Adam Sandler has had a considerable impact
on the shape of comedy today, from his SNL
days, to his songs, to his uneven movie career.
But what's really going on behind that goofy
big-screen persona that shies away from the
press?
Here is the untold story of Adam Sandler.
Adam Sandler was on television screens during
a golden age for Saturday Night Live, becoming
one of the show's breakout stars.
And yet, in 1995, both he and Chris Farley
were given the boot.
It's still unclear as to why the show terminated
two of its biggest stars, but in 2014, Sandler
opened up about it to the Daily Beast:
"We kind of quit at the same time as being
fired.
It was the end of the run for us...We kind
of understood because we did our thing.
It hurt a lot at the time because we were
young and didn't know where we were going,
but it all worked out."
However, Sandler did get his payback when
he appeared on Conan O'Brien's then-fledgling
show shortly after his SNL exit.
That meant returning to NBC, and Sandler didn't
just accept with no conditions.
He insisted that the network buy him a fax
machine, which they did.
One through line of Adam Sandler's career
is bad reviews, like the time Las Vegas Weekly
destroyed his 2015 tribute to 1980s gaming,
Pixels.
They wrote:
"Calling Pixels one of Sandler's better movies
is like calling a particular strain of Ebola
somewhat less horrifically painful; either
way, it's not pleasant."
Everyone knows the entertainment business
can be rough, but how do you reconcile yourself
when it's that harsh?
Sandler told The Independent in 2013:
"I could almost write the piece for them by
now.
But then I remember that I didn't get into
movies to please the critics.
I got into it to make people laugh and have
fun with my friends."
Kind of media shy
While Adam Sandler has spoken a bit about
how he feels about the critics, he hasn't
really said much about his reluctance to grant
interviews.
Sandler is notorious for dodging the press.
According to ScreenCrush, who did get a sit-down,
on-screen chat with him, he has a reason to
be media-shy.
According to Sandler:
"I used to be misquoted all the time."
His movies are successful
In March 2017, Netflix announced that they
were signing Sandler to another contract for
another four movies.
The announcement was met with confusion, since
The Ridiculous 6, the most well-known of Sandler's
first four Netflix films, received a shocking
0 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
It was also the subject of a huge controversy
over its alleged treatment of Native Americans,
which led to a walk-out by several members
of the cast and crew.
According to Netflix, though, Sandler's films
are some of the most popularly-viewed movies
across the US and 50 other territories across
the world.
They also note that when his movies do hit
theaters, the successes have done so well
that they make up for the failures.
At the time of that profile, his 30-odd movies
had raked in $3.9 billion.
Have you ever noticed how Adam Sandler casts
the same group of guys in almost all his movies?
As Variety so succinctly put it:
"...there's something invariably Clinton era
about the Sandler posse, and not just because
it includes Vanilla Ice.
There's also Rob Schneider, Steve Buscemi,
David Spade, Norm MacDonald, Kevin James,
etc.
It gives the impression that he's making the
same movie over and over again."
The actor doesn't really help his cause either
by trying to defend himself to his critics.
Instead, he cracks jokes about his movie-making
process.
He told the Independent:
"I sit in my room, and think up an idea.
Then I call up all my friends and they say:
'That's awesome!
You are the best.'
No, what really happens is that a group of
us come up with an idea and work on it.
We just riff around, make jokes, try and make
each other laugh."
Adam Sandler isn't always the dimwitted Canteen
Boy from his SNL sketches.
He can, perhaps surprisingly, carry more serious
roles with ease, too.
When 2002's Punch-Drunk Love came out, it
was met with massive critical acclaim.
"I have a love in my life and it makes me
stronger than you can imagine."
So, if roles like this are met with such praise,
why doesn't Sandler pursue more of them?
As it turns out, his core fanbase disagrees.
Although Punch-Drunk Love is viewed as a cult
classic now, at the time of its release it,
fared horribly.
With the price adjusted for inflation, the
flick earned a mere $25.44 million at the
domestic box office.
That makes it one of the worst Sandler movies
financially.
