Those who caught the March 27 episode of Freeform’s Shadowhunters noticed a major change for the abilities of Alberto Rosende‘s Simon Lewis at episode’s end… and things are only going to get crazier from there.
To promote tonight’s all-new episode “What Lies Beneath,” airing at 8PM ET/PT on Freeform, we spoke with the fan favorite actor for some intel on what’s recently happened in Shadowhunters Season 3 as well as what’s coming up in the future.
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: Was Simon concerned by what the Seelie Queen may or may not have done to him, prior to last week’s episode?
ALBERTO ROSENDE: Absolutely. It hurts a lot, but also, he had other things on his mind. I wanted to get back to Maia; I didn’t want her to think I’m gone. I got to leave. I didn’t know that was going to happen; I don’t think he was asking too many questions, either. He was doing the thing where “I know I have to worry about this, but as of right now, I feel exactly the same, and I’ve got to leave,” which I heard wasn’t very common in the Seelie Court.
And then we had a new power at the end of this week’s episode. What the heck happened?
Simon doesn’t know yet! But we do know that Simon recognizes that what happened is extremely violent, dangerous and aggressive – all three things that Simon does not very much like – so he’s going to want to figure out what the hell that was and how to control that, super fast.
As an actor, is it fun to have new abilities to play with?
Oh, yeah. It’s another set of things you have to think about, essentially.
Like when Simon becomes a Daylighter… the subtle differences from being a regular vampire to a Daylighter certainly open up. You’re no longer cursed into the nighttime. You get to enjoy the daytime as a regular Mundane, essentially. You are literally living a vampire’s dream. Being completely immortal with the powers they have. Being able to travel anywhere at any time of day. It doesn’t sound like too bad of a trade off. But then when it’s nighttime and things like that, you only see a certain side of the world.
So there are subtle differences in his relationship to things that change, so any time a new ability comes, those subtle changes happen, and they become more fun for the actor. You kind of get to geek about really going into it. It’s a lot of fun.
I’ve heard that you were a big fan of Javier Muñoz from In the Heights. Have you gotten to work with him yet?
I haven’t yet. I’ve seen him on set, and he’s actually come out with us a few times, which is fun. As a cast, we go out on the weekends together, and he joined us and just became an immediate part of the group. Awesome guy. We do this thing where we sing Disney songs and musical theatre in our Ubers, so he really fit in.
Literally, we got a private performance of Hamilton in the Uber on the way from one bar to the next.
He has just been so cool, and then seeing him as Lorenzo Rey in the episodes, too… he adds a whole layer of depth. To the Malec relationship, to the Warlocks… and to the global understanding of our show, that this is an entire Shadow World, and there are different High Warlocks in different major cities; a whole structure that they live in. It’s cool to have characters that do that, and Javi does it so well.
Can you talk about that awkward almost double-date in last week’s show?
It was definitely one of my favorite things to shoot, for multiple reasons.
We were there all day, which when you’re on one location or on one set all day, it gets to be a lot, because you’re saying the same words a lot of the time, and one scene can take a long time… but it was a lot of fun, because I was with Kat, Dom, and Alisha, so we pretty much got to have fun all day.
The director, Peter DeLuise, is one of my favorites. We have a lot of fun with him on set, so we got to play a lot. It was just a fun day, and then to see what work came from it in the episode was really nice.
Now in terms of the character view of it, it was really awkward. Actually, Peter had to tell us at one point when we’d been there for a bit – “hey, guys. You’re getting too comfortable again. I need you guys to turn up the awkward. Remember, you guys are very uncomfortable. You’re dating her, you’re dating him. They used to have a thing, and you have a thing. Don’t forget the awkwardness!”
We’re all really good friends, so it just got to be a lot of fun. I’m really happy with the way that scene turned out. It was really fun, and I think there were a lot of cool little nuances there. Like, Simon and Maia’s relationship got a little bit stronger after. Jace and Simon had a moment where Jace recognized that Simon knows a lot about Clary in a way that Jace would want to. It’s a closeness that Jace wants to experience with her. So, there’s that level of understanding and respect, and then there’s also that awkwardness between Simon and Clary, but they still respect each other enough and they’re still super close, so they have that where they’re super close, but they recognize that they’re giving each other time right now.
There are a lot of nuances in that scene. It was just a very, very fun day.
How do you think Simon would react if he found out that Clary’s wish that revived Jace?
I think if Simon was put in the same situation if it was Clary, he would have done the exact same thing without thinking, just like Clary did with Jace. That’s what you do for the people you love.
Simon doesn’t really have an understanding of what that really means; it’s a big Shadowhunter thing, a wish from the angel. As a Downworlder we would never see an angel. The books have their own thing with that, but it takes a lot. It’s a whole other world that the Shadowhunters live in, so he doesn’t really know what that means, but I don’t think he would ever blame Clary or be upset with her for it.
What are you most excited for fans to see in the coming weeks of the show?
There are a couple of new characters coming in. I’m really excited for the fans to see how those characters enter our world, and how they shift the dynamics of things. That’s going to be really fun for them to see. A nod to the book fans, as well. I think as Lilith continues her wrath, the world just gets deeper and deeper. The whole idea of the owl and what type of demon it is, the Shadowhunters investigate that even more, and you start to learn more about that.
As with our show, things get worse before they get better. It seems like something’s brewing in the grand scheme of things, and there’s also the little things in between that will also be really cool. Everything we do in the next few episodes is just going to be a lot of fun.
Photos from tonight’s Shadowhunters episode “What Lies Beneath” can be found below.
