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

Speaking of evolving, audiences are used to seeing you as a heavy hitter in ensemble projects but this is the first movie where you really play the lead role.

Yeah, this was literally my first opportunity to be the number one name on the call sheet and that was great on a number of levels, mainly just because I felt more so like a real collaborator from the very beginning. From the moment I signed on, I was in touch with Jim about the rest of the casting, preproduction choices and having a little input during rehearsals. A lot of my jobs -- and quite frankly, I prefer it this way -- I'm dropping in to do a week on a movie and then I'm out or I'm doing a TV show where I work two or three days a week instead of five. It was fun to be there from day one to the very last day and to be more of a collaborator in every aspect of making the movie. But that wasn't the reason why I took the job, just to be the lead, because frankly I still think of Lou as the lead character in the movie even if the billing works the other way around.

Even so, It seems like you're in a pretty sweet spot in your career right now with four movies in various stages of production, your work on The Closer, a steady stream of voice roles. Do you remember the moment when you felt like you had really established yourself as an actor?

I'm still not sure that I have. [Laughs] Unless your name is Clooney or Pitt or Hanks, I think it's hard to feel completely like you're established or where you want to be. This script, which I am eternally grateful for, came to me but only after it bounced off a couple other guys first who didn't want to do it or couldn't schedule it. I'd love to be more established. I'd love to never have to audition for the rest of my life and have every good script in Hollywood come my way. At the same time, when I look back twenty years and remember that I was struggling to pay my rent for a crappy apartment in Hell's Kitchen and doing regional theater for a subsistence wage, and now I'm able to live in a big, fancy house and send my kids to private school -- there's always somebody who is better off and worse off than you are. That's an important perspective to keep in mind I guess.

25 years in, what still excites you most about acting?

It is really fun though when just out of the blue, a little plum part in a TV comedy or an independent film that ignites me, comes my way because the director thinks I might be a good fit.

Which project do people recognize you most for these days?

That's changed a lot recently actually. For awhile it was either Oz or Law & Order and then it was Spider-Man. I still can't walk half a dozen blocks up 8th Avenue in New York without someone yelling, "Yo, Oz!" I'll always be attached to that. I get a lot of "Hey, it's Juno's dad" and stuff about The Closer.

You were able to reprise your Spider-Man character in the upcoming Disney cartoon series Ultimate Spider-Man. Now that anticipation is building for The Amazing Spider-Man, do you feel like you have to lay J. Jonah Jameson to rest in some sense?

Yeah, in a way. The Sam Raimi group doesn't get to make any more movies so when they asked me to be the animated J. Jonah Jameson, I made sure that it had the Marvel and Stan Lee seal of approval and I thought it would be a fun thing to do. And it was.

Have you seen the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man yet?

No. I know less about show business than anybody, including my retired parents in Montana. Unless someone puts it literally in front of my face, I don't see it. I did hear that my character wasn't going to be in the big movie. I don't know whether that's good or bad news. I guess it's good I don't have to watch somebody else have the fun of playing J. Jonah Jameson.

Lastly, I enjoy your commercial voice work as the yellow M&M. Since you've been working for Mars for over a decade now, do you get all of the free M&Ms you want?

Unfortunately, no. I need to ask about that -- although my daughter is allergic to peanuts so we don't want to have those around the house. It's ridiculous but [the M&M commercials] have been such a truly great, fun job... and they pay the mortgage. Billy West, who plays the red M&M, and I have been doing that for 13, 14 or 15 years. Every year, I go back to my old summer stock theater in Montana to see a few shows and they always announce "Oh, we have a special guest in the audience tonight. J.K. Simmons who you may know from Broadway, movies, blah blah blah. And did you know, he's also the voice of the yellow M&M?" That M&M credit always gets the biggest cheer of the night. Go figure.

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