There's no denying that streaming services
have become giants in the movie industry,
and Netflix alone makes its own fair share
of flicks.
Unfortunately, critics, and even some filmmakers,
don't like a majority of them.
Steven Spielberg, for example, took what many
considered a "veiled shot" at streaming companies
while accepting the Filmmaker Award at the
Cinema Audio Society's CAS Awards.
The director said:
"I hope all of us really continue to believe
that the greatest contributions we can make
as filmmakers is to give audiences the motion
picture theatrical experience."
Nevertheless, while some A-listers are uninterested
in trying to cash in on the streaming boom,
Adam Sandler is certainly benefiting.
The actor signed a four-movie deal with Netflix
in 2014, and yet another in 2017, even after
the critical flop of The Ridiculous 6.
So, why would Netflix want to keep working
with someone after such a panned film?
As Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer,
told press at the UBS Media Conference, the
company, like Sandler, isn't concerned with
the critics.
Sarandos explained:
"He is one of the most bankable, dependable
stars on Netflix around the world...He's hugely
popular and just emerging in Latin America...We
are looking at him as if he is a global superstar."
When you think of Adam Sandler's movies, there's
a few scenes that jump out first.
Aside from a fist fight with Bob Barker, Billy
Madison's dodgeball game is definitely one
of those scenes.
You might feel bad for laughing at little
kids getting pegged with a hard rubber ball
thrown by a grown man, but you still laugh.
In March 2017, Sandler stopped by to chat
with Conan O'Brien and the subject of that
famous scene came up.
He admitted that not only were those real
dodgeballs, but that he also made at least
one kid cry.
"I wrote that movie Billy Madison, there's
the dodgeball scene, and I'm hitting all these
first graders…"
"Really hard!"
"...really hard."
Sandler also said that he thought it was all
pretty hilarious, but the parents absolutely
didn't feel the same way.
Sandler explained that it was in script, and
they pointed out that the six-year-olds couldn't
read yet.
"But, those kids grew up and guess who they
are today?
Uh...I don't know."
With Adam Sandler's once-teenage fanbase now
grown up, does Gen Z understand his particular
brand of humor?
The Grown Ups actor hilariously gave Ellen
DeGeneres some candid information about his
daughters watching his flicks.
"It's funny.
Some [of my movies] are OK, some are PG-13
ish...I'll put them on because they beg to
see them.
They're like, 'Please, it's not fair.
Let me watch your movies.
Those people always yell things at you on
the street, and I don't know what the heck
they're talking about.'
So I show them the movies.
They demand this."
Sandler went on to say that that eagerness
doesn't quite last:
"And every time, I'd say about 20 minutes
in, and then I see them tuning out, and I
hear them, they're nervous to say it, but
they're like, 'Can we watch something else?'"
Sandler knows his brand of comedy may not
resonate with a younger generation, and even
the possibility of returning to Saturday Night
Live was met with some hesitation for years.
He finally did return in May of 2019 and proved
his self-deprecating humor did, in fact, still
work.
Poking fun of the fact that he was fired from
SNL so many years ago, it was a nostalgic
return for many of his fans.
"Can't believe it!
Can't believe I'm back at Saturday Night Live
after all this time, it's been a tremendous
week.
I love seeing old friends and making lots
of new friends."
Typecasting is an issue for virtually any
actor, but Adam Sandler seems to actively
pursue it.
He almost always plays relatable characters
who happen to have a mean streak that might
be played for laughs on the screen, but would
be incredibly uncomfortable in real life.
When The Harvard Crimson asked Sandler if
there was a connection between his real personality
and his characters' anger issues, Sandler
had a surprising answer.
"In real life, I do have a bit of that problem.
But over the years, I've been getting better,
I think...But you're right, I do like snapping
and yelling, it's part of my comedy.
Sometimes when I'd snap in my house growing
up, it would make my dad laugh.
Or sometimes, he'd smack me."
Some of the jokes in Adam Sandler's flicks
that were once deemed funny don't exactly
hold up, especially