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Oscar-winning actor J.K. Simmons now has the distinction of playing two iconic comics characters on screen from both the Marvel and DC Universe. He is widely regarded as the definitive J. Jonah Jameson from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and filmmaker Zack Snyder enlisted the Whiplash actor to play Commissioner James Gordon in the upcoming Justice League and, hopefully, future DC Extended Universe films—like Ben Affleck’s standalone The Batman.

Collider’s own Steve Weintraub recently spoke with Simmons in anticipation of the upcoming thriller The Accountant, and Steve mentioned that when he visited the set of Justice League earlier this summer, he got to see Simmons’ first day on set. As opposed to a small scene to get his feet wet as the new Gordon, the scene in question took place on the rooftop of police headquarters and featured Gordon conversing with Affleck’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller’s The Flash, Ray Fisher’s Cyborg, and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. So, the entire Justice League. How did he feel about diving into the deep end like that on his first day?

“Yeah well there’s not a lot of ‘small’ on those kinds of sets. When you’re working with Zack Snyder ‘small’ is not the word that comes to mind, or any of those DC Universe kinds of projects. I mean there are two schools of thought about that for actors. It is kind of nice, in a way—especially when you’re playing a supporting part—to start out just kind of doing a little ‘Oh and then you’re gonna walk down this hall, say hi to this guy, and that’s your day’s work.’ Kinda get your feet wet. Or whether it’s better to just dive into the deep end and get some of the heavy stuff out of the way. It was fun, I mean that whole universe is something I’m really excited to be a part of for a while down the road hopefully.”

And while we’ve only seen one semi-dark photo of Simmons as Gordon, Steve mentioned that he’s very much sporting a comics-accurate look, which Simmons said was the goal:

“And that’s what I wanted very much to do. As we sort of went back and forth with Zack and I and the wardrobe and hair and makeup and all those people, saying how we wanted the look to be, I think we all ended up being very much on the same page.”

If you missed what Affleck had to say about choosing Deathstroke as the villain for The Batman, click here. Look for the full Accountant interviews on Collider soon.

For more on Justice League, check out our set visit coverage below: