Hasitha Fernando on the story behind Whiplash as the film celebrates its tenth anniversary…
Hollywood has churned out its fair share of ‘musical prodigy’ movies centered around talented musicians with efforts such as Amadeus, Immortal Beloved and Shine. But Whiplash broke the mold by delivering a darker and more mature take on the timeworn story of a musician’s obsession at attaining perfection and the obstacles that come in their way. This is the story of the making of that critically lauded film.
The script was based on Damien Chazelle’s own experiences
Within a span of a few years and just a handful of movies filmmaker Damien Chazelle has gone on to become one of the top talents in the industry with critically acclaimed efforts such as La La Land and First Man under his belt. But it was with his unforgettable feature directorial debut Whiplash that Chazelle made his big break, becoming one of the most talked about young directors of Hollywood. Chazelle’s first love was filmmaking, but as time progressed his affinity shifted to music and he took up jazz drumming whilst attending Princeton High School. But unfortunately things were tough for Chazelle as the Princeton High School Studio Band had a very intense band instructor and it was these dread ridden experiences that served as the inspiration for the script of Whiplash. The screenplay crafted by Chazelle was so impressive that it ended up being featured in the 2012 Blacklist – which is a list of the most “most liked” yet unproduced scripts in a given year. Early drafts of the original screenplay written by Chazelle even had a more edgier tone that resembled a psychological thriller.
Whiplash was one of three movies adapted from a short film to receive an Oscar nod
As of writing, Whiplash remains one of three Oscar nominated films to have had its origin based on a short film. The other two movies are 1987’s erotic thriller Fatal Attraction and 2009’s sci-fi actioner District 9. When Chazelle crafted his fifteen page screenplay both Right of Way films and Blumhouse production approached the young creative to make a short film out of it and Chazelle agreed. The eighteen-minute short ended up receiving much critical acclaim after debuting at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, nabbing the short film Jury Award for fiction. This win attracted investors to bankroll a complete version of the script and thus, Bold Films stepped up to finance the entire effort for $3.3 million.
Damien Chazelle wanted to push J.K. Simmons to the limit
With a career spanning over five decades, the ever dependable J.K. Simmons has proved that he’s truly one of the finest character actors in Hollywood. Gaining recognition with small screen stints on Oz and Law & Order, Simmons received greater acclaim for his scene-stealing performance as the fast-talking newspaper mogul J. Jonah Jameson on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series. For the role of ruthless jazz instructor Terence Fletcher, Chazelle advised Simmons to push himself to the very limit saying, “I don’t want to see a human being on-screen any more. I want to see a monster, a gargoyle, an animal.” Chazelle based Fletcher’s foul mouthed, abusive persona on his former band instructor at Princeton High School as well as on jazz musicians like Buddy Rich who were notorious for their short temper and berating band mates. Since most of the band members on set were actual musicians or music students Chazelle wanted to capture their genuine anxiety and unease every time Simmons shared screentime with them. But in-between takes the actor put on an extra effort to be as nice as he could to the entire cast and crew.
Miles Teller was a bona fide drum whiz since he was 15-years-old
According to co-star J.K Simmons, Damian Chazelle only had Miles Teller in mind for the role of 19-year-old jazz drummer Andrew Neiman. But when Chazelle shot the short film it was Scott Pilgrim vs. the World star Johnny Simmons who played the character while Simmons was cast in the same role. The reason for this was Teller was unavailable to play Andrew Neiman when the short was being produced, but Chazelle made sure to have the talented performer on board when he was shooting the actual feature film. The filmmaker was blown away when he got to know that Teller had been playing drums since he was 15 but the actor had to be re-taught how to hold and use the drumsticks in the style of a jazz drummer, since he was a rock-and-roll drummer. Therefore, Teller underwent a rigorous training routine which lasted 4 hours a days, 3 days a week to prepare for the role. The unconventional drumming techniques, however, resulted in him developing blisters and calluses on his hands but that never dissuaded Teller from stopping. Talk about dedication to the craft!
J.K. Simmons improvised very little during the entire shoot
Actors like Marlon Brando, Peter Sellers, Robin Williams and Bill Murray are famous for their improvisations on set and its easy to imagine J.K. Simmons following a similar tact when he was playing the abusive band instructor Terence Fletcher in Whiplash. But surprisingly, Simmons stayed true to the script and strayed from it in all but one instance – when he called Andrew a “self-righteous little prick” during a particular pivotal scene.
An entire day was spent on a scene that didn’t make it to the film
Due to the shoestring budget they had Whiplash was shot in a mere 19 days with a hectic schedule of over fourteen hours of filming carried out per day. This meant there was only very little room for experimentation and improvisation during the shoot. However, there was one scene set in Fletcher’s office, that although cut from the final movie, still received an entire day of filming. This was because Chazelle firmly believed the scene would help Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons develop chemistry between themselves and their characters.
Melissa Benoist received top-billing despite having a limited screentime
Before her breakout role playing the title character on CBS/CW’s Supergirl, Melissa Benoist got her first major small-screen role on the Fox musical comedy drama show Glee before moving on to the world of feature film. In Whiplash, Benoist played a small yet pivotal role as Nicole, the charming movie theater employee who briefly dates Andrew. But despite her total screen time being less than ten minutes Benoist received top-billing alongside Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons.
Box office victory, rave reviews & Oscar glory
Although Whiplash is technically one of the lowest grossing movies to be nominated as Best Picture at the Oscars, the effort went on to make a not-too-shabby $50.4 million on a shoestring production budget of $3.3 million. So, however which way you look at it, Whiplash certainly was a box-office hit. On the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film maintains an impressive 94% based on 307 critic reviews with an average rating of 8.6/10. Both Simmons and Teller received widespread acclaim for their compelling performance with the former in particular garnering the lions share of the high-praise.
In his review for Variety film critic Peter Debruge said that the film “demolishes the cliches of the musical-prodigy genre, investing the traditionally polite stages and rehearsal studios of a topnotch conservatory with all the psychological intensity of a battlefield or sports arena.” Over at The Hollywood Reporter Todd McCarthy praised the performances of Teller and Simmons, writing: “Teller, who greatly impressed in last year’s Sundance entry The Spectacular Now, does so again in a performance that is more often simmering than volatile … Simmons has the great good fortune for a character actor to have here found a co-lead part he can really run with, which is what he excitingly does with a man who is profane, way out of bounds and, like many a good villain, utterly compelling.”
The film, naturally, ended up in multiple end-of-year critic lists and started its awards sweep by receiving the top audience and grand jury awards in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and nabbing the grand prize and the audience award at the 40th Deauville American Film Festival. The ever-masterful J.K. Simmons ended up winning a whopping 47 awards for his unforgettable performance as the abuse hurling Terence Fletcher, starting from the Academy Awards, BAFTAs, Critics Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. In addition, the flick walked away with the golden nudie for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing as well.
Unsurprisingly, even a decade after its release Whiplash still continues to receive significant praise for its utterly engrossing performances and emotionally driven narrative which offers a refreshingly different take on the musical-prodigy genre as well as an incisive examination of the dark side of obsession and talent.
Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
