at we’re going to say that there is a kind of truth and that truth was written down. So there was a written down truth in the script, that described why he was running back.

But is what is written down by the script really what is true. That depends on your nature. Or your understanding. Or your belief. In how important the script is in defining truth.

Because we can just arbitrarily apply truth to whatever we want and say that the reason he went over was actually because the previous day Magnus had said that he had cooked burgers and they were really tasty and Alec was like ‘You know what, I’m starving in this moment, I’ll deal with that in a minute. I’m gonna go and get a burger and then come back with a full stomach.’ And that’s whatever you want to make of it. So I think either answer works for you, if that’s the answer you like it to be.

And I’m not going to settle your discussion. I think it’s good you have a discussion going. I think you should argue until the end of time.

Fan: But will you agree with me on one point?

Matt: I will agree with you on any point you want

Mod: Sorry to interrupt, but they can’t hear you at the back

Matt: (shouting) I can just yell!

Mod gives Matt a new microphone to test

Matt: hello? Hello. Hello! I’m saying things that are so important!

Mod gives Matt another microphone

Matt: Testing. Testing. Can you hear in the back? That’s a Yes! So….

You want me to agree with something. Tell me what it is?

Fan: Would you say that Alec Lightwood is the kind of character who wants to protect others?

Matt: Are you going to use this, to then prove your point? (laughter) I would say that Alec Lightwood as a character both is interested in helping others and protecting them, and is interested in seeking help in the protection of others… (laughter)

Mod: Sorry to interrupt. Anyone who’s got a trio photo, go now! Trio photo, go now!

Matt: Trio photo with..? With..?

Mod: I don’t know who it’s with Matt, don’t put me on the spot

Matt: Two other humans… probably Isaiah…

Moderator tries to encourage people to leave. No one is leaving. Fan points out it’s because Matt is here. Moderator tries to explain that people have to leave, because they will miss their photos, if they don’t go now. Matt unhelpfully rambles nonsense in the background.

Fan: Imagine Jace was not your parabatai

Matt: Done!

Fan: Would you chose him to be your parabatai or would you chose someone else?

Matt: Okay, wait. Under these circumstances we are describing a situation in which Alec Lightwood does not have a parabatai, yet he is the age that he is at the start of the series, and he must chose a parabatai, who does he choose?

Fan: Yes

Matt: No. It doesn’t make sense. The question doesn’t work, because it’s ridiculous. If he’s spending all that time with Jace under the same exact conditions as though that Jace was his parabatai he would chose Jace as his parabatai and he would wonder why he hadn’t done it 10 years before and given a situation in which he does not know Jace then he wouldn’t even know how to choose Jace as his parabatai and at the same time you could say that a parabatai is sort of something that we assume upon birth, at the beginning, it’s inevitable that it would happen and I am sure that at some place, some way its possible that at one point Alec said good God I wish he wasn’t my parabatai and then he would have forgotten about it just minutes later. So Jace is the only option unfortunately just as Magnus is.

Fan: What about Clary?

Matt: What is happening??

(laughter)

Fan: Imagine Magnus has to transfer to Greenwich..

Matt: Greenwich Connecticut?

Fan: Greenwich…

Matt: Greenwich village?

Fan: The one that Asmodeus says…

Matt: Oooooh, London! Not Connecticut. He’s not trying to hide his taxes by moving out of New York City and moving to Connecticut, where they have a lower tax rate. Okay. Continue.

Fan: First. Would you let him go or would you want him to stay?

Matt: Ok, I’ve thought about this a few times. Here’s something… first of all…

Okay. What is the concept of time and distance…

(Audience groans)

…to a warlock, who can create a portal any time he wants and all of you can ‘uuuuuugh’ all you want, it sounds like I’m back at home. But the reality is that what he would do with his house is that he simply put a portal in the middle of it. So when he comes home, we just walk back and forth. In fact the kitchen can be cut in half for all I care. He can wander between. Half of it is in London, half of it is—

Fan: Magnus doesn’t have magic anymore.

