Happy Sad Confused - J.K. Simmons, Vol. II

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

You can call J.K. Simmons a character actor, a sometime bad guy, sometime leading man, or an Academy award winner. Suffice it to say he's packed a lot into his 200+ screen credits and he didn't even get started until his late 30s! He joins Josh to talk about his return to TV with THE WESTIES, his iconic roles in SPIDER-MAN, the DCU, JUNO, WHIPLASH, and so much more. SUPPORT THE SHOW BY SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! Rula -- Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.rula.com/happy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #rulapod Quince -- Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quince.com/HAPPYSAD ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for free shipping and 365-day returns. Limited Time Offer–Get Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15% OFF online with my code happy15 at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://huel.com/happy15.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ New Customers Only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Was it ever possible to put too much mustard on a, Bring Me Spider-Man bellow? Like, could you ever go too far with something like that? Apparently not. Because Sam never pulled on the reins. You never said, go down to an eight? No, no. One of my favorite Sam directions was there was a scene where our daughter is getting married,

and there was a scene looking down the aisle, and he said, and then, JK, right when the camera gets to here, if you would, just tilt your hideous mug. into the frame thusly. You know, I was like, yes, yes sir, Mr. Ramey, sir, that's what I will do. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins.

Hey guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. We have a legend in the house today. J.K. Simmons, an Academy Award-winning actor. You know him from everything, Oz and Juno, Whiplash, Spider-Man. Too many credits to count, including his new TV series, The Westies, a great conversation with one of our greats.

Thanks as always for checking out the podcast today, guys. Remember to hit that subscribe button on YouTube, on Spotify, however you're doing it. You know what to do. And remember to check out our Patreon if you haven't already. Patreon.com slash happy, say I'm confused. You get early access to all of our episodes. You get bonus content. You get access to our live events in New York and Los Angeles, autographed merch.

What more can you ask for? It really does help us make more stuff over here. So check it out. Patreon.com slash happy, say I'm confused. Okay. So main event today is, as I said, But one and only J.K. Simmons. He's a character actor, a leading man. He can kind of do everything. And he is currently leading the charge in this new series on MGM Plus. It is called the Westies.

It tells the tale of an Irish mob that he leads in the 80s in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. He's great in it as he always is. But this conversation not only, of course, covers that, but a lot of his story career. As much as we could pack into 45 plus minutes, and there is a lot. Of course, we talk about His iconic role is Jay Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man. We talk about Commissioner Gordon in Justice League in the Batgirl movie that kind of never was, but also touch upon his theater work. Oz, Juno, so much in this conversation. He's a class act.

Truly one of those iconic faces and voices that I was so pleased to have back on the podcast. So I'll throw it to our conversation without any further ado. Please enjoy me and J.K. Simmons. J.K. Simmons, you're back on the podcast. Thank you, sir, for being here. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. I was saying before, I had the J.K. Simmons podcast experience, but it was in the pandemic fog. I didn't get the living, breathing, the bearded visage that is before me today. Yeah, I was probably just semi-unkempt at that time. Same, same. Is the beard today, is this evidence of work or lack of work? Because it could go either

way, right? Yeah, yeah. No, it used to be the unemployment. beard. This is, it's something that, first of all, I hate to shave. So that's mostly what it is. When we finished the Westies seven months ago, I was shaving everything. Sure. Got tired of that. So part of it was just like, let's not shave for a while. And then a couple rolls came along that were like, this is a good fit. And then the last thing I did was like, I'm just going to make this be a good fit. Like, I don't want to shave. I just want to. I'm either going to be this guy with the beard or get somebody else. Yeah.

And then I have something that, you know, fingers crossed that I'll be doing in a few months that'll just be a real wild man look. Nice. It won't be. It's not the kind of thing that will take two weeks. You'll need to approximately. This kind of investment, yeah.

Can we talk important stuff, the relationship with your hair over the years? Because as I understand it, you start to lose the hair pretty early in your 20s. Was that as an actor, as a young actor, was that a moment like, oh God? I mean, I wasn't even. even a young actor. Yeah, I was a young, you know, semi-wanted to be a rock and roll troubadour

turned classical music student. Yeah, about the time that I stumbled into doing summer theater at the Big Fork Summer Playhouse was, first of all, my hair was like Greg Allman hair. You went from one extreme to the other. Yeah, and it was very blonde and it was, you know, yeah, down to my, not quite my belt, but getting there. And just beginning to show those signs. And then when I got a cut to do summer theater in 77 when I was 22, it was starting to show.

