Despite some stiff competition, J.K. Simmons received the highest praise for one of his most iconic roles.
More than 20 years after debuting in the MCU as J. Jonah Jameson, the actor recalled that Marvel godfather Stan Lee gave him a “great compliment” about his performance in Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man (2002), even though Lee admittedly wanted the role himself.
“I had never met Stan and didn’t even know, and this is kind of obvious to anybody who’s really paying attention or smarter than I am, that JJJ was kind of based on Stan. You know, comic version of himself. He confessed to me at the time that he was a little jealous that they didn’t ask him to play the part in the movie,” he told GQ.
“‘But having seen you do it, I thought you were fantastic,’” Simmons recalled Lee telling him. “And it was very, very nice things, which obviously coming from the man was a great, great compliment.”
J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man 2 (2004). (Columbia/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Lee died at age 95 in 2018. After first creating the character of Spider-Man with Steve Ditko in 1962, Lee had a tradition of making cameos in Marvel movies, beginning with 2002’s Spider-Man.
Simmons went on to portray the anti-Spidey editor of The Daily Bugle in Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (2004) an Spider-Man 3 (2007), most recently reprising the role for Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).