From director Kevin Pollak and based on the book The Late Bloomer: A Memoir of My Body by Ken Baker, The Late Bloomer follows successful sex therapist Dr. Pete Newmans (Johnny Simmons), whose practice is devoted to helping people re-channel their sexual impulses. After learning that a pituitary tumor has delayed his own onset of puberty for the last 15 years, 30-year-old Pete undergoes all of the mood swings, voice changes, acne and uncontrollable erections that come along with being a horny teenager, all while awkwardly pursuing a romantic relationship with the girl of his dreams (Brittany Snow).
During this exclusive phone interview with Collider, Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons (who plays James, a father who’s never quite understood why he can’t connect with his son, prior to learning what’s really going on with him) talked about how he got involved with The Late Bloomer, the craziness of this true story, and the universal moments of feeling awkward while growing up. He also talked about keeping grounded and grateful about all of the success he’s currently experiencing, and how excited he is to see where things go with Jim Gordon, in the upcoming Batman film that will be directed by Ben Affleck.
Collider: I saw you in both The Late Bloomer and The Accountant this week, and while both are very different movies, I enjoyed you in both, tremendously.
J.K. SIMMONS: Obviously, they’re apples and oranges, but I really loved The Accountant. That’s a really cool movie.
How did The Late Bloomer come about? Are you friends with Kevin Pollak (who wrote and directed the film) and did he reach out to you?
SIMMONS: I had actually seen this script a couple of years earlier. It had been bouncing around for awhile, in different forms, and I was interested in it, for a lot of reasons, and then I lost track of it. And then, I got a call from Kevin one day saying, “I’m doing this movie and I’d love for you to play the dad.” He and I have known each other for a long time, mostly playing poker and being around. We haven’t really had the opportunity to work together much, although he did a little thing in my wife’s first film. But once Kevin asked me to take a look at it and said he was putting it together, it was easy to make the commitment. The dad part is a really nice part, but it’s also a part that I knew I could knock out in three or four days, or whatever it was that I ended up working on the movie. Scheduling it in my busy life was not a problem. And they were shooting my scenes in Los Angeles, which was even nicer. So, it was an easy thing to say yes to. And then, as it was coming together and it ended up being Maria Bello, Johnny Simmons, Brittany Snow and all of these great people, it really came together nicely.
When you read this script and learned that it was about a guy who doesn’t go through puberty until he’s 30, what was your reaction? Did you think it made for a funny story, or did you think it was just crazy?
SIMMONS: Yeah, it’s pretty crazy, but the first time I became aware of it, I knew that it was based on a real guy’s life. There’s often nothing crazier than reality, so the fact that this was something that really happened and was not just something that a writer came up with while sitting in a room made it more interesting.
The scene where this guy finally gets an erection and it happens to be in the room with this parents is both funny and very awkward. What was that scene like to shoot? Was it hard not to laugh at the silliness of it all, especially with how genuinely happy your character is about it?
SIMMONS: It was often hard not to laugh at the silliness, and it was hardest for our alleged direction, Mr. Pollak. We could hear him from two rooms away, in the house, trying to stifle his own laughter. It was definitely one of those sets where there were pieces of takes that were unusable because it was like Harvey Korman and Tim Conway on the old Carol Burnett Show, cracking each other up, all the time. Having said that, I think any guy has memories, obviously not as a guy who’s 30, but in junior high when you were sitting in class with a pretty girl next to us or with a pretty woman teaching the class, and not knowing how to stand up and walk out of the room. It’s a pretty universal moment.
Do you think that before knowing what was going on with him, this guy had written off his son because he figured he was just never going to understand him or get who he is, and was just going to have to live with that?
SIMMONS: Absolutely, I think that’s true. I’m not going to be able to quote it, but there’s a great line by Norman Maclean, that’s much more serious than this movie is, at face value, that says you don’t need to understand completely to love completely, and I think that’s where this guy is. He loves his son. He’s loved his son from the moment of birth, as you do as a parent, and that bond continues to grow through childhood. He expected it to develop, as his son went from boy to man, but somehow that didn’t unfold the way he thought it would. He’s a traditional guy and a little bit of a dinosaur, but also enough of a decent guy and a loving father that he’s trying not to put too much of his own expectations on the kid. So, he loves the kid, but he just doesn’t understand him. He wishes he did, but he’s tried and he can’t. That’s why he’s so elated when he discovers the cause. It’s just, “Oh, this is what’s going on! This is the hurdle that I didn’t know was there!”
Could you ever have imagined, foreseen or even dreamed that, at this stage in your career and life, you would be part of one of the biggest film franchises around, with the DC movies that you’re doing?
SIMMONS: Beginning with making a modest living doing theater when I was in my 20s, I was already exceeding anything I’d ever dreamed of. And then, there was being on Broadway for five year. And then, it was transitioning into actually paying the rent and, ultimately, paying the mortgage as a film and television actor. Each step I take is an additional step along this road that never occurred to me I would be on. And I think that’s an important perspective to continue to go back to because it’s easy to get jaded and cynical, and take things for granted in this business or in life. I do look back and think, “Wow, who would’ve thunk it?” That keeps me grounded and grateful, which I think are two things that go hand in hand.
Especially knowing how important Jim Gordon is to the DC universe, what are you most excited about, with playing him in the future?
SIMMONS: Because it’s not a real big part of the first Justice League movie, I am excited about seeing what directions he can go. Hopefully, I’ll be able to lobby a little bit, as I continue to do my own research into Jim Gordon. Obviously, with the rich history of those characters, there are a lot of different directions that they can all go that I know it will be an interesting road. I know I’m at least working with two filmmakers, Zack [Snyder] and Ben [Affleck], for at least one movie with Ben on both sides of the camera, and I’m really looking forward to that.
The Late Bloomer is in theaters and on-demand on October 7th.