You could look at the five years I was at the Big Fork Summer Playhouse. Progression. A little further back. So, yeah, I mean, the writing was on the wall from the beginning. You look at your mom's brothers and fathers. It's all there. Oh, yeah, that's how I'm going to be. I would argue this has served you.

well over the years. You're like, I, like, I had Stanley Tucci on the podcast, like a couple, you know, a couple months ago. And I think the same thing of him as you. It's like, you both have been like 45 for 30 years. Like you were prematurely that age and you still are kind of that age. Absolutely. I mean, I've always, I've always said 50. I was a 50 year old character actor kind of waiting to happen for 25 years. And, yeah, a little over the 50 mark now. But, Yeah, there was never, I mean, I was a little vain about my long blonde locks, but once I cut them off, it was like, you know, and then actually like doing things like a few good men, the play. Yes. Were really good moments for me because I was like, well, everybody just got a super buzz there here anyway.

It's part of the military. Not that much of a difference, really. Kind of bad wig effective performance? Oh, absolutely. You had that experience where, like, oh, we made a bad call for day. day one. Oh, I had to wear a terrible wig in college when I was, I was sort of got my arm twisted to be in a production of an opera, operetta deflate a mouse. And I didn't particularly want to do it. And this was before I cut my hair for summer theater. And they kind of, whatever, got my arm twisted and

ended up doing it. And then during dress rehearsals, the stage manager said, all right, the following people need to get haircuts. Right. And myself, my buddy Michael Morrison, a couple of others. And I was just like, no. How. Sorry, a little bit of a bruised, banged up ribcage from a surfing into a boogie boarding incident. Is that right? Oh, my God. Yeah. And I ended up wearing a short-haired wig that was, I don't know, acquired somehow, hacked off over my already big head, you know, tucking up all my ponytail and everything, wearing a short-haired wig, and then trying to find a top hat

that would fit over all of it so that I could play over there. Bad choice upon bad choice. Yes, bad, yes. Kind of a hat on a hat. It's literally. It's a lot of choices, yeah, yeah. We're not going to spend the entire podcast talking about your hair. We're going to talk about your versatility as an actor.

because you were one of these guys. I know you're a baseball fan. You're like the ultimate utility player. Let's talk about like an old tiger like Tony Phillips. You're the guy that can like fill any spot. A new tiger, Zach McKinstry. There it is. But do you take a certain pride in that?

You can be, look, you can be leading man. You can be the baddie. You can be the nice dad. Not many people can have that kind of range. Yeah, no, I think range is something that, you know, a lot of actors, most actors probably enjoy. just because it keeps things interesting. Yeah, I do like being able to play up different styles,

different time periods, different regions, different humans. Did you ever feel like you were typecast? Was there ever a role early on or a path you were starting to go down? You're like, uh-oh. I was concerned early on, early on in my camera career because I did theater for 20 years and was always able to bounce around between,

you know classical modern musical good guy bad guy supporting lead and then and then when oz came along i i knew that it was going to be impactful yeah and i was i was a little afraid that i would end up being the nazi of the week on every tv show for my whole career yeah wanted to avoid that and uh and was really fortunate that first of all that tom fontana created such a great character that had some, you know, I mean, he was... Complexities, but yes. He was an evil dude, but that, you know, there were some layers. And then that within months of finishing the first season of Oz,

Law and Order came along. Right. So audiences, like, initially saw this sort of yin-yang. It's a good. Characters. I would imagine Juno also does a lot for that, too. Juno was fantastic. And when Jason Reitman handed me the script for that,

because I was in his first movie, thank you for smoking. which is I think an underappreciated movie, certainly especially as a debut feature. And he joined a poker game that I was playing in and handed me the script for Juno but didn't say he wanted me to play Mac, you know. And I read the script and obviously fell in love with that character. But I was also looking at, oh, well, I could play this guy

that has three lines or you're so predisposed the thinking. like, oh, they obviously just want me for this thing. Right, yeah. We'll be right back with more Happy, Sad, Confused. From the parents behind Law and Order comes a mystery the whole family can enjoy. Patrick Pickle Bottom, everyday mysteries. Step into the whimsical world of Patrick Picklebottom,

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Kingdoms were reduced to cinders, an army scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the

decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s, and man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the Shadow Dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.com slash the Glass Cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark. You've talked about this before. We've talked about this before. But for those that don't know, yeah, the arc of your career, you kind of referenced it. You had a whole life, a whole huge life in the theater before you're on camera career. began. And I do think of like folks like, I actually think of someone like Gene Hackman, like often because Gene Hackman, really his on-camera career didn't start. I mean,

bonding cloud was really the thing that set him off and he was in his late 30s. Pretty similar trajectory in some ways. Oh yeah, absolutely. I think my, my, my first feature, I was 38 maybe, the ref. Right. It was my first feature film. Under its head dummy movie, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So by, by that, time, I mean, because you also kind of, I feel like to spell like the myths of like, it's not like you were unhappy. You had a very happy life. Oh, that's great. Yeah. It wasn't like you were wanting maybe for some things, but you were fulfilled as an actor. Is that safe to set? I had a roof over my head and I had, you know, I was single. I had no responsibilities,

you know, so it was all I had to do was feed myself. And yeah, yeah, there were, there were times when people refer to those years as struggling, you know, but it was, it was not. I mean, you know, Sometimes I was pretty broke, but, you know, that's what friends and family are for. You've also, I've heard say that you sucked early on as an actor. Like, you've, like, numerous times you say that. Are you happy there's not a lot of game tape out there of you early on? Absolutely, yeah. No, no, it was good to be, to be starting in the theater and dozens, possibly hundreds of people seeing my early work.

