Lady's Man

Image credit: The Ladykillers: Melinda Sue Gordon

PARTNERS-IN-CRIME Simmons and Wayans in fisticuffs

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J.K. Simmons' performances tend to be explosive. Witness the 59-year-old character actor's turns as white supremacist Vern Schillinger on HBO's ''Oz'' and as motormouthed newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson in ''Spider-Man.'' So it makes sense that in the new Coen Brothers comedy ''The Ladykillers,'' he plays a professional bomb-maker -- one cursed with irritable bowel syndrome, no less. Here are Simmons' insights into the hapless Garth Pancake, and three other recent roles.

Garth Pancake, ''The Ladykillers'' (March 26) Unlike ''Oz'''s Schillinger, Pancake is no Nazi. Instead, he's a hilariously cartoonish pseudo-liberal, who antagonizes his partner-in-crime, Gawain (Marlon Wayans), with lectures on the civil rights movement and his gastrointestinal system. ''Marlon likes to stay in character for a while in between takes,'' says Simmons. ''We'd get these nasty back-and-forth quip contests going on-camera, and we'd continue them off-camera. Of course, the quips ended up being pretty childish: 'F--- you.' 'No, F--- you.'''

Simmons kiddingly insists that he's peeved at the producers' insistence on using a stuntman during one scene in which an explosion sends him flying out of an underground tunnel. ''I said: 'If we just rescheduled it to the end of the shoot, then if I do kill myself, it wouldn't really matter.' They said: 'That's true -- but there's always the possibility of reshoots.'''

Deputy District Attorney Joe Carter, ''The D.A.'' (ABC, Fridays, 10 p.m.) Despite his burgeoning movie career, Simmons -- who played Schillinger on HBO's ''Oz'' till the show ended last year -- is already starring on another TV series. ABC's ''The D.A.,'' which has been picked up for four episodes so far, reverses the ''Law & Order'' formula: ''It's a lawyer show that never goes into the courtroom. It's all about interpersonal relationships and backroom machinations.''

As it happens, Deputy D.A. Carter is a vicious backstabber, but Simmons still finds him sympathetic. ''You have to find the motivation. Most bad guys are coming from a place where they feel they're doing the right thing. Even Schillinger -- he hates everyone who's not white, but he loves those white people! [Laughs] All Joe Carter wants to do is put bad guys in jail. He's been in the D.A.'s office for 20-odd years, and he's frustrated by his boss always being a elected official who has some agenda. So he's gotten a little underhanded.''