J.K. Simmons Says He Was “Flabbergasted” To Return As Jim Gordon & Credits Jason Reitman For Landing ‘Whiplash’ Role

Next month, J.K. Simmons is returning to the big screen in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” reprising his iconic role of J. Jonah Jameson as part of the mainstream Marvel Cinematic Universe. He will also be back as Jim Gordon soon in the HBO Max movie “Batgirl” after briefly playing the DCEU character in “Justice League.” However, Simmons is still doing non-genre work with Aaron Sorkin’s “Being The Ricardos” on the horizon and is reflecting on how his career got a second wind thanks to a young filmmaker taking a chance on him.

READ MOREL ‘Batgirl’: J.K. Simmons Returns To The DCEU For HBO Max Film

The Oscar-winning actor recently spoke to the Happy Sad Confused (listen below) podcast about his success and highlighted that director Jason Reitman cast him in things like the lesser-known “Thank You For Something” and, more importantly, allowed him to show a softer side in the teenage dramedy “Juno.” These roles helped boost his career as the theater actor had been only known for playing a Neo-Nazi in the landmark HBO prison drama series “Oz” and the live-action version of J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” films.

Simmons called himself “blessed” to work with Reitman on “Juno” and noted that directly helped him land the famous “Whiplash” role that earned Simmons an Oscar statue for Best Supporting Actor (Reitman also produced “Whiplash” after he fell in love with the script, strongly recommending Simmons for the part of the harsh teacher to director Damien Chazelle). The breakout performance gave us one of the most iconic cinematic villains.

“Because people that did know me, mostly knew me as either the worst human being on the planet from ‘Oz’ or the blowhard from ‘Spider-Man.’ Simmons told the podcast host. “And to see the wonderful character of [“Juno” character] Mac MacGuff based, it’s fair to say based on Diablo Cody’s wonderful dad…was a real boom to the way I was perceived in the business and by the public as well.”

That relationship seems to be going on strong and, *minor spoiler* if you haven’t seen it already, Reitman included Simmons in a small part in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”

Simmons also talked about his surprise return to the Jim Gordon role in the DC Universe. Following the collapse of the Snyderverse, the failure of Joss Whedon’s “Justice League,” and the way the entire DCEU looked to be moving in a new direction, the actor said he assumed his time as Gotham’s police commissioner was over. Simmons also teased a “more significant role” in the upcoming HBO Max movie “Batgirl,” which begins shooting in January.

“When I first signed up to do ‘Justice League,’ it was a three-picture deal… As is often the case, that didn’t come to fruition for a variety of reasons,” he said. “[So] I was completely flabbergasted they came back to me recently and wanted me to be Commissioner Gordon again and have it be a more significant role,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. I think I’m going to get on the horn to [Leslie Grace] and the directors in the next couple of days and do little preliminary rehearsals. They start very soon, and I jump on board sometime in January in Glasgow, which is a wonderful place to shoot it as it’s Gothic.”

“I’m excited to be the once and future Jim Gordon,” he continued. “I had a long discussion with the guys about how we want to portray him. It’s a really interesting take on introducing Batgirl and fleshing Jim Gordon out.”

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are directing “Batgirl,” and the movie is aiming for a potential 2022, release which, at this point, given it shoots in January, might be 2023 or end of year 2022.