because I was fervent and committed and ham-fisted and, you know, I had a lot to learn. It's not like you just get off the bus and you know how to be an actor. Yeah. You know, and I had some really good, appropriate, age-appropriate directors along the way who guided me and, you know, helped me begin to figure it out. How fine is the line you think between good acting and bad acting? Well, it can be. I mean, especially when you're taking big swings to go back to the baseball metaphor. Yes.

It's a very, very fine line between, you know, really committed and really intense and really great and like really, oh. Oh, no, just trying a little too hard there, you know, yeah. Do you ever do you like that feeling of feeling out on the limb sometimes? Like is there? I mean, I think it's it's something that I try to continue to embrace because, uh, because I certainly felt that way a lot early on. And I do think it's important to take risks and to, you know, not be too comfortable.

Right. All the time. And, yeah, in some ways, Amon Sweeney felt like that. It felt like, like, you know, a larger than life, you know, certainly very specific time and place. Yes. So that was a big part of for all of us, you know. And we had a lot of Brits and Irish and American and Canadian actors, you know, playing this really insular group of Irish-American immigrants in 1980 Hell's Kitchen.

You're talking about the Westies, which I've called the first couple episodes of. I mean, I was telling you before, I grew up in the city, not so far. I mean, at the same time period, I was a kid on the mean streets of the Upper West Side, a little bit nicer than the Westies region. 30 blocks north, you're a little safer, yeah. It's amazing how much of a difference 30 blocks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Did you spend a lot of time in New York?

Did you ever get mugged in New York? Well, I lived in Hell's Kitchen in the early 80s when I was an actor slash waiter, I was doing regional theater and I would, you know, book a job and go to Buffalo for, you know, six or seven weeks, come back and wait tables at, you know, if I was lucky, somewhere nice like Joe Allen or, you know, whatever, whoever was hiring. And yeah, living in a variety of sublets in Hell's Kitchen and walking home at a walk 1 a.m. after the post theater shift with a pocket full of cash, you know, kind of looking over my shoulders.

Clutching it a little. Never got, never got mugged. So how much is the appeal of something like this, the setting, the world that you know a little bit, you at least were adjacent to, and how much of it is the character? I assume it's all of the above, but. Yeah, it's all of the above. And as anyone who asks that question, will hear me say over and over again. And it's, you know, it's all about what's on the page.

Sure. And what Chris Brancato and Michael Payne's put on the page. And, of course, in situations like this where you're doing an eight episode, season one and you hope, you know, season three, four, five, six, you're basing everything on one pilot script. That's the leap of face. And, yeah, it really is not like reading a feature or a play and like, this is it. This is your arc. This is your character.

This is. but when you have writers who are able to really create that world and introduce you know over a dozen major characters in one episode it's a it's a real feat of and obviously it's not Chris's first rodeo because particularly with Narcos and Godfather of Harlem and this is sort of genre historical drama crime drama is something in his wheelhouse. He really adept at, yeah.

Do you like the cadence of a series? I mean, you've done series a bunch over the years, but you've also have, I mean, you have over 200 screen credits. So, like, you're not wanting for, you know, film work. So the appeal, I mean, that's, again, as you said, it's a big, this could be a few years of your life on and off. Yeah, it's a big, it's a big commitment. But, you know, in the olden days, especially New York actors,

you know, if you were lucky enough to book a pilot, you know, a network pilot, you'd go out to have to help. LA and shoot a pile and sign away seven years of your life. Yeah. On a completely one-handed or one-sided deal. Yeah. Yes, I'm guaranteeing you seven years and they're guaranteeing nothing. Exactly.

Right. Like we can kill you off in episode three if we want, but you have to. So that was daunting in the old days. That's still, I think, the case for all these Marple auditions, all these guys that auditioned to be like superheroes, they have to like, before that while they're auditioning. Right. Seven sequels or whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, even with Spider-Man, which obviously was a real gift to my career, when they made the offer, my agent, you know, I was very excited to do this movie called Spider-Man with Sam, Ramey, who I'd already done two really fun movies with. And then days later, my agent called and he said, oh, by the way, I just got a call from the studio, and now they need to, the guy kind of made a mistake. and he was supposed to tie us up for three movies.

We call that leverage. Yes, he did. The ball was kind of in my agent's court at that moment. But that was the first, wow, three movie deal. And then actually made the three movies. Exactly. Well, we'll get to Spider-Man, trust me. I'm too much of a geek to let you out of here without talking about that.

