Exclusive ‘You Can’t Run Forever’ Interview: JK Simmons

On May 17, the new thriller ‘You Can’t Run Forever’ opens in theaters, starring Oscar winner JK Simmons (‘Whiplash’) and co-written and directed by his wife, Michelle Schumacher (‘I’m Not Here). ‘).

The cast also includes Fernanda Urrejola (‘Blue Miracle’), Isabelle Anaya (‘Donny’s Bar Mitzvah’), Graham Patrick Martin (‘Major Crimes’) and Simmons and Schumacher’s daughter, Olivia Simmons (‘Junk Food’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with JK Simmons about his work on ‘You Can’t Run Forever’, his first reaction to the script, his approach to the character, his collaboration on set with his wife, his performance alongside his daughter and his work with Isabelle Anya, in addition to remembering the filming of ‘The Accountant’ with Ben Affleck and previewing the upcoming sequel, ‘The Accountant 2’.

Moviefone: To start, when did you become involved in this project and what was your first reaction to Michelle and Carolyn Carpenter’s script?

JK Simmons: Well, with everything Michelle has done, including the things she’s working on now, I always prefer not to have too many conversations about the story as it develops and wait for a somewhat finished first draft to understand it. We talked about some of the things in the development of this story, specifically about my character and if we would ever know anything about his motivation or what drove him to do what we see him do or if he is just a complete psychopath and always has been. . Once she and Carolyn Carpenter, her writing partner, made the decision to dig a little deeper into that psychology, I found the way they examine where this guy is coming from to be smart, clever, surprising, interesting and revealing about him and about us as humanity on this planet. What at the end of the day this film is about, for me, is the human condition and the character of Fernanda Urrejola as a mother, how the power of her love is primordial.

MF: Can you talk about how the character’s backstory helped you understand Wade’s motivations?

Simmons: Yes, and for me it’s always necessary to understand someone like this or other truly evil characters I’ve played in the past. You can’t justify it, but you can begin to understand the psychology of what makes someone do such terrible things. This was very clear to me, and that’s something I look for in any project, whether it’s something more light-hearted or something intense like this, can I believe and begin to understand where this guy is coming from?

MF: Can you talk about your approach to playing a character as evil and despicable as Wade?

Simmons: Well, being despicable is great. But I want to say that a big part of the joy and variety of what we can do as actors is not getting pigeonholed and not doing the same thing repeatedly. I feel like most character actors want to be able to exercise or exorcise, in this case, some demons. You want to be able to emphasize different aspects of who you are and who we are as a species.

MF: Can you talk about your working relationship with Michelle on set?

Simmons: It is beyond a kind of shorthand. I mean, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate several times with many wonderful directors and a mutual trust and shorthand develops. In Michelle’s case, we already had mutual trust and mutual understanding. Since I’m a fly on the wall every day when she writes for hours and we relax at night, I’m a little more aware of the project itself. Then when you add collaborating with our kids into the mix and with Michelle’s brother as a producer, it felt like that, especially for me, it felt like a family vacation in a way, which for Olivia and I was because we’re just acting and then we relax. For the producer and director there is never a moment’s rest, so for them it was more of a marathon.

MF: Is there anything specific you’re looking for from a director on set?

Simmons: It varies depending on the character, depending on the type of vibe of the movie, comedy, drama, period piece or whatever. But for me everything comes off the page, if it’s not on the page, even if it’s one of those scripts where you’re going to improvise a lot, it has to be there on the page, at least in the frame. I’ve learned, not that I always make the best decisions, but I’ve learned not to get involved in anything I don’t believe in and I understand on the page who this guy is. Then there are often conversations before production and during the day, between takes and at lunch about specific details, little details of why, where, when and how, whatever the character is. But it all starts, in this case, with Michelle and Carolyn Carpenter, what they put on the page.

MF: Can you tell us about working with actress Isabelle Anaya and if you were involved in the casting?