Matt: Oh, you mean when he doesn’t have… oh… right.. oh…

(laughter)

Matt: Well, he’s going to have to get on a plane and do the long distance travel thing. It’s only a 6 hour flight. And I think that one of the best versions of growing you can do in a relationship especially early on is to work with that distance. It provides you a lot of ways to connect emotionally. It teaches you certain skills.

At the same time, no! that’s ridiculous! You want Magnus to live by himself in London? Where is Alec this whole time? He’s living in Idris? In New York? What are you trying to separate them? You can’t keep them apart! Ridiculous! Not happening, not going to work.

Fan: What if Magnus really wants to go?

Matt: Throw a temper tantrum? I don’t know. He’s going to have to get on a plane!

Fan: You’re going every week?

Matt: Of course you fly every week. It’s ridiculous. He has to get on a plane. It’s not the end of the world! It’s not like he’s… going to… Edom or something.

(OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH)

Fan: So what if he did go, what surprises would you do to keep connecting with him?

Matt: Okay, so… I think what we’re looking at… Is this happening to you right now? And you’re looking for advice?

(laughter)

Matt: I would recommend Skype. Daily phone calls. Texts. Maybe a nice little random Amazon order that gets delivered to them. Maybe one night you order a food delivery directly to their house. Little sweet nothings. Little reading books together. What did you read? What chapter did you read? What show are you watching. Delightful little things like that. That will work for you!

Fan: Who’s your favourite member of Queen? And my second question is… Alec shoots at very short ranges which I think is very inefficient, so why… why do that?

Matt: Right, a two part question. The two parts are completely unrelated but I’m going to combine them! Freddy Mercury is my favourite member of Queen and I think there’s an obvious reason to that. Whether or not the other members of Queen want to admit it, Freddy was the heart and soul, the thing that we all loved about the band, he was the performer, he was the face… Alec Lightwood (Matt pauses. Everyone laughs) is a performer. He is the face… of… the… New York institute.

He’s not going to go running around without his signature item. Just as Freddy has his voice and has his moves, Alec Lightwood has his bow and his stubbornness. And if you combine the stubbornness with the possession and use of a bow, you may end up using a bow in short range combat.

Fan: But he-

Matt: Da Da Da Da (shushing her. Everyone laughs.) Is it inefficient? Yes of course it is! Does it make no sense? of course it doesn’t! But there’s really a million other things that I could point to, that Alec does that make no sense because he is stubborn. He’s going to continue using that damn bow at very short ranges, he’s going to fire it from three, four, five feet away, it doesn’t matter. He’s not going to pull out that sword because he’s not carrying it anymore. Because why is he going to carry something, that Jace is using? (laughter) The bow is his! It’s his and there is no arguing with that. That’s the end! That’s the end of!

Fan: Wouldn’t it be better to take it and hit the demon with it, if it’s that close?

Matt: Nah.

Fan: Todd teased that there would be a Malec dance scene. Can you say anything about it?

Matt: Who? Who teased this? Todd teased that there would be a Malec dance scene? Ridiculous!

What kind of lies are being spread online? I can think of so many… A dance scene between Alec and Magnus. Ludicrous. Nonsense. How could it even work? How could I? Me? The person who plays Alec possibly dance with Harry, the person who plays Magnus, and not look like a complete buffoon? How would I tolerate this? How would you tolerate this? It would be like watching… like watching.. the… what’s an example of someone at the top of their game? It’s like watching LeBron James play basketball against a two year old. Would it be funny? It would be hilarious. But you would also need to avert your eyes at times…

I think sometimes… lies have a little truth. We’ll see.

Fan: Throughout season 1 we always see Alec bottling his emotions and putting others first and we see this carry through the seasons. Why?

Matt: Why does it carry through? Because people don’t just change all of a sudden. I think underlying qualities, values, things like that that you’ve established over a long period of time is not something you just change over night. Really it’s only been a few months. He needs a lot more time before he gets better at sharing his emotions properly in a healthy manner. It’ll probably take another few years. You see little spots of it. But at least now he can have the discussion. People can be like ‘hey, you’re not being emotionally healthy here’ and he’ll be like ‘Fine!’, whereas in the past he would have been like ‘No!’

