![]() One of your two other credits this month is National Champions**. How much of Frawley did you get a chance to dive into? I know you had every season of I Love Lucy to watch, but there's not too much of him outside the show. And now as the writer and director, he’s become such a complete filmmaker. It's so impeccable, the way he constructs stories-for TV or films. I think what people don't discuss enough about Aaron as a writer is his heart. Ultimately, it was everything Aaron put on paper. What about portraying William Frawley made you break that self-imposed boundary? Well, it's just so hard to have that willing suspension of disbelief, no matter how good the actors are-especially if they’re portraying someone who has been in our homes on TV since 1950, or even a 20th century president. ![]() With the exception of a writer like Aaron, "biopics" as a genre don't appeal to me as an actor or an audience member. It's something I've consciously avoided the majority of the time. I don't recall you having played many historical figures. I'm so excited this is the project it happened on and that he talked me out of my trepidation and fear of trying to portray such an iconic character. We definitely became close over the years but never worked together. The fact that it's taken 31 years for us to reconnect, it's ultimately a beautiful thing. We go back to 1990, and I had one of the greatest experiences of my life being the understudy and getting to perform in A Few Good Men. It’s the kind of stamina you’d expect from someone half his age, but Simmons has never subscribed to a conventional timeline. The trio of performances remind us of Simmons’ dynamic range-remember his pivot from compassionate father in Juno to tormenting jazz instructor in Whiplash?-and his undying energy, which has afforded him an Oscar and the opportunity to work with nearly everyone in Hollywood. Jonah Jameson, in Spider-Man: No Way Home, slightly altering a character he first played two decades earlier. Elsewhere this month, you can catch Simmons as a fiery college football coach in National Champions, a timely drama about a student-athlete boycott, and see him reprise his cigar-chomping Daily Bugle editor, J. As actor William Frawley, best known for playing Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy, Simmons growls through the iconic TV star’s rat-a-tat banter and sage philosophy during a hectic time in the show’s production-a challenge, considering Simmons had no footage of Frawley to work with, beyond his televised performances. ![]() We speak ahead of the release of Aaron Sorkin’s latest directorial effort: Being The Ricardos, a “week-in-the-life” biopic about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz that stars Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem. “Wow, you'd think there wasn’t a worldwide pandemic, wouldn't you?” he jokes over a drink in New York on a late fall evening, almost surprised at his unrelenting output. Statistically speaking, it’s been the most prolific run of his 35-year career. ![]() Simmons character” conjures a fairly specific role, he worked broadly this year, showing up in a sci-fi action movie ( The Tomorrow War), voicing an animated superhero ( Invincible), and using his musical theater background in an acclaimed television drama ( Goliath). In addition to his familiar commercial pop-ins as the Farmers Insurance professor, the 66-year-old character actor racked up more than a dozen credits in 2021. Simmons is even more omnipresent than usual these days, that’s because he is. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |