One of the most talented, albeit scariest, actors working today is finally making his way to the Saturday Night Live stage. Golden Globe winner and Academy Award-nominee J.K. Simmons will make his SNL debut on January 31st and no doubt deliver a timely parody of his great work in last year’s WHIPLASH.
Simmons delivered what I would call one of the best performances by any in years as an ill-tempered and troubled jazz instructor Terence Fletcher in WHIPLASH, poor Miles Teller. Many of us took notice of the veteran stage and screen actor with his terrific performance as newspaperman J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN film series. He also turned out memorable roles in JUNO and THANK YOU FOR SMOKING for Jason Reitman.
It will be interesting to see Simmons on SNL considering he's given me nothing but nightmares for the last few weeks. He’s obviously displayed his comic chops in a few films, but live TV is a whole other ball game. As for the musical guest, D'Angelo and his band The Vanguard will take the stage for the first time after a 14-year hiatus.
Simmons's episode of Saturday Night Live will air January 31 on NBC.