J.K. Simmons remembers starving in 1980s New York

In a wide-ranging conversation, J.K. Simmons looked back on waiting tables at Joe Allen, the brutal pace of “Whiplash” filmed in 19 days, and the moment a friend saved him when he was broke in 1980s New York. Now 71, he’s starring in the MGM+ series “The Westi

Jonathan Kimble Simmons didn’t become a star in New York—he started out like so many New Yorkers: born elsewhere, but claiming the city as home.

He still carries the memory of another life, too. Before he was playing mob bosses on screen, he was waiting tables at the legendary Joe Allen. When asked if he was any good, Simmons didn’t polish the story.

“You know what? Not very good,” he said. “I worked hard. I was pleasant, you know. I tried to be charming. I was not organized. This would have taken me, like, five trips to set up [this table], yeah. And the butter would already be melting by the time I got it here.”

Now, next week, he returns to television as a far more dangerous kind of character. Simmons stars in “The Westies,” a new series out next week on MGM+. The show focuses on the Irish-American mobsters who ruled the West Side of New York in the 1980s. Simmons plays the boss: tough, smart, and bad to the bone.

And even if the role is steeped in menace, he said he still looks for something human inside the darkness.

“How comfortable is he playing that kind of bad guy?” the conversation turned. Simmons answered with a simple rule for getting into character. “I just love going back and forth and doing something different from whatever I just got done doing,” he said. “And if there’s something I can latch onto other than just pure evil. you know. if I can find the humanity in the guy somewhere. then. yeah. I love playing those kind of guys.”.

He’s spent years doing exactly that—building performances that people remember long after the scene ends. Simmons has played “those kind of guys” for a long time, including the bombastic boss in the “Spider-man” series and the guy from Farmers Insurance ads.

At 71, he says there’s something ironic about his career arc. For most of his professional life, he played characters older than he actually is. That gap carried into his real life, too. “We didn’t get married until I was 41, and Joe was born when I was 43,” he said. “I would. you know. have him in the Baby Bjorn or whatever at the grocery store when he was. like. six months or whatever. and the checkout lady would say. ‘Oh. you’ve got the grandson today.’ Like. and I’d go …. ‘Sure.’”.

Even when the roles changed, the intensity didn’t. In 2015’s “Whiplash,” he played the brutal band leader opposite Miles Teller. Simmons said the film was shot in only 19 days. and that it was intense—but only when the cameras were rolling. “In-between takes, they were, he says, ‘Total idiots. You know, talking sports and giving each other hard time. Miles was just being Miles, and me being my dumb-ass self.’”.

That performance earned him an Academy Award. It also gave him a moment that has stuck with people since—one of those acceptance speeches that doesn’t just go viral, it travels. Simmons’s advice was direct:

“Call your mom, call your dad. If you’re lucky enough to have a parent or two alive on this planet, call ’em. Don’t text, don’t email. Call them on the phone, tell them you love them, and thank them, and listen to them for as long as they want to talk to you. Thank you. Thank you, Mom and Dad.”

He said he’s heard from people who took it seriously. “I heard so many stories of. like. people who were estranged and because some. you know. random bald White guy on a stage said ‘Call your mom. ‘ they called their mom or they called their dad. Like, really dramatic stories of reconciliations because I’d said that.”.

Still, for Simmons, the biggest challenge didn’t arrive in a spotlight—it came years earlier, when his career was young and New York felt like it could swallow him.

In a 50-year career, he has created more than 200 characters on stage and screen, from the singing guy in “Guys and Dolls” to a shredded Santa Claus with Dwayne Johnson in “Red One.” But he described survival as the real test—“back in the day,” in the 1980s, when he was talented and starving.

“It was when he was living in sketchy apartments,” the memory came back without embellishment. “I mean, you know, not unsafe!” he said. “But, you know, yeah, roaches, rodents. It was New York City on a budget.”

He said he might have given up. but one acting friend—Gregg Edelman—did something small that landed like a lifeline. “And he might have given up, were it not for another acting pal, Gregg Edelman,” the conversation noted. Simmons recalled getting emotional describing the moment he couldn’t find a way to work.

“Like, I couldn’t get a waiter job,” he said. “And I was going broke. And we’re just hanging out, talking. You know, maybe watching a game or whatever we did. And he left. And the next morning when I got up … I saw he left me 100 bucks, which I needed!”

Forty years later, he said, it still means everything.

That early struggle—roaches. rodents. and the math of making ends meet—sits oddly alongside where he is now: having his pick of projects. In September, Simmons is set to appear in the film “Heart of the Beast,” co-starring with Brad Pitt. He described his role in plain terms: “A character who he bumps into. A character in every sense of that word!”.

He was also asked whether he likes the label “character actor.” His answer was blunt, almost affectionate. “Yeah,” he said. “You know what? I mean, to me, that’s always just been like an actor who’s, like, not super-handsome. That’s basically what that means.”

And even as the career adds up—from a nervous guy at the Bigfork Summer Playhouse who he described as being a “terrible actor” to performances that earn awards—Simmons said the journey still feels personal. “It’s crazy to think back on. you know. the nervous guy at the Bigfork Summer Playhouse. being such a terrible actor. and starting to learn how to channel what’s in here [holding his heart] more intelligently. And I’m grateful every day, and trying to enjoy, you know, all of it.”.

J.K. Simmons The Westies MGM+ Heart of the Beast Whiplash Joe Allen 1980s New York Gregg Edelman Miles Teller Academy Award