J.K. Simmons Thought Damien Chazelle Was a Black Man After Reading ‘Whiplash’ Script. Then They Met: ‘Who’s This Curly-Haired Kid From New Jersey?’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director J.K. Simmons revealed in an oral history of “Whiplash” to mark the film’s 10th anniversary that he assumed the film’s director, Damien Chazelle, was a Black man after he first read the script about the toxic relationship between an aspiring jazz drummer (Miles Teller) and his abusive instructor.

Simmons played the latter character and won the Oscar for best supporting actor. “I see a genius script by somebody who clearly understands jazz, the quintessential American musical art form — and a largely African American art form,” Simmons told Vanity Fair. “The guy’s name is Damien Chazelle.

I’m picturing Antoine Fuqua. I’m going into this meeting thinking it’s going to be some tall, elegant-looking Black guy with a beret.” “We go to meet at this restaurant, and of course he’s there a few minutes early because he’s a young guy,” he continued. “I get there right on time, as is my wont, and I’m literally looking around the restaurant, which is not very crowded — I’m looking right past or through Damien, who finally stands up and waves at me.

I’m like, ‘Who’s this little curly-haired kid from New Jersey?'” Chazelle admitted to Vanity Fair that he also had an assumption about Simmons that didn’t pan out to be true, explaining: “When we first started doing ‘Whiplash,’ I mainly thought of [J.K.] as the dad in ‘Juno.’ He had this wholesome, decent, all-American vibe to him in a lovably, gruff, comic way.