426. The Yellow

J.K. Simmons auditioned for the role of the Red M&M.

The casting director reviewed the audition and determined that Simmons was, in the casting director's professional judgment, more of a Yellow. Simmons accepted this assessment and was cast as the Yellow M&M.

(The Yellow M&M is the naïve one. In the animated advertising universe, Yellow exists to be deceived, to be enthusiastic about things he should be afraid of, and to trust people he should not trust. Yellow is the gentle one. The casting director looked at J.K. Simmons and saw Yellow.)

J.K. Simmons subsequently won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Whiplash, in which he played a conservatory music instructor who psychologically dismantled his students with sustained deliberate cruelty until one of them had a breakdown. The character is widely considered one of the most frightening in American cinema of the decade. Simmons played him with committed, precise, apparently enjoyable menace.

The casting director has not issued a statement.

The Yellow M&M, as portrayed by Simmons, continues to appear in advertising. He is still Yellow. He is still naïve. He is still enthusiastic about things a reasonable person would fear. The casting director's original vision for the character has been realized consistently across multiple decades of commercial media.

Simmons says the audition process was, in his word, ridiculous.