J.K. Simmons Reveals the True Story Behind His Buff Justice League Prep Photo (Exclusive)

DC fans may recall those days before filming had started on Zack Snyder’s Justice League, when perhaps the most surprising element was when not only was J.K. Simmons attached to play Commissioner Gordon, but then photos of him getting totally shredded appeared online. With the intense secrecy that surrounded the highly anticipated DC movie, fans just assumed that it was because a Zack Snyder version of the Batman supporting character would need to have biceps that could crush fruit with a flex. Turns out, not really! Speaking with ComicBook.com in an interview for Invincible season 2 part 2, Simmons pulled back the curtain and revealed that his giant guns weren’t for Justice League at all.

“Here’s the thing about getting jacked for Justice League,” Simmons said. “I had done a movie called, I’m Not Here, coincidentally, written and directed by my wife. I played a character who was emaciated, think of The Machinist, and I had lost a ton of weight, and without being unhealthy I’d lost 35 pounds. So when I went back into the gym with my pal, Aaron Williamson, and just started pounding the protein and going crazy at good old Gold’s Gym in Laurel Canyon in the valley. He snapped a few pictures when I was really pumped up and at my strongest during that period, asked if I would be okay if he posted it on Instagram. I didn’t know what Instagram was, I didn’t know anything. This was a few years ago. And I was like, yeah, sure, whatever.”

He continued, “And then three, four months later, all of a sudden, somebody’s whatever, it reposting it and I get texts from 30 friends in the same day, ‘What the hell? Whoa, man, that picture, blah, blah, blah.’ And the press got ahold of it and said, because I was about to do Zach Snyder’s Justice League, the assumption was, ‘Oh, well, he’s getting jacked so he can be in a DC comic.’ But if you think about it, Commissioner Gordon wears a trench coat the whole movie. So it really doesn’t matter what his biceps look like, it was just coincidental timing with me trying to reclaim my distant athletic youth and trying to stay fit and give my wife some eye candy.”

In the end, J.K. Simmons was spot on with Commissioner Gordon and his antics in Justice League. When you account for both the theatrical cut of Justice League and Zack Snyder’s director’s cut for Justice League, Jim Gordon…mostly stands around wearing a trench coat. 

It’s certainly possible that Simmons might have gotten a little more to do in the Batgirl feature film, where he was set to reprise his role and play the father of Leslie Grace’s titular hero. Simmons was part of the cast and shot the film, which has now famously been shelved entirely by Warner Bros. Pictures and will seemingly never be released. Sadly we’ll never know if all he did in that movie was just wear a trench coat…