But a little bit more on the cast of this is exceptional. I mean, Titus Welver, I feel like he's also cut from the same cloth as you. I don't know if you guys go back at all. We don't at all. I mean, you know, we've been seeing each other and aware of each other over the years. Yeah. But no, and I heard that he was coming on board to play Glenn Canaan. I thought that's fantastic.

And also this guy, Tom Brittany, who, I mean, he was on my radar, again, not to connect everything to superheroes, but, like, apparently he almost was cast as Superman, and he's like, there's rumors that he might still be in the mix for Batman. It was during our shoot that it came down to two guys. You were aware, was he talking about it on set? Yeah, yeah, no, he wasn't one of those, you know, not wanting to jinx kind of guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, we were all rooting for him, but, you know, those kind of close calls come and go. And then you look back 10 years later, 20 years later, and go, you know what?

Exactly. It worked out well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And James Gunn, always said very nice things about him. So I'm sure, I mean, this opportunity here and there'll be more along the way. Well, he's fantastic. I mean, he and Stanley Morgan, especially these. English actors, UK actors, Australian actors, Irish actors, that have,

tend to have a traditional training, you know. I think both Tom and Stan off the top of my head really immersed themselves in these characters, these American 1980 Hell's Kitchen characters, and then you hear them off-camera. And it's like, it's a very different dude. Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about a different dude. You kind of referenced this.

Like the beginnings of your kind of like tough guy era was Oz. And this follows a little bit of the lineage, a different kind of a tough guy. But he's a, you know, someone you don't want to cross. Is it funny to you that you have that identity? Like you seem like a very genial friendly man. Yeah, well, this is the acting. No, I think, I mean, I think a lot of it is what we were saying before. You know, I was this older character actor waiting to happen.

I was the bald guy. I'm, you know, I have a low voice. I'm sort of this natural authority figure, and whether that means I'm, you know, the dad or the teacher or the police officer or the head of the Aryan Brotherhood or the Irish-American gang, the Westies. It's just for whatever reason that I often tend to be the guy in charge,

which is really disconcerting, you know, in real. life because I'm in charge of almost nothing. Also can be the editor of a great newspaper. We referenced Spider-Man. Yes, indeed. I've heard you talk about, you had worked with Sam a couple times. You were his choice, but you still had to audition for Jay Jonah Jameson. Tell me a little bit about that audition, because I heard you talk about how the absurdity of that were like you have to pretend to be choked by Green Goblin at one point in the audition. Is anybody else choking you? Or are you choking yourself? No, you have to. You have to. You have to pretend to be choked by Green Goblin at one point in the audition.

No, you have to endow the universe of the choker, which of course ended up being Willem Dufautau, lifting J. Jonah Jameson off the ground by the neck. Yeah, I mean, playing those kinds of things in an audition. And, of course, this is obviously old school audition where there are actual humans in an actual room. Imagine that. And a camera and somebody telling you how to maybe make an adjustment

which actors now like our daughter who's, you know, starting her career doing all these self-tapes, it just will never. Yeah, you're out to see on your own. You have to be your own. Yeah. Yeah. But that was, that felt very, very silly.

And obviously it was silly in the right way, or enough of the right way that they hired me. Did you walk out of the room thinking you'd done? I mean, I walked out of the room feeling that was silly, but also knowing, you know, that was the goal. It's a comic book movie. So, and then actually found out I was cast.

I'm pretty sure it was the same day later in that afternoon when I was auditioning for a voiceover at Gray Advertising where my Uncle Dave had worked for decades and was in the waiting room, signed in, waited, and then the person comes back to walk me to the recording booth and somebody in a cubicle slides out. their desk chair and says congratulations and I was like okay thanks for what and he said are you kidding me spider man and that was when I learned the power of the internet this is that's

2001 or 2009 yeah yeah yeah that it was already on the like my agent hadn't called yet but the offer but it was on the internet that was a sign of the times to come yeah which which means of course that it was true always because it was on the everything was we No back-shicking regard. Was it ever possible to put too much mustard on a Bring Me Spider-Man bellow? Like, could you ever go too far with something like that? Apparently not.

Because Sam never pulled on the reins. He never said, go down to an eight? No, no. He did one of my favorite Sam, or Amy Directors. This was Spider-Man, too. One of my favorite Sam directions was there was a scene where our daughter is getting married, right?

