HOLLYWOOD – J.K. Simmons on Twitter? Don't count on it.
“Noooo,” said the “Whiplash” star backstage after winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, in response to a reporter who intimated they had a “deal” he would join the social network the last time they spoke. “We had a deal? Don't put that out there! No Twitter deal!”
As for his heartwarming acceptance speech — “Call your mom, call your dad,” he urged when he was on stage — he suggested the comment wasn't part of a prepared speech: “Well, I got out most of what I wanted to, and I was somewhat taken aback by the response from people that I don't now, honestly. But I said most of what I wanted to say. I never go up there scripted really, so most of it [just] came out.”
So how does it feel to be holding an Oscar after so many years of struggle earlier in his career?
“It's definitely more tiring than the lean times,” he said of his awards success. “The lean times were a wonderful and beautiful part of my life. I was struggling, quote unquote, for many years doing regional theater …I look back on those times with great fondness.”
One interesting question came when a member of the press corps mentioned there had been some talk that many members of the Academy liked “Whiplash” because they admired Simmons' character, the abusive drum teacher Terence Fletcher.
“That's a very loaded question, thank you for that,” Simmons laughed. “I think there's much to admire in Terence Fletcher's passion for art, in his case, specifically jazz music. I don't find much to admire in his pedagogy.”