J.K. Simmons unexpectedly reprised the role of J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: Far From Home's mid-credits scene, and is expected to have an even bigger part in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
However, as we're sure you'll know, he first played the character in 2002's Spider-Man. That version of JJJ has become nothing short of iconic, and the way Simmons learned of his casting was far from typical. Instead of a call from his agent or the studio, the news was broken to the actor...by a fan!
"I’m walking following the person through the cubicles and this desk chair comes flying out in front of me, backwards, with some kid who was probably 28 and he goes, ‘Oh my God J.K., congratulations!’ and I go, ‘Thank you. For what?’ and he goes, ‘Are you kidding me? Spider-Man! J. Jonah Jameson, that’s so cool!’ and I was like, ‘I did not know that...I found out I got the part because of some kid who was so connected to the internet fan sites that they had that information on a Spider-Man website before my agent called me to tell me I got the job."
"He called me like 3 hours later and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know,'" Simmons recalls in the video below.
It's crazy to think how much things have changed, but way back in the early 2000s, there wasn't the same sort of furore surrounding superhero movies as there is now. The internet was also in its infancy at the time, but this fan was somehow still one step ahead of Simmons' agent! Two decades on, here's hoping they're reading this so they know the role they played in breaking the news to the actor!
Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives in U.S. on December 17 and in the UK on December 15.
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