In 2014, Damien Chazelle presented an extraordinary piece of cinematic artwork, a narrative that transformed the audience to witness something spectacular musical journey of the lead character. Whiplash, as many critics believe is one of the best movies of Chazelle’s early career.
Miles Teller played Andrew who enrolled under the mentorship of Terence Fletcher, played by J. K. Simmons— a ruthless teacher with unconventional methods hitting his student’s psychological strings. As scary as it sounds, the preparation for the role was equally hard, Teller revealed.
Miles Teller Was Terrified On The Set Of Whiplash
The preparation for the role of Miles Teller was pretty intense. He responded to Damien Chazelle’s knocks on his door and jumped right into the rehearsal. “The rehearsals which for me was basically Damian knocking at my door and with a drum set,” Teller said in an interview with Oscars. Teller set it up in his basement. “We did you know started playing jazz music and I had lessons three days a week for about four hours a day,” he added.
“It was tough because even though I have played drums since I was fifteen and I’ve played music my whole life. I was not I played saxophone in jazz band and I had a little bit of, you know, knowledge with that but for jazz drumming, I mean, I felt especially once Damian told me that I would be the one playing, you know? These songs Whiplash, and gave me the songs of Whiplash and gave me caravan and we, you know, we plotted out exactly what measures I had to know. But for the most part, yeah, you got to be familiar with the whole song because just the way we were shooting it. A lot of time it was either with playback or not with playback.”
But Teller “was so scared to be messing up in front of all these actual musicians.” And life imitating art “It was just all a very authentic experience.” the movie is certainly a result of the painful journey of the actor but he definitely enjoyed the process.
Miles Teller Can Relate Terence Fletcher
J. K. Simmons’ character in the movie stole the show as he dominated the screen with his ruthless aggression whenever he appeared. His hardcore method of mentorship is not always digestible to all, in fact, it hits the very psychological strings of the characters in a negative way. How much further a teacher can push his students to perfection?
“I think in the way JK performed it too you can kind of see any gets that great you know monologue at the jazz club at the end but you can kind of understand the actual person behind there,” Teller told Oscars.
“It’s not just somebody yelling you know profanities and vulgarities and yeah because that’s boring and you’ve seen then nobody would give a sh*it about that kind of character. And for me, I had a baseball coach who was just an a**hole for the sake of being an a**hole and I didn’t like, respect really what he was talking about. I think he was all that informed with what he was talking about and so that kind of went in one ear out the other and then you know, I had a, you know, theater teacher that was, would kind of tear you down and stuff. But it with that particular teacher made me just want to, you know, work harder and prepare more.”
The 36-year-old thinks that tough teachers like Terence Fletcher in the movie have really had a positive impact on his life. “Maybe I like, a little more, you know tough love whereas when I was a young kid, you know, 16 or 17,” he added. Whiplash can be streamed on Prime Video or Hulu.
