Casting choices in comic book movies are often very divisive, but that wasn't the case when J.K. Simmons was chosen to take on the role of Commissioner James Gordon in
Justice League (and presumably Ben Affleck's
Batman movie). Of course, there was inevitably some disappointment over the fact that this means the actor won't be brought back as J. Jonah Jameson in
Spider-Man: Homecoming, but it sounds like the actor is fully engrossed in this role based on comments he made during a recent interview with
Collider about how he's preparing to play the Gotham City cop.
"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."
Talk then turned to the actor's last comic book movie stint as J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. The two character's certainly share at least one thing in common (a mustache), but that's pretty much where the similarities end, right? "There are easy comparisons to make," he says. "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." Chances are that Justice League will be just the start of a long run as Jim Gordon for Simmons, and seeing him alongside Ben Affleck's Dark Knight should be a lot of fun!