Category - News
J.K. Simmons Shares Secret to His Successful 28-Year Marriage
At the New York City premiere for his new action-comedy Red One, J.K. Simmons revealed the secret to his successful 28-year (and counting) marriage to Michelle Schumacher.
“Be on the nice list,” Simmons, who plays a jacked Santa in Red One, joked to People when asked how he’s stayed in Schumacher’s good graces for nearly three decades. Turning more serious, Simmons added: “And listen.”
“None of us do that all the time and it's still a work in progress with me,” Simmons explained, “but try to listen, try to really listen.”
Simmons and Schumacher have been married since 1996 and share two children, Joe, 25, and Olivia, 22. The couple met in 1991 when they both appeared in a Florida stage production of Peter Pan.
“I was just leaving the parking lot, and I saw our dance captain walking with this beautiful, petite blonde,” Simmons told People in May of the first time he saw his wife. “I just tried my best not to be the idiot who's craning his neck leering at this beautiful young woman,” he admitted.
Simmons gathered his courage to approach Schumacher and “wish her a good show,” but was distracted by her skimpy dancer’s outfit. “I knocked and [she said] ‘Come in.’ She was, like most dancers, dressed in her dance underwear. I tried to be Mr. Cool and wish her a good show and I turned around and made my smooth exit by hugely stubbing my big toe on the door of her dressing room, squealing like a 4-year-old,” the actor said.
But Schumacher soon revealed that she, too, had feelings for Simmons, and the rest is history. In addition to their happy home life, the couple and their children have also begun collaborating professionally. Schumacher recently co-wrote and directed the dark thriller You Can’t Run Forever, which stars Simmons as an enigmatic serial killer. Olivia, an actress and recent college graduate, stars opposite her father as a potential victim while Joe, a musician, composed the soundtrack.
You Can’t Run Forever is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video. Red One hits theaters on Friday.