J.K. Simmons on His First Leading Role in The Music Never Stopped and Moving Past Spider-Man

J.K. Simmons has appeared in countless films and television shows, but the Michigan-born actor, 56, is only now making his debut as a leading man. In Jim Kohlberg's The Music Never Stopped (available on DVD this week), Simmons plays a hard-nosed father dealing with an estranged son (Lou Taylor Pucci) who suffers a brain tumor that keeps him from forming new memories. The only way the pair can connect is through the very rock music -- an impressive soundtrack for the micro-budgeted indie that includes Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and the Beatles -- the father despises. Like Almost Famous, The Music Never Stopped is a delicately written and acted movie loosely based on true events that profiles heartbreaking human moments around a powerhouse set list... only on a much more intimate scale.

Simmons rang up Movieline on Tuesday to explain why it's impossible to summarize his first lead project, why he hasn't seen the new Spider-Man trailer yet and why, after 10+ years voicing the yellow M&M, he can't keep the candy-coated chocolates in his house.

I never cry in movies but I teared up in The Music Never Stopped. It is such a touching, well-acted story.

Well, I'm glad you saw it. I wish more people did. Maybe they will if you get the word out.

A lot of movies tend to over dramatize relationships between parents and their teenage children, but even in this movie's extreme circumstance, your relationship with Lou Taylor Pucci's character seemed so natural. How did you establish such an honest character and bond with Lou?

I think it was almost an ideal combination of things because first of all, the script that Gwyn Lurie and Gary Marks wrote was so spot-on in every aspect -- like the Dr. Oliver Sacks/music therapy and the period detail. But to me, most importantly, the characters that they wrote and put on the page in tandem with Jim Kohlberg having the right sensibility as a director and assembling the cast was everything. Lou Pucci and I were able to get together and bond before shooting and really connect with each other just as actors with similar philosophies about creating a character and serving the story. As human beings, we just clicked. He has a great relationship with his dad too so that helped. It was a great combination of positives.

This wasn't your first time playing a father. How did establishing this parent-child connection on The Music Never Stopped compare to your experience prepping to play Ellen Page's onscreen dad in Juno?

This sounds disingenuous but if it's the case of a great script, which was the case with both Juno and The Music Never Stopped, I just try to lift the character off the page. When you're working with truly, ridiculously talented actors like Lou Pucci and Ellen Page, the style, to me, it doesn't even have to be consciously arrived at. It's just something that's intrinsic in meeting. In an ideal scenario, when you have actors like Lou Pucci and Ellen Page who are young and can actually listen as an actor -- which is an underrated and somewhat unusual skill especially in film -- then you just count your lucky stars that you've found yourself in that situation. I just wish that all the people that saw Juno would see this movie. [Laughs] That would make this situation even better.

How would you pitch this movie to people who haven't seen it yet?

Right there, that's part of the problem. For me though, there is a reason why I'm 56 years-old and I haven't branched out into producing, directing or writing -- I'm a one-trick pony. I like to act. Every other aspect of show business, I find uninteresting. I have no idea how to pitch a movie and with a movie like this, you can lay out the synopsis of the plot and everything but to me, it sounds like "Oh, OK, whatever." I can't boil this down to a synopsis and make it seem interesting. What I like to tell people is, "This is a really good story about relatable people who go out of their comfort zone to connect with another human being. And it happens to involve some really cool '60s music and other interesting elements about Oliver Sacks and music therapy.

Was it draining or more therapeutic to work on a movie as emotionally charged as this one?

I keep coming back to this but if you're working with actors as good as these, then finding that emotion is easy. It's just there. All you have to do is be open to it. There are elements of the movie that continue to be relevant in life for me.

Like what?

I got a kid who's butting his head up against adolescence and there are some good perspectives from this movie that I have to remind myself of once in awhile. I have to try to relate to him the way he is now and not the way he was when he was a cuddly, little three-year-old. People evolve and it's important to not stop evolving just because you've reached "adulthood."

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