JK Simmons has revealed what she thought of Damien Chazelle when they met to star in Lash.
Qualification LashOn the film's 10th anniversary, Simmons revealed that she assumed director Damien Chazelle was a black man.
In the film, Simmons played a toxic and abusive jazz instructor to an aspiring jazz drummer played by Miles Teller.
The actor, who won an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for the film, recalled: “I see a brilliant script written by someone who clearly understands jazz, the quintessential American musical art form, and a predominantly African-American art form.”
“The guy’s name is Damien Chazelle. I’m imagining Antoine Fuqua. I’m going into this meeting thinking he’s going to be a tall, dapper-looking black guy wearing a beret,” she shared with Vanity Fair.
“We meet at this restaurant and, of course, he arrives a few minutes early because he is a young guy,” she continued.
Simmons added: “I arrived right on time, as is my custom, and I literally looked around the restaurant, which was not very busy. I looked at Damien, who finally stood up and waved at me. I thought, ‘Who is this curly-haired kid from New Jersey? ’”
Chazelle also spoke about casting Simmons in the role, saying, “I wrote it with a variety of people in mind, but the jazz bandleader I played under was very different physically and temperamentally from J.K. Simmons.”
He added: “A different creature. But within five minutes of filming the short, just seeing JK doing the first take of whatever piece of dialogue we started with, made that preconceived notion of the character I had in my head go out the window. JK became that character, the character became JK, and it became unthinkable to play the character any other way.”
By Damien Chazelle Lash It was released in 2014 and swept awards season, winning Oscars, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and more.
