Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons

Veteran character actor J.K. Simmons is nominated for his role as the sadistic jazz orchestra coach Fletcher in Damien Chazelle‘s Sundance hit Whiplash. It is his first nomination.

“So much of my career as a screen actor has been in smaller and supporting roles and this is certainly a supporting role as well, but people refer to this as a two-hander even though there are wonderful characters in it. It’s a very meaningful part that’s a bigger part of the script than a lot of my characters tend to be… In that way it’s sort of another level of accomplishment.” –J.K. Simmons to Emma Brown, Interview Online, October 2014

To read the full interview, click here.