J.K. Simmons is een briljante acteur die ooit door brak als enge nazi in de TV serie OZ en nu schittert op het witte doek in de ene na de andere rol waarbij hij laat zien hoe divers zijn talent is. Nu speelt hij in een nieuwe drama comedy met de titel The Meddler en daarom had de website Collider een interview met hem, en uiteraard kwam daar ook zijn aankomende rol als Commissioner Gordon ter spraken.

It's been announced that you're going to be playing Commissioner Gordon in the DC cinematic universe. When you play a character like that, do you feel the need to read the comics and watch whatever previous versions of the character are out there, or do you personally prefer to stay away from all of that and find the character yourself?

SIMMONS: 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.

Having previously played a character in a comic book movie, with J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man films, and having had people love your work as that character, does it place any added pressure on you to take on another iconic comic book character?

SIMMONS: 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.