J.K. Simmons Discusses Playing Commissioner Gordon in JUSTICE LEAGUE
A lot of fans were hoping that Bryan Cranston would be cast as Commissioner Gordon in the DCEU, but when J.K. Simmons ended being cast in the role last month there weren’t really any complaints. Fans seemed to be open to the idea of Simmons taking on the role of the iconic DC character. I think it’s a great choice and that he’s going to bring something to Gordon that we’ve never seen before.
During an interview with Collider, Simmons opened up about playing the character and what he’s doing to prepare to play him:
"Well, to read the comics, yes, absolutely. I’m still a couple of months out from doing that and I have two other films before then, so I haven’t gotten started on that. Obviously, a lot of really wonderful actors have played that character previously, and most of them I saw at the time the movies came out, never imagining that I would be doing the same thing. So, I can’t say that I don’t have some impression of that character in my head that’s based on what I saw, but I’m not planning on going back and watching any of the other films.
“I’m just planning on learning as much as I can about him through the comics and getting my feet wet in the first movie, and then hopefully continuing on from there. I take this from my days doing theater. If I was doing a musical, I would never listen to the cast album because I wanted to do my version of something. I’m sure there will be differences and similarities with what Gary Oldman or Pat Hingle have done before, but I’m just going to try to do my take on it and be as informed as I can about the rich history of the Batman universe, going into it."
The actor then went on to compare Gordon to his previous comic book movie role, J. Jonah Jameson from Sam Rami’s Spider-Man trilogy. According to Simmons, the only similarity they have is a mustache.
"There are easy comparisons to make. I wasn’t a big comic book reading kid, so I did a fair amount of reading when I was playing Jameson, who was very much the comic relief in those movies. Even in the comics, he was a blowhard who was all bark and very rarely bite. My understanding, from what I’ve learned so far about Commissioner Gordon, is that he’s the older guy with the mustache who relates with our hero in a certain way. Other than that, it’s a vastly different character and much more of a stronger, impactful character in the DC universe."
I wonder how long of a run Gordon will have the DCEU. I know he was cast for the Justice League movie, but I can't help but think that we’ll also see him in any solo Batman films that are made as well. I’m looking forward to him sharing scenes with Ben Affleck’s Batman.