To say he's a tough taskmaster is an understatement. Fletcher puts aspiring obsessive sticksman Andrew (Divergent star Miles Teller) through physical and emotional hell.
Actor Miles Teller. Photo AP
It took its toll on Teller - those were his hands becoming bloody and blistered.
"There was a moment where I literally couldn't drum any more, I was just so exhausted," Teller recalls. "I tried to get myself there but it wasn't like a walk in the park. It was an intense drama, with J.K. Simmons yelling at me every friggin' day."
Teller, whose previous screen appearances include teen fare like Project X, 21& Over before proving his acting skills in The Spectacular Now wasn't keen on doing the film.
"I'd just filmed Divergent for four months and the previous year I'd done four films, so I needed a rest," Teller recalls. "My agent said, 'You have to do this film, it's one of the best scripts I've read and, you know what, you're gonna say yes!'"
Teller had played the drums in a rock band in high school and college. But he had to learn the far more demanding frenetic techniques of jazz drumming. Covered in sweat, which was for real, he personally did all the drumming even if Chazelle touched up the soundtrack.
Melissa Benoist and Miles Teller in a scene from Whiplash. Photo / AP
"I grew up with music, I started with piano and then I played alto sax, but I got into guitar to get girls and then I played the drums," he explains. "At home everybody was playing multiple instruments and there was always this chaos going on. I think most parents would tell their kids to quieten down and watch TV or something and my mum just loved it and would be singing and wanted this Partridge Family kind of thing. My mum says that Whiplash will always be her favourite movie because she gets to watch her kid play music."
Even his mum might have winced the treatment her son's character was meted out at the hands of Simmons - at the encouragement of Chazelle, who had made an earlier short version of the film to help attract finance for a feature.
"The one thing I talked about with J.K. the day before we filmed the short - we didn't have any time for rehearsal - was to make sure when he was yelling, to not just yell, to literally become not human," Chazelle recalls. "I said, 'Become an animal' and he nodded and said, 'Well, good', and he left and he came back the next day and he scared the hell out of all of us."
By the time Teller came to work with the seasoned theatre pro, Simmons was primed.
Teller: "We were trying to figure out the slap scene and initially we were trying to fake it but it just didn't look right. I said 'Hey J.K. just slap me! Get it on the first take, we'll knock it out.' I started laughing and he started laughing. It's a pretty ridiculous job that we have. I discovered that we could talk about anything."
J.K. Simmons in Whiplash. Photo / AP
Chazelle says Teller recalls a young Dustin Hoffman, whereas the actor Teller most wants to emulate is Tom Hanks. Incredibly though, he looks and sounds a lot like John Cusack.
"I get a lot of John Cusack. He's great too. I met him once and told him everybody says I look like him and asked him what he thought. He said, 'I'm sorry to hear that. You're much more attractive'."
Did Teller have a mentor who took him aside and told him he wasn't good enough?
"I was never the kind of kid who wanted to be coddled," he replies. "The coaches I liked were tough. When I was in theatre school I had this one teacher everyone thought was crazy, like outrageous, but I saw method to the madness. As long as it's coming from a point of view you respect. You can't just have somebody barking orders at you or you lose that respect. But at the same time I don't think I would be anywhere if I had people telling me shit I did was good, when it wasn't."
Director Damien Chazelle on the set of Whiplash. Photo / AP
Teller has buffed up for his role as Mr Fantastic in Fantastic Four - "We approached the characters as normal people who happen to become this other person", he says of the blockbuster - and is well and truly on his way to stardom.
While there's already a Fantastic Four sequel scheduled for release in 2017, Teller has learnt that the smaller films can reap the rewards - and awards.
Whiplash won the audience award and the grand jury prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. There's already Oscar buzz for both Teller and Simmons.
Teller is re-teaming with Chazelle, who himself is only 29, for a musical comedy La La Land, where he says he will be like Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain.
He's playing a pianist who falls for Emma Watson's aspiring actress as they dream of making it big in LA. "I'm training with a jazz pianist. I always like the opportunity to learn a new skill or refine one," he says.
Watch the trailer for Whiplash:
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Who: Miles Teller
What: Whiplash, the Sundance-winning movie directed by Damien Chazelle (above) about an obsessive young jazz drummer coming under the tutelage of an abusive instructor played by J.K. Simmons
When: Opens at cinemas on October 23.
- TimeOut
