Justice League star J.K. Simmons, who portrayed Commissioner Gordon in the DC Extended Universe, recently explained the truth behind his "jacked" workout selfie, which went viral online in 2016.

Speaking with ComicBook.com about the new season of Invincible, Simmons opened up about the viral selfie, revealing that Zack Snyder's superhero movie was not the reason he started hitting the gym and putting on muscle. "Here's the thing about getting jacked for Justice League," Simmons said. "I had done a movie called, I'm Not Here ... I played a character who ... had lost a ton of weight, and without being unhealthy I'd lost 35 pounds. So when I went back into the gym with my pal, Aaron Williamson, and just started pounding the protein and going crazy at good old Gold's Gym in Laurel Canyon in the valley. He snapped a few pictures when I was really pumped up and at my strongest during that period, asked if I would be okay if he posted it on Instagram. ... And I was like, yeah, sure, whatever."

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The actor continued, "And then three, four months later, all of a sudden, somebody's whatever, it reposting it and I get texts from 30 friends in the same day, 'What the hell? Whoa, man, that picture, blah, blah, blah.' And the press got ahold of it and said, because I was about to do Zack Snyder's Justice League, the assumption was, 'Oh, well, he's getting jacked so he can be in a DC comic.' But if you think about it, Commissioner Gordon wears a trench coat the whole movie. So it really doesn't matter what his biceps look like, it was just coincidental timing with me trying to reclaim my distant athletic youth and trying to stay fit and give my wife some eye candy."

J.K. Simmons Will Be Jacked for Red One

Justice League may have kept Simmons' muscles hidden underneath a trench coat, but Dwayne Johnson is going to let those guns out in Red One. Back in December 2022, Johnson shared some images from the set of the upcoming Christmas action movie, which showed the actor working out with Simmons. In Red One, which was recently confirmed to be hitting theaters this November, Simmons will portray Santa Claus, opposite Johnson as Callum Drift and Chris Evans as Jack O'Malley.

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Jake Kasdan directed the globe-trotting, action-adventure comedy film after having previously directed The Rock in the last two Jumanji movies. Chris Morgan penned the screenplay for Red One based on an idea from Seven Bucks Productions' Hiram Garcia. The cast also includes Lucy Liu and Bonnie Hunt.

Currently, Simmons can be heard reprising the role of Omni-Man in Invincible Season 2, which premiered the first of its four remaining episodes on March 14. The actor will also return for the upcoming third season, which remains in production. Simmons recently teased that fans can expect more of Omni-Man moving forward on the show.

Justice League is available to stream on Max or Netflix.

Source: ComicBook.com