Season three of The CW’s The 100 has found fan favorite characters meeting their makers. It’s also found Devon Bostick’s character, Jasper, suffering from PTSD following the devastating death of Maya (Eve Harlow). At the 2016 WonderCon in downtown Los Angeles, Bostick talked about what it’s been like to play a darker, depressed Jasper in season three of the series and what it might take for his character to be able to work through the loss of Maya.
Devon Bostick Interview:
Can you talk about the changes in Jasper from season one to season three?
Devon Bostick: “I love where Jasper’s going. I think it’s so true to see a character actually going through the PTSD that’s he’s actually going through. There’s so many things that happen on the show that our characters just push through it, and it’s nice to see someone really processing all the things that have happened. Also, I love playing Jasper the exact opposite of how he’s been since the pilot which is just so consumed in darkness.”
What are we going to see in terms of his relationship with Monty going forward?
Devon Bostick: “It’s interesting. It’s hard not to blame Monty for the death of Maya along with Clarke and Bellamy, especially someone that was so close to him like a brother. It pains Jasper deeply and I don’t think he understands that Monty was just doing what had to be done. It’s difficult. They had the big blowout and I think now they’re going to take some space from each other. Hopefully they can both learn to accept all the things that happened, but it’s a difficult friendship. I mean, I’ve never murdered any of my friend’s girlfriends so I can’t really relate, but yeah it’s going to be an interesting journey. I love that we’re seeing ‘Jonty’ go through all of the stages of friendship and also grief. It’ll be an interesting journey but hopefully they’ll get back together because nothing makes me happier than Monty and Jasper together.”
Going back to the PTSD, did you do any research to play that?
Devon Bostick: “Yeah, I’ve done some research and I was actually supposed to be doing this PTSD soldier film before this came about so I had done some research back then. The main thing I sort of brought into Jasper this year was he was unable to make eye contact with a lot of people. I just wanted to feel completely disconnected and reliving this horrendous day over and over and over again. He’s left alone to his own thoughts. Everyone’s off doing these crazy missions and I guess the main thing, yeah, is just being consumed by that day and reliving it over and over again. And then the thing we’re going to see, hopefully the progression with Jasper will be as he’s given this distraction by Raven, a mission to kill A.L.I.E. or whatever it is she wants to do, it’s giving him something that takes away from his thoughts for a moment. So we will see pieces of Jasper that we used to see before and hopefully he’ll be coming out of this shell shock.”
It seems like Jasper’s decided that he’d rather live with the pain that he has than go to the City of Light and sacrifice all the other memories he has.
Devon Bostick: “Yeah. I think the main thing is this parallel between Raven and Finn and Jasper and Maya. And yes, he wants to forget that horrible day. He wants to forget the image of Maya dying in his arms. But is that worth getting rid of all the good memories? Do the bad memories make you who you are? Am I going to get lost even more down in the City of Light? Yeah, it’s going to be a weird moral decision for Jasper whether he goes in or comes out. But, yeah, I think the good memories hopefully outweigh the bad. It’s hard though. They’re pretty visceral.”
Do you see Jasper as making a 180 and returning to the Jasper we used to know?
Devon Bostick: “I certainly hope so. I think he’s got to go through a lot for that to happen to ever be the boy he once was. I don’t think it’s even possible to fully be as innocent as he once was, just with all of the things that they’ve seen. But hopefully I think he’s going to work toward it and that getting out of his head and being able to apply it to the greater good and something that’s happening within the story will bring him back to who he is, hopefully.”
Watch the full interview with Devon Bostick on The 100 season 3:
