J.K. Simmons and His Family 'Laughed a Lot' While Making a Movie Together — About a Serial Killer (Exclusive)

The actor stars with daughter Olivia in 'You Can't Run Forever,' co-written and directed by wife Michelle Schumacher and featuring music by son Joe

In the living room of the sun-drenched New York City apartment J.K. Simmons shares with his wife, writer-director Michelle Schumacher, there’s a spot stocked with all sorts of board and card games.

In this family, “game night is huge,” says the 69-year-old actor, known for roles both fearsome (his Oscar-winning turn in Whiplash) and fatherly (Juno).

The couple’s children, Joe, a musician and composer, and Olivia, a recent Pace University graduate and actress, both live nearby and often stop over to play with their parents.

“It’s great family time,” says Simmons, adding that he prefers games that require group effort, like The Crew. “I like cooperative ones best.”

The family’s latest endeavor was no game, but it was a cooperative effort. The foursome worked on the new movie You Can’t Run Forever, co-written and directed by Schumacher, 57, starring Simmons and Olivia, 22, and featuring music composed by Joe, 25, who attended New York University.

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Don’t expect a warm, lighthearted romp: It’s a thriller starring Simmons as Wade, a mysterious man who snaps and goes on a killing spree, slaying almost everyone in his path (one of his would-be victims is played by Olivia).

Schumacher, who wrote Wade with Simmons in mind, began imagining the character during the COVID pandemic. “We were talking during the shutdown about how people got crazy,” she says.

Was it weird to map out such a menacing part for her husband? She answers a question with a question. “You know Oz?” she quips, referencing the HBO prison drama in which Simmons starred as a cold-blooded White supremacist.

Despite the subject matter of the movie, the family found moments of joy while filming in Montana, where Simmons, a Michigan native, attended college in the 1970s.

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In downtown Missoula, a picturesque city surrounded by mountains, they bunked with the entire cast and crew at a Residence Inn. “That was a really fun part of the bonding,” says the actor. “We laughed a lot.”

By day they filmed scenes in the wooded area where Wade hunts his prey — and sometimes encountered real predators. “We did have some fun visits from a bear, a snake,” says Simmons.

By night they’d eat together on the hotel’s roof, where the director’s brother and the movie’s sole
producer, Randle Schumacher, would grill for nearly everyone except his sister, who was too busy preparing for the next day to join the al fresco suppers.

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“I think I made it once,” says Schumacher, who met Simmons when they both appeared in a 1991 tour of the musical Peter Pan.

The family hopes to make another movie together in 2025, but first they’ll take a vacation — and, of course, bring along some games.

You Can't Run Forever is in select theaters and available on VOD now.

For more on J.K. Simmons, Michelle Schumacher and their children, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.

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