It’s improvement, but it’s ongoing. As all things are. Your health improves gradually, not over night, especially with something as complex as emotions I think.

Fan: When you were studying, did you think about becoming an actor?

Matt: No.. I think.. it’s… how many of you have jobs?

(people raise hands)

Matt: All of us, right? Right. And all of us have these jobs because we chose to do them, because we love what we are doing so much, right? Obviously, if you’re not laughing, you can tell, that’s not why. We sometimes get jobs, if we are very lucky, that we really like to do. Other times we do jobs because they’re a career and it’s a possible thing that you like to do or something that you tolerate. In the case of economics, I like economics, I liked studying… In this case, actually, I was largely studying finance, which as a title has more application in the real world, especially in New York but that career was not something I was interested in doing long term because… it didn’t provide a livelihood. Economic research would have been more interesting to me but again, not really a livelihood but also was not really what I was in love with doing. Once I realised that acting is what I love doing, it became obvious that this was the only choice, even if it meant I had to work other jobs, that I didn’t want to work, in the meantime.

(Mod interrupts to announce Will photos)

Fan: This question will have an actual answer…

(laughter)

Matt: Let’s see. Let’s try our hardest.

Fan: What do fish never look?

Matt: Fish never look what?

(Matt is confused. Eventually works out if was about his two week memory spiel the day before)

Matt: The answer I gave yesterday was… fish never look…. Sad?

Fan: Unhappy

Matt: Unhappy! So there’s a little lesson, isn’t it? Because sad and unhappy are two different things, right? So really if I said that they never look unhappy yesterday, I think I changed my mind. I think they never look sad. I think some of them look unhappy. Especially the ones with those little weird faces.

But I would disagree, I was just doing this for Dom’s benefit because honestly I think he looks like a fish. So yeah. Dom looks like a fish. Ask me tomorrow, if I remember what I think Dom looks like and the answer might be a horse. I don’t know. I’m just going day by day here now. You’re right, two weeks is too long. It’s really an hour. Things are better that way. That way I don’t regret anything from the last 25 minutes!

Fan: My question for you is regarding the Malec relationship

Matt: Understood!

Fan: Obviously we hope for more seasons, but if we don’t get them, where would you like to see Magnus and Alec at the end of it all? Married with kids?

Matt: Oh, this is such a common question..

Fan: Sorry!

Matt: Not in a negative way. It’s a common question but I never really have an answer that I can settle on because I think sometimes what’s difficult is to say ‘what do I want with my life? What is the thing that I want in the end?’

Do I want a million grandchildren and a little farm somewhere and they come and visit me every Christmas and I get them little presents and I have a dog and his name is Jim and that’s so funny, because Jim isn’t a name for a dog!

Or maybe I want something entirely different and have no kids and live on a rock somewhere on the side of a mountain I have no idea! So what I want for Magnus and Alec is really just that they are doing the thing that they wanna do most and that they are happiest but I’m not really sure what that is. And if you have the answer, please tell me! If you know the answer for what will make people happiest in the long run, I would like you to write a book! And then sell it to all of us. Because if you nail it, if you have the answer… a lot of us are going to want to buy that book.

So… whatever makes them happiest which I think is… I don’t know.

You guys tell me. Go on twitter and write what you think will make them happiest. Instead what you’re going to write is ‘Matt said that he doesn’t want them to be happy. He was talking about happy something… I don’t know, I wasn’t listening. He said Magnus and Alec should never be happy! Now you’re going to put that, aren’t you! You’re just writing that in quotes and somebody will say ‘what do you mean??’ and even now, even as I’m saying this, you’re going to pretend I didn’t make a joke about it and it’s going to start a thing… this is why I don’t go on twitter.

Fan: I was going to ask a question about 3b but I’m not sure you can answer them

Matt: I can try

(laughter)

Fan: So instead I just wanted to say a massive massive thank you for everything you’ve done. You’ve done so much and I’m sure I speak for everyone here when I say that you were the best damn Alec we could have asked for and we are going to miss you. Thank you so much.

