There's any number of places fans will recognize veteran actor J.K. Simmons from best, but one that certainly stands out is his acclaimed performance in Whiplash. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, the psychological drama stars Simmons as a ruthless jazz instructor alongside Miles Teller, Paul Reiser, and Melissa Benoist. It was a critical hit and earned widespread praise, earning Simmons the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2015.

Recently, Simmons reflected on the movie in a new interview for the podcast 10 Questions with Kyle Brandt. His memories of making Whiplash are quite fond, as he's amused by being able to get physical with Teller. He also had praise for the writer-director, as told on the podcast.

“So many brilliant memories. Just slapping the crap out of Miles Teller was such a treat. We had just a great time on that movie, culminating with me smacking the shit out of him because as most people now know Miles, he’s an alpha. So that character was such a stretch for him. Immediately after every take, he was up, strutting his stuff and being like ‘I’m an inch and a half taller than you, bitch.’ We had an awesome time making that movie with the brilliant Damien Chazelle.”

Simmons went on to address the acceptance speech he gave when he won the Oscar for Whiplash.

“Everybody was saying ‘you’re the favorite.’ I did decide early on that if I were fortunate enough to be standing on stage there at the Oscars that I wanted to talk about the most important thing in life. I knew what I wanted to say and I knew that I wanted to give love to my wife and our kids and my parents. It’s probably the one time in my life that I’ll be talking and that many people will be listening and I’m really glad that’s what I said.”

Whiplash required J.K. Simmons to undergo a physical transformation be more muscular than before, and he buffed up for the role, capturing the attention of Arnold Schwarzenegger. This led to a rather awkward conversation between the two actors after the Terminator star had seen Whiplash.

“Shortly after Whiplash came out, I was at an event for the Terminator movie and Arnold was there. He had just seen Whiplash and he was effusive in his praise for the movie. I immediately, like a dumbass, went, ‘Well, what did you think of the biceps?’ And Arnold said to me ‘Your biceps were ok, but your triceps were very impressive.’ Are you kidding me?”

Whiplash is currently streaming on Starz. For more of J.K. Simmons, you can see him on the big screen in no less than two movies this month. He'll first be seen as I Love Lucy actor William Frawley in Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos, a biopic about Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), which releases on Dec. 10. This will be followed by the highly anticipated sequel Spider-Man: No Way Home on Dec. 17, which brings back Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, a role he's been playing for about two decades. This news comes to us from 10 Questions with Kyle Brandt.