Right. Yeah. And things are maybe not going particularly smoothly. And there was a scene looking down the aisle and he wanted J. Jonah Jameson's. And he said, and then J.K., right when the camera gets to hear, if you would just tilt your hideous mug into the frame thusly, you know, I was like, yes, yes, sir, Mr. Ramey, sir, that's what I will do. He was wearing a suit at least. So he probably, he was wearing a suit, he was saying that nasty thing to you. rumpled suit right but a but a suit yes there was sadly a time where you weren't are you there was no j Jonah jamison briefly in the spider-man world when the andrew garfield films were happening there there was talk that like they were going to get you in there maybe even that in the third film that never happened was there ever do you remember any conversations of you entering that world i the only conversations i was aware of were the ones that people would call my attention to on on the internet yeah again always true hey why not or

or maybe this or maybe that. Yeah. I don't know that there was any. I mean, and then when the third iteration, when that came along to do the little sort of cameo reprise, that was a complete shock in a very last minute decision. Which I still think is why JJJ doesn't have hair in the Tom Holland Spider-Man universe.

Because they literally called my agent. We had a meeting the next day. And it was like a day or two later I was shooting in somebody's office, some executives' office on the lot, because there was no set. There was no, there was like, they were well into editing the film when they went, what if we stuck a little JJJ in here? Always helps. Have you still not shared a scene with Tom Holland?

Like, have you ever. Have not met Tom Holland. You literally have never met Tom Holland. No. No, no. Delightful guy, I'm told. I've spent more time with Tom Holland than you. This is wrong.

Yeah, it is. Totally is. On the flip side, you did have a run in D.C. as well. Do you feel like robbed a little bit playing, I mean, you get this iconic character, Commissioner Gordon. It was a little bit like snake bit, it feels like, because, like, Justice League obviously had some issues beyond anyone's control.

This crazy Batgirl thing happens. The last time I spoke to you, you were about to play, you were about to do Bat Girl. Yeah. That big hit Bat Girl. Well, we don't know. I mean, it's not, I mean, it just didn't exist. doesn't exist. Yeah, no, it's in a vacuum. Did you ever see it? It's bizarre. No, no. Apparently one

test audience saw it and, you know, it wasn't like it was like a bad score from the test audience. Yeah, it was a whatever business decision obviously. And yeah, Justice League, which was a very small part. Yeah, had its own drama attached to it. But then Zach's cut, the director's cut came out, which the DC fans, you know, know, really love. Yeah. And which is really, you know, a lot of fun. And then, yeah, when, when Batgirl came along with Adil and Belal and, you know, it was an exciting prospect to be part of the origin story of Bad Girl for those who don't

know, Commissioner Gordon's daughter. And, yeah, maybe, maybe we'll never know the worldwide audience. And it was, I mean, did you feel like it was a good experience? And you feel like the script was solid? But it was, yeah, no, it was, yeah, we really had a good time making it. And I, you know, thought it was going to be a fun superhero movie. One of those strangest stories. Oh, well.

The third part of your comic book trifect I do want to mention, I mean, Invincible is huge. I mean, those fans are such a surprise to me. Really? Because it's, you know, I mean, I read it and they asked me to do it. And I thought, this is, you know, really fun. in like a genre that's that I sort of took me a while to wrap my brain around this is you know it's a superhero animated show and it has you know there's comic relief elements to it but it's like you know intense yeah and it's not for kids and it's and and I was like well who's it for you know

but well then I found out everyone ought to everybody because people who stop me on the street all the time now and talk about invincible Yeah. Have you seen the think mark meme around? Yeah, yeah. Right. I mean, my first meme was Jay Jonah Jameson. Right. And yeah, now it's... You're the king of memes. There are tons. But yeah, can you feel the same connection with a voiceover role as a live action role?

I mean... I mean, yes and no. And there were times when we were doing the first season where... Because in voiceover, the vast majority of the time is just you in a studio. And the good news is, you know, all of us in that cast. And because it's a lot of people who have on-camera careers as well, most of the cast. You know, you can be wherever you are, and they can hook it up and record you from London or Las Vegas or New York or whatever. And we did have at least twice, maybe three times early on when we were doing the first season, And we got Stephen, Yun, and Sandra O and myself in the same room at the same time.

Just huge. Actually playing scenes together, those family scenes with each other, which was an unusual treat. But yeah, and now it's just Billy West, who plays the Red M&M calls it Theater of the Mind. You literally find myself closing my eyes a lot of the time if it's not a ton of dialogue and just kind of picturing. you know, Nolan and Mark and everybody.

Somehow the further along you get into the career, the more you go back to what we did as kids, basically. Right. Just play and pretend. I mean, that's really all it is. Yeah. I was telling you before, I've told you this last time,

maybe the most impactful show I ever saw as a kid growing up in New York was Guys and Dolls, but you were a part of this, like, iconic production. Does anything in some ways compare to, like, being in the center of like a broad, like the hit of a time when everybody's coming out to celebrate you. It's unique, absolutely. And to be a part of that was just such a gift. And really, some of the most fun I've ever had in my career, in my life, was the once we moved into

the theater and we're doing like tech rehearsals, which are, you know, usually just drudgery, and then dress and, you know, previews, the note sessions that we would have, usually in the upper lobby with Jerry Zacks, our amazing director. And that cast of hilarious people, that was some of the most fun I ever had in the theater. And the pressure was so intense because everybody, you know, Guys and Dolls is a great musical. And everybody expected it to be utter brilliance and genius. And you had Faith Prince and Nathan Lane, Peter Gallagher and Josie de Guzma, you know, this fantastic cast. Walter Bobby and expectations were high.