I was going to ask for a hug but I’m scared I’m going to get told off but… can I have a hug?

Matt: Yes, because I didn’t spend any time answering your question.

Matt steps down from stage, Mod steps in, but Matt goes to hug fan, anyway.

Matt: He gets one! Because I didn’t answer a question!

Their two microphones get too close and emit high pitch reverb

Matt: (jumping back) Get these away from each other!!

(back on stage)

Matt: That was very very sweet, thank you very much

Fan: Kiss, Marry, Kill – Harry, Dom and Kat

Matt: You’re asking me to play Kiss, Marry, Kill with my three very real, existing coworkers??

Okay, imagine such a question. You go to someone’s house… or their office let’s say! You go to their office and you say ‘oh you work here? Hi! Boss man right there, I know you don’t know me, this person right here, you work with, I’m going to play this game Kiss/Marry/Kill in front of the three of you.’ And you’re trying to work. You’re sitting… whatever it is you’re doing. Let’s say you’re sitting on a ledge where you go… maybe you’re an archaeologist and I say let’s play Kiss/Marry/Kill and the three of you sit next to each other and you have to spend a lot of time with each other over the next six months so you play the Kiss/Marry/Kill game and even though maybe there’s no truth to it and it’s complete nonsense maybe it nags at people. Maybe the one you chose to kill is sitting there late at night wondering ‘Oh my god are they going to kill me?’ The one that you chose to kiss is wondering ‘My god, do they really love me??’ and the one you chose to marry is sitting there thinking ‘Good god, how do I get out of this??? I really don’t want to…’

So this question sets me up for failure from the very get go. Even asking me… even me not answering puts me in a terrible spot because now they’re going to say ‘Why didn’t you just choose me to kiss? Why didn’t you just choose me to marry??’ and somebody else will be like ‘What? You didn’t want to answer because you’re thinking of killing me?!?’

So the question itself has already put me in a spot where I’m going to have to deal with three very sensible people that I want to kill!

So thank you

Mod: Guys, listen… (turns to Matt) You ok? Do you need a breather after that?

(Laughter. Matt is fine)

Fan: When does AU Alec learn that Magnus is a warlock?

Matt: Alternate Universe Alec actually.. (soft chuckle) Interesting fact about alternative universe Alec… There are actually only two… although there are many alternate universes, an infinite number, there’s actually only two Alecs. There’s one Alec, the one we all know and love from the majority of the episodes, and then there’s the Alec who is the version we saw in the alternative universe episode. All the other universes are only populated by those two Alecs which is what makes Alec so unusual in the multiverse. Quite an unusual quality. Super weird.

SO… Alec because of this sort of infinite set of knowledge, knows already that Magnus is in fact a warlock. So his little routine? His little cat and mouse game he was playing in that episode? (growly whisper) He knew.

(laughter)

And that was just his way of playing it coy, because he knew where he was going with that… Now, obviously the Alec from the other universe is sometimes a buffoon. But other alternate universe Alec. He knows what he’s doing…

(slightly confused silence)

Matt: Did that make any sense??

Fan goes past stage and reaches for a hug, Matt gets up to hug her

Mod: Just one second, sorry guys I –

Matt: Anyone who asks a good question gets a hug, it’s the bad question that don’t get anything

Mod: Two things. I know you all love him. I like him too. He’s pretty nice.

(Matt looks offended behind her back. Audience laughs. Matt pulls faces and pretends to leave)

Mod: So listen. He’s lovely. But just like before with Dom or whatever. If you all try and get a hug we will never ever end. And then I get complaints. And number two: photos with Will, go! I know you want to stay here with me, but you have to go! Right, continue, go!

Fan: Yesterday was Magnus’ birthday, right?

Matt: Yes..

Fan: If AU Alec is a party planner…

Matt: Yes…

Fan: What does he do for AU Magnus’ birthday?

Matt: An extravaganza!

(laughter)

Matt: Hang on, which universe Alec? Alternate Universe Alec? What’s the obsession with alternate universe Alec? He’s not the Alec you know and love! I’ve established there are two kinds. There’s the alternate universe Alec who exists in all dimensions and alternate universes simultaneously as sort of a cross verse monster. Almost like an omnipresent God.

