Summary
- Jimmi Simpson brings his versatile talent to Dark Matter, playing multiple roles in a series about alternate realities. However, he almost never became an actor at all.
- Simpson's life took a major turn when he arbitrarily picked a theater class in college that he could skip, originally wanting to be an English teacher.
- Because he decided to check into the class halfway through the semester, a series of events ultimately led to Simpson becoming the Emmy, BAFTA, and SAG nominated actor of Westworld, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and more.
As Mary Lightly in Psych and Gavin Orsay in House of Cards, Jimmi Simpson showed that he's the kind of cinematic thief who steals every scene he's in. He goes all-in with any performance, from the unhinged hilarity of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to the simmering and bitter (Unsolved). He's perhaps best known from the sci-fi genre, starring in major franchises like Star Wars (with The Bad Batch), Star Trek (with Prodigy), and DC (as the voice of Green Arrow in the animated universe). But he's also garnered acclaim for performances in the sci-fi series Westworld, Black Mirror, The Twilight Zone, and The Man Who Fell to Earth. Now he's shining in a new Apple TV+ sci-fi show, Dark Matter.
Simpson plays multiple roles in Dark Matter, a series about alternate realities, where each choice we make splits off into a parallel world where we choose something else. The quantum metaphysics of Dark Matter made us curious if there was ever a big decision or moment that would've changed Simpson's life completely. "I'm a real 'go with the flow' kind of guy," replied Simpson. "All the things that have happened to me in my life, most of the time, have happened to me because I'm open to change, and deep change. I'm lucky to have that quality, because change is inevitable. Not everybody is ready for it." However, a moment came to mind:
"I'd never met an artist my entire childhood. You know, rural New Jersey, not much money. I'd never met anyone who made a living from art. So the idea of becoming an actor was not even a thought. And I went to get my English degree at the only university I could afford, and delivered some pizza to pay for my books, and took a theater course halfway through my college career, honestly so I could skip it, because it was a lecture course."
"And my decision was to check in with the course halfway through the semester, and my professor, Karen Anselm, told me she was taking attendance, and I do need to ace the finale to not fail. And the finale was a performance," continued Simpson in our interview. "So I did my first scene, and Karen Anselm asked me the question, 'Would you become a theater major?' And I said, 'Yeah, let me add that major.'" He added:
And it wasn't anything I planned to do. I had no desire to have any fame or any of those trappings. But had I not done that, had I been an English teacher, I really do believe I would have told stories on stage.
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"I was kind of attracted towards community theater, but never as a means of, like, funding my life," continued Simpson. "So I don't know how different it would have been, but that was kind of the major shift. That's why I'm here, why I'm part of telling this story, is because just one woman had an idea and offered it to me, and I was open to it. And I said, 'Sure.'"
Since that moment, Simpson's life has completely changed direction, and now he's a very busy working actor with Emmy, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild nominations. You can see him playing multiple characters in the new series Dark Matter, and he's concluding the epic animated trilogy, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, with its upcoming third part. He'll be in the upcoming comedy movie Home Delivery, also starring Sheila Carrasco, Rainn Wilson, Joe Pantoliano, Peter MacNicol, Donald Faison, and other familiar faces. He also stars opposite Natalie Dormer in the upcoming drama Audrey's Children.
Dark Matter premiered May 8, 2024, with the first two episodes on Apple TV+, followed by one new episode weekly through June 26, 2024. You can watch it through the link below, and check out our interviews with the show's other stars, Jennifer Connelly, Joel Edgerton, and Alice Braga, along with creators and producers Blake Crouch and Matt Tolmach.