And they were met. I was naive enough to just think, this is just really fun and really great and who's not going to love it. And it turned out I was right. Yeah, biggest hit in the history of Broadway at the time. Yeah, no, I will never forget it. It's funny to me that for someone

that spent so much time doing theater and singing, actually, a lot in your career, like that's not part of your life. It hasn't been part of your life for some time. No, I did. I sang a little bit on, I did a little song and dance, actually, in dance, which was not my forte as a musical theater actor. On the last show of Billy Bob Thornton's Goliath. Oh, yeah, yeah.

The last season of that. Okay. Did he still all the chops? Were they still there? I mean, you know, it was nice that we could do it all in a recording studio. Sure. And I, you know, so when I, a little fumpha here or there, you know, you go back and fix it. because when you're doing eight shows a week live,

you don't have that opportunity. This is true. But no, that was a fun, sat at the piano, actually played, which I hadn't done since Whiplash, and then got to do the song and dance with, well, mostly with Obababatunday, who actually is a triple threat, like genuine dancer, so that was both fun

and intimidating. But yeah, I think that was, I think that was my last time using the musical theater chops. I'm surprised they haven't called, A lot of movie musicals are made nowadays. Like, have you not been in the mix for any of these things? You know, I've been waiting for a decade for them, for them to pull the string on damn Yankees into, you know.

Old Joe, if anybody's interested, old Joe. Goodbye, old girl, you know, yeah. I feel like they've tried to make that into a film a few times, right? It's one of those that's always thought about way back then. Obviously, the great Gwen Worden version, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. More happy say confused coming up.

I'm Anne Foster, and I have never watched the show, Spartacus, Blood, and Zand. And I'm Gina Berry, and I've watched this show numerous times. On our new podcast, Nefer, TV, we discuss TV shows and movies set in ancient history. This season, we are discussing Spartacus, Blood, and Zand. Follow Neferi. That's N-E-F-E-R-T-V-V-V wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, please, not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a little bit lighter? Some lighter music here.

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So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcast. I've seen your days of auditioning are long past. Do you remember the last time you had to audition? I mean, I remember that that was all I did for decades. And it was just, I'm trying to remember the first. time I didn't audition because when that started happening, you know, when all of a sudden it's just an offer. My agent would call me and go, yeah, somebody wants you to do.

Actually, you know what? I think the first time it technically happened was my first big TV guest spot after doing theater for 20 years. And I had done little small parts in some films. I had auditioned for a Law and Order episode, like for a really good plum part of a defense attorney that was going to have a lot of, had a lot to do, didn't get it. And then days later or a week later,

got an offer based on that audition to play the bad guy in the first homicide life on the street crossover with Law & Order episode, which ended up leading to Oz. Because I played a neozy bastard. And so that was, yeah, I mean, I had auditioned for a different role. So I guess technically that was my first on camera like job offer without an audition.

And so I always talk to actors about that shift, which must be so fascinating when you, you'll take anything for a long time, like just anything because that's what any 99% of actors will take anything because that's the deal. Yeah, but I was already kind of in that 1% too because I'd had a few experiences in regional theater where I, you know, it's a job.

So, okay, yes, it's a job. Being an actor, I'll take it, you know. and but sometimes took a job that was a character or a play or a place or a combination that just I wasn't at all excited about creatively or personally and and learned from that, you know, I'd rather be waiting tables and waiting for something more interesting to come along. So, right. So I did learn that. I was turning down jobs occasionally, you know, when I really had no business.

doing that. But, you know, I mean, you do it because you love it. And if you don't love it, why do it? You obviously had a major shift with whiplash, which is now over a decade ago. And it's funny to me to think of, correct and if I'm wrong, that film is shot in 19 days, something like that. 19 days of your life.

You'd already shot the short film, which became, you know. Two days. Two days. So 21 days playing Fletcher. That then turned into a year plus probably public. publicity run, winning every conceivable award. I mean, I don't know, how do you look back? Is that a blur that whole time period of the shooting, the publicity, the awards, like some perspective now?

And there's very little gap in between because we shot and post-production was like Bing, Bang, Boom on that film to get it ready to come out in the fall when they wanted to bring it out. And I was naive enough at the time to have no understanding. I didn't know there was something called awards season, you know. I mean, I've been able to get through my whole career up to that point without being a part of that world. You know, it was always supporting parts and this and that. Nobody was dying for me to, you know, do press and come chat on podcasts and chat shows and, you know,

the Hollywood reporter and all that. So it was just a completely new experience all the way around. and obviously a movie that I was enormously proud of and excited to help get some eyeballs on. Is there any diminishment in the amount of like rushing or dragging, not my tempo, daily references in your life? There are plenty of those. I mean, it's, it's, the pool is a little diluted now.