Simmons: It was Michelle, Randall (Schumacher) and the casting directors. I know you saw a long list of young actresses, teenage actresses to play that character. He met with Isabelle twice and I think a third time because he knew she was seeing something there that was what she wanted. If I remember correctly, I think Isabel was chosen before Fernanda, Fernanda Urrejola who plays the mother. It ended up being a beautiful synchronicity, their casting and obviously the rest of the movie as well. Now my brain is already going to the casting of Olivia Simmons, our daughter in the film, so as not to take anything away from Isabelle. It was a great find on Michelle’s part, and she does a wonderful job of finding the nuances of this teenager who suffers from anxiety and has endured horrible trauma in her life before this, and now this psychopath is terrorizing her on this rollercoaster of overnight. walk of a movie. But in the case of our daughter, while they were writing that character, they thought it would be a small scene or two and they had our daughter in mind. Then, as the role grew organically, Michelle said, “I don’t know if our daughter, a second-year acting student in college, we’re going to have to audition her for the casting director for this.” But Olivia did the self-taping and the casting director put her at the top of the list of recommendations without associating the name Simmons with being the director’s daughter, the director being Schumacher. She literally didn’t know that connection and said, “There are a lot of good actors for this role, but my first choice would be Olivia Simmons.” So, she took a lot of the responsibility off of mom and dad in that casting.

MF: What was it like for you personally to have this opportunity to make a film with your family?

Simmons: It was incredible. I get goosebumps talking about it. It’s one of those things that our son (Joe Simmons), who was still in college at the time, did the entire soundtrack for the movie. We knew he had the skills to do that. He had contributed a little to Michelle’s previous film (‘I’m Not Here’) with some additional music and sound design, and now he is a fully formed film composer who was able to do it all. I said before, Randall, that his brother was the only producer. He was doing the work of about 11 people. Michelle did jobs for at least four or five people, and Joe did jobs for a few people like the entire music department. So Olivia and I were just the work of one person, each of us playing someone else. In some ways, it felt like a family vacation, especially since we were filming in Missoula, Montana, which is where my last stop was growing up and where my parents retired and lived out their days. So, there are a lot of good memories there.

MF: Finally, I’m a big fan of ‘The Accountant,’ and my favorite scene was when Ben Affleck’s character had a gun to your head, and your character is begging for his life and says, “I’ve been a good dad. “I’m a terrible agent and I’ve been a weak man. But I didn’t screw that up right.” sequel, ‘The Accountant 2’?

Simmons: Yes absolutely. That scene is another one that gives me goosebumps because Ben and I are parents. Gavin O’Connor, the director is a father. In that scene, we shot a lot of different little nuances of that scene. There were a few (shots) where I got emotional, but I think in the final cut that we see in the movie, I was just whimpering because some guy had a gun to my head, and this could be the end. What you’re thinking about is your children, of course. That’s such a beautiful theme in Bill Dubuque’s script and in Gavin’s script and in the sequel, it’s very similar. There was a shot where Chris points a gun at my head and says, “Do you have kids?” During one take, Ben simply said, “What’s your name?” I said my kids’ names and they weren’t going to keep that in the movie, but he fueled the next few shots to provide that emotion. I loved that movie, I love the sequel and the way it continues in a very different way, examining the siblings, the relationship between siblings, with parents and siblings being the main relationships in both movies. Ben and Jon (Bernthal) are great. I can’t wait to see the second one.

What is the argument of ‘You can’t run forever’?

A teenager (Isabelle Anaya) suffering from anxiety due to a tragic event in her past finds herself pursued in the woods by a sociopath (JK Simmons) on a murderous rampage.

Who is part of the cast of ‘You Can’t Run Forever’?

• J.K. Simmons as Wade
• Allen Leech as Eddie
• Fernanda Urrejola as Jenny
• Isabelle Anaya as Miranda
• Olivia Simmons as Emily
• Graham Patrick Martin as Deputy Dwyer
• Max Garfin as Ben
• Nathan Vincenti as Davis

JK Simmons in ‘You Can’t Run Forever’. Photo: Lionsgate.

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