And then there’s the Alec we know and love who is a babbling buffoon and he would throw an extravaganza just as well! Why are you throwing him under the bus?

He would do a great job! What do you think Alec can’t plan a party? Alec can plan a party! It just might be a very sincere party. Maybe no costumes. Come dressed well! There’ll be 3 different kinds of alcohol served! There will be 4 kinds of hor d’oeuvres and they will be served for one hour!

No, he’s not that goal oriented. That’s ridiculous what I just said.  It would be terrible! It’d be horrible! He’d throw it in a basement! And there would be (growly voice) no shirts allowed.

(laughter and whooping)

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Does that answer your questions? Good.

Fan: You and Esther travel a lot. Is there anywhere you’ve not been you’d really love to go to?

Matt: Oh so many places! We have a list. And in reality you can’t spent all your time travelling, you have to work. Fortunately Shadowhunters allowed me time off between (seasons), where there was set work coming, so it wasn’t like I could do much else in that time off so I figured why not do the thing I couldn’t do when I was younger and wanted to do my whole life so that’s what we did. We travelled a lot.

I want to go to a lot of central Asia. Poland is on the list. We haven’t done all the countries in northern Europe, Scandinavia.  There’s a lot of Latin America we gotta do down there. Other parts of Spain, Basque country.

(Someone yells Germany)

Matt: Germany is also a big one. (more yelling) We’ve done most of South East Asia, but we want to go back. New Zealand is on the list. We’re trying to get everywhere. As long as you have beer and food, we’re coming, because we’re going to drink it and eat it!

Right, who’s next?

Mod: That was a the last question

Matt: Was it??

Mod: You talk a lot Matt. You’re done, ok? We still love you, but we can’t have any more questions.

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16th November 2018

Our Ultimate Shadowlist

Michelle tDiE supporting material, The Descent is Easy 10 Comments

As we are rewatching Shadowhunters, and while we are creating commentary podcasts, we are also attempting to put all episodes of Shadowhunters in order, from best to worst. This list will be regularly updated, as we record new episodes. Feel free to comment and tell us how wrong we are!

The Shadowlist

1. 02×04 – Day Of Wrath
2. 02×18 – Awake, Arise, and Be Forever Fallen
3. 02×05 – Dust and Shadows
4. 02×03 – Parabatai Lost
5. 02×13 – Those of Demon Blood
6. 02×08 – Love is a Devil
7. 02×11 – Mea Maxima Culpa
8. 03×08 – A Walk In Darkness 
9. 03×10 – Erchomai
10. 01×05 – Moo Shu To Go
11. 02×19 – Hail & Farewell
12. 01×08 – Bad Blood
13. 01×09 – Rise Up
14. 03×07 – Salt In The Wound 
15. 02×06 – Iron Sisters
16. 02×10 – By the Light of Dawn
17. 02×12 – You Are Not Your Own
18. 02×16 – A Day of Atonement
19. 02×15 – A Problem of Memory
20. 03×09 – Familia Ante Omnia
21. 03×03 – What Lies Beneath 
22. 02×02 – A Door Into The Dark
23. 01×10 – The World Inverted
24. 03×05 – Stronger Than Heaven 
25. 01×12 – Malec *
26. 02×01 – This Guilty Blood
27. 02×14 – The Fair Folk
28. 03×01 – On Infernal Ground
29. 01×04 – Raising Hell
30. 03×02 – The Powers That Be
31. 02×20 – Beside Still Water
32. 03×06 – A Window Into an Empty Room 
33. 02×07 – How Are Thou Fallen
34. 03×04 – Thy Soul Instructed
35. 01×07 – Major Arcana
36. 02×17 – A Dark Reflection 
37. 01×06 – Of Men And Angels
38. 01×11 – Blood Calls To Blood
39. 02×09 – Bound By Blood
40. 01×01 – The Mortal Cup
41. 01×13 – Morning Star
42. 01×02 – The Descent Into Hell Isn’t Easy
43. 01×03 – Dead Man’s Party

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