Right, so much to choose. Omni man, there's JJJ. There's, you know, there's things that have been there for a long time and then newer things as well. and presumably soon the Westies I'll be asked for Amon Sweeney quotes but yeah

there's still a lot of are you rushing or are you dragging and the answer is I'm right on time I do want to see you and Miles together again Miles have done a lot with over years I love that guy

and you know we have the text chain going back and forth usually mostly about baseball but right but yeah something has to come along at some point and ideally a sort of a role reversal right you know where miles can be more of his

natural alpha dude kind of character he's the ultimate alpha he's as alpha as you get in my experience no no he 100% is which is what one of the things that made whiplash such a great because in between takes he would like like he just could not contain the alpha in between takes that had to come on yeah i'm not really i'm not really in real life just so you know I wouldn't take this. I feel like if there's anyone that's meant to dress down Miles in the next top gun movie, it's obviously J.K. Simmons. Maybe too obvious.

Yeah, maybe it's too obvious. I don't know. I think I need to be some kind of more nebishy something. Okay. You want to mix up the dynamic. That's fair. What's a deal breaker for you in a script at this point? What do you close the script immediately when you say?

just just like not good you know not not subtle not believable and again i i said subtle obviously you know jay jonah jamison is not enormously subtle but that's serving purpose specifically yeah yeah um and it's obviously very subjective and i and i'm not even sure exactly what my criteria are i either read something appreciated as good writing and a character that i relate to that kind of leaps off the page at me or dismiss it as writing that I that I don't think is very good or even if it's really good writing and the character you know just doesn't really not to get too mystical but you know doesn't speak to me or I can't hear or see myself as the character then you know and obviously now I'm in a very fortunate position to be able to pick and

choose I mean the directors you've worked with over the years it must also be aghast to like still work with whether it's a young filmmaker or like an old pro i mean you worked with quint before he hung it up i mean i mean that was so cool was that was that a moment for you even having done all you did to finally absolutely yeah because and it's back in the days of auditioning you know i had i had gone on tape with a casting assistant you know for and i don't you know i don't know if clint had ever right seen any of my audition tapes you know for uh for those films and then yeah when that offer came in and my agent was you know of course looking at the role and going you know it's not a gigantic role in this film and I was like yeah but did you see it says directed directed by yeah so

yes of course I want to do it yeah well did he will love to everything though like the he doesn't call action the whole when when you're ready yeah thing the whole yeah that's good yeah so low-key so just like kind, gentle, funny, sweet heart of a guy and a very, very relaxed set, like really a great set conducive to doing good work, you know, for all of us. Yeah, it doesn't have to be drudgery. It does not, and it doesn't have to be a 17-hour day. Exactly, exactly. I hope it wasn't drudgery working with another old buddy of mine, Sam Hewain.

You worked on embassy. Sam, Anna Kendrick. Yeah. I'm curious about this one. How to turn out, you've... Well, I haven't seen it. I haven't seen anything. So, but I thought, as we were doing it,

I thought it was really fantastic. Alexander Karim, another wonderful actor I hadn't known before this. Obviously, Anna was, you know, a big part of what was interesting about doing it. Yeah. She's fantastic. And Sam, who, everybody knows from Outlander. Outlawful. the side of the pond knows.

Yeah. Yeah, it was a really fun shoot and yeah, waiting to see it. Actually, should be able to see it very soon, I would think. One other thing I want to hit before I let you go. Again, you have so many different lives and you mean so many things to different people. There's also this, the video

game world that you actually, you've done like some really significant work in those. Like, do people recognize your voice from like Portal and Baldersgate? Do you get that in your life? Actually, Tom Brittany. from the Westies, who my sister said, oh, you're working with the handsome priest from Grantchester.

I'm so excited. He texted me like a week ago, like a little video text of my character from Baldur's Gate. He said, I'm about to kill you. I was like, okay, well, good luck. Good luck with that. Do you ever play the games that you're a part of? Have you ever played any of these games? My hands don't work on those controllers.

and I've tried my kids, of course, my 20-something kids, our 20-something kids play them a lot. And my wife, you know, she actually, she'll get in there and play some Mario Brothers or whatever with them. I just, I cannot. Right. No, sorry.

But it must be like really, again, to kind of come full circle. Like to walk the streets in New York, you walk into a Starbucks, you walk anywhere, it can be, anyone could reference anything. You don't know if it's going to be a video game, Spider-Man, Juno, Oz, the Westies, like... Yeah.

