J.K. Simmons says Fletcher in Whiplash right about language’s worst two words

ACTOR J.K. Simmons, acclaimed for his role in movie Whiplash, agrees with his character on the English language’s two most harmful words.

JAZZ two-hander Whiplash might play like a boxing movie, says veteran character actor J.K. Simmons, but he pulled off every one of his own musical stunts.

“When Damien (Chazelle, Whiplash director) and I first had lunch, he told me not to worry about how to fake the conducting because there would be a technical expert to provide advice and a body double who was a real conductor,” recalls Simmons, whose career has spanned more than two decades in films such as Spider-Man and Juno and TV series such as Oz, Law & Order and The Closer.

“But I assured him that I was ahead of the game on that front.”

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J.K. Simmons as Fletcher in a scene from film WHIPLASH.

The 59-year-old , who is being touted as an Oscar frontrunner for his mesmerising performance as a gifted but sadistic music teacher in Chazelle’s breakout film, has an honours degree in composition, voice and conducting from the University of Montana.

“My career has had all sorts of twists and turns but I actually started out in musical theatre,” he explains.

In preparation for the role of a lifetime, Simmons learnt every one of Whiplash’s fiendishly complicated musical scores.

“I wanted to know what I was conducting and to be able to lead those bands — there were a couple of actors who were amateur musicans, but 90 per cent were really accomplished musicians.”

When he cast Simmons’ co-star Miles Teller, Chazelle was similarly unaware that the rising star of Divergent and The Spectacular Now also had a musical background, having dabbled in drumming since his teens.

The depth of the actors’ knowledge might well have contributed to the success of the independent project, which won both audience awards and the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

L-R: J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller in a scene from film WHIPLASH.

“Surprised? No. Gratified? Yes,’’ says Simmons of the growing fever surrounding the film which explores the intense, dysfunctional relationship between a driven young drummer, Andrew, and his tyrannical mentor, Fletcher, at a leading New York music conservatory.

“I knew this was going to be something good when I first read it. And every step of the way I felt better and better about it.”

Based on Chazelle’s own musical experiences, Whiplash portrays music as a blood sport.

“To me, it plays almost like a boxing movie,’’ says Simmons. “And to be that’s a testament to how Damien successfully amped up the stakes to make people really feel that level of involvement and tension and fear that Andrew is experiencing.”

The brutal honesty of the cut-throat New York jazz scene is legendary.

“That’s kind of an east coast/west coast thing,’ says Simmons. “There’s an old saying that goes: In New York you might get stabbed in the heart, in LA you might get stabbed in the back.”

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 01: Actor J. K. Simmons, Miles Teller and writer/director Damien Chazelle attend the 2014 Variety Screening Series - "Whiplash" Screening at Landmark Theatre on October 1, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Angela Weiss/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

While the events portrayed in the film might seem extreme even for the Big Apple, Simmons says the relationship between Fletcher and Andrew isn’t as dramatically heightened as audiences might think.

“When Damien showed the script to show-business people, a lot of them thought maybe he was going a little bit too far in the treatment of the young musician,’’ he says.

“But when he showed it to musicians who had lived in that world and been through an intense conservatory training, they generally thought he hadn’t gone far enough.”

As an educator, Fletcher stands in marked contrast to the current pedagogical orthodoxy that promotes positive reinforcement over humiliation and shame as motivating factors.

But while he questions his character’s methods, Simmons believes that Fletcher’s underlying ideology is sound.

J.K. Simmons as Fletcher in a scene from film WHIPLASH.

“I have a 15-year-old and a 13-year-old and I look back and I realise that’s very much the way I behaved, overpraising a kid for a simple, modest achievement.”

Simmons says that if he had his time again, he would do things differently.

“After doing this film, essentially I agree with most of what Fletcher says in that scene in the jazz club where he says the two most harmful words in the English language are ‘good job’ and that he feels people need to be tested and provoked and driven.”

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Originally published as J.K. Simmons says Fletcher in Whiplash right about language’s worst two words