Terence Fletcher

Terence Fletcher is ENTJ.

Terence Fletcher is an unforgivingly sadistic and prejudicial perfectionist who will do anything to push students past the limits expected of them. Fletcher is a cruel, ferocious and ruthless man who will verbally and physically abuse his students to no end in order to get the results he wants. Fletcher particularly takes interest in bullying Andrew Neiman throughout the film and is unafraid to throw ethnic and personal epithets against him and cruelly insult, taunt, and mock him. Fletcher is also shown to be very clever and manipulative, as he knew that Andrew was the student who got him fired from the conservatory and tricks him into thinking that he will give him another chance in his new band - in a sense this is actually what he did, as Andrew gave his best performance without any visual cues, awing Fletcher in the process. He is implied to be homophobic given that he directs several derogatory gay slurs towards his students. Despite his opprobrious and vulgar behavior, Fletcher is shown to have a sense of honor, as he finds Andrew's excellent and impressive drumming solo to be a great hit in the end, and he nods in approval. In fact, one the extremely rare occasion that they find common ground, Fletcher confesses his personal philosophy that intense and brutal actions, pushing people beyond the conventional expectations of others, is an absolute necessity to create a truly great musician. Fletcher holds the modern perception of jazz in unapologetic contempt, cynically thinking that people nowadays are content with ordinariness, whereas Terence is utterly determined to create perfection, whatever the cost. His 'ends justify the means' mentality has turned Fletcher into a respected but fiery and fearsome man, whose students are both in awe and terror of him.

Terence Fletcher is also completely aware of what people think of him and his methods, especially what his students and protegees think of him. However, Fletcher is completely unapologetic about the way he has tried to achieve his goals, despite the fact that it has damaged certain people so severely. Fletcher accredits himself with having actually tried to turn people into superb musicians, which he views as far more than what most people do. Fletcher is not completely remorseless, actually shedding tears over the death of Sean Casey, citing the latter to have been a wonderful player, and it is heavily implied that before Neiman came along, Sean Casey was his protegee. However, Fletcher equivalents this show of emotion by becoming particularly intense and abusive during the session that followed.

Fletcher has a tender side towards some people, as he is shown speaking civilly with a former student, and even playfully and charismatically with the latter's daughter, even implying that she could come and play in his band when she grows up. This suggests that Fletcher is not a complete monster. He is motivated by his impatience with other people's incompetence, his own philosophy that 'jazz is dying', and the fact that being gentle, in his view, is neither productive nor satisfying.

After being accepted into the Shaffer Conservatory, 19-year-old jazz drummer named Andrew Neyman practices at night when Terence Fletcher walks into the room. While Fletcher seems unimpressed from Andrew's impromptu audition, he nonetheless accepts the student as his drum alternate. While Fletcher seems courteous to Andrew, it is clear that he knows how to manipulate emotions, as seen when he abuses and harasses several of the band's players. Eventually, he begins to make Andrew his target of abuse by throwing a chair at him for not following the tempo for the Hank Levy song "Whiplash". The rest of the class are silent as Fletcher slaps, shouts and mocks Andrew for not being confused with the tempo.