No, there were times... Like, when it first started happening, it would be guys' dog. Yeah. You know, I mean, that was kind of the first really high-profile thing in New York, you know? You'd be walking around Midtown Manhattan and a lot of people had seen that.

Yeah. Yeah, and then, yeah, really when... When the first Spider-Man film came out was the first time... And people still, you know, nobody knew my name. You know, they, hey, Spider-Man or Jay Jonah Jameson. Or I used to get a ton of yo-a-as. I like how people just go straight to the name of the project. Yeah, yeah, because they could get it.

Certainly they don't know my name and they couldn't remember. Or maybe they were just intimidated with how to pronounce Vernon Schillinger. That's fair. Not get it wrong, so I wouldn't scream at them. Yeah. But, yeah, it is now it's, I used to try and sort of profile. Like if somebody was clearly recognizing me and go, I bet they saw.

How were you at that? Not very good. No. All right. We're going to end with this. The happy, stay, confused, profoundly random questions for you, J.K. Are you a dog or a cat person?

Dog. Okay. Qualified dog, it sounds like. No, I mean, because we had a great cat when I was a kid. Okay. Who was kind of dog-like. And then we got a cat for our daughter when she was little, who was also kind of dog-like, like actually attached to her,

came when she was called. You know, they slept together. my old cat Tigger when I was a kid was a he was a scrapper he was a tough a tough neighborhood cat so but I only liked those cats because they were dog gosh yeah do you collect anything not really no I mean I have some little baseball memorabilia but I don't pursue it at all it kind of lands in my lap now it did occur to me maybe it was like the peak of your press professional career arguably playing was it the manager and for love of the game of your beloved

Detroit Tigers well my first time was Sam Ramey yeah and playing I mean the only thing that would have been better and Costner and I think he's like five weeks younger than I am he's playing the stud pitcher and I'm playing the crusty old manager back to our 45 or 30 years to see exactly yeah yeah the only thing that would have been better if is if I could have played the center field or of the Detroit Tigers amazing um favorite well I think I know the answer this based on our conversation, but you have a favorite video game of all time. Any video game you ever played? It was Portal 2 for me just because it was such a hilarious script. Like I would have done that the feature film or the play or whatever. It was just such fun writing. What's the

wallpaper on your phone? Family. Last actor you were mistaken for. Does it ever happen? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get mistaken for every bald white guy. Miguel Ferrer, you know, a while back. But yeah, we, yeah, we, yeah, and there are others. I don't want to, I don't want to out anybody, anybody else. Sorry, Miguel. Worst noted director has ever given you. Wow.

I think, I think sometimes when a director has a very specific idea in their mind and a difficult time communicating it, you know, you'll get directors who just give you the line reading or, you know, or, you know, make a facial expression or something. You know, this is what I want, you know. I don't think you want that. I don't go, that's not, I don't know how to motivate that. So, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not coming up with a specific example. No, you didn't sell, you didn't go back to your Sam Ramey direction you said earlier.

Well, there certainly there was, there was zero bad direction ever from Sam Ramey to any actor. There was a, here it is. You know what? The worst direction often will come from a still photographer. Oh. Who somehow is a frustrated, you know, Sam Ramey. Right, like wants to be Cecil B. Mill and wants to, you know, like, I think your character is like, no, I'm just here.

I played my character. for a long time, which is why we're now taking pictures of my character or of me as the character. So you don't need to tell me. There was one still photographer who kept saying, more Boku, baby. And I was like, what? That's more and more, isn't that? Yeah. Isn't that like the La Brea Tar Pits?

The The Tar Pits? More, more. Okay. Amazing. And finally, two more for a movie that makes you sad. What gets you? Well, there are. movies that profoundly hit to kill a mockingbird.

It's a wonderful life. You know, those old classics don't, you know, ultimately, of course, you're not sad, but you have to go. That's part of the journey. Exactly. And finally, a food that makes you confused. You don't get it. Why do people eat that?

Just anything super spicy. Yeah. Like why is, and our son. is like one of those super spicy guys. And it's just not, he's just a little white boy. You know, I mean, he's like genetically, he's not predisposed. You know, his body is not. Yeah.

Yeah. That's the wrong stuff for him. And often he pays the price. And I'm like, so you're paying the price while you're eating it. You're like, where's the, where's the, your eyes are watering, your throat's burning. You're like, yeah. And then you, and then you pay the price later as well. I don't understand it.

Now I know why you didn't do hot ones today and you did Happy Say I Confused. It's not going to do hot ones already. Yeah, sorry, sorry. But hopefully you'll do Happy Say I Confused again. Second time. I appreciate you, man. You know, when you have 200 plus credits,

we can only scratch the surface, but we did a decent job, I think, today. Congratulations on the Westies. It's on NGM Plus. Great success with it. And thanks again for the time, man. Appreciate you. Yeah, man.

Thank you. It was fun. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't sure to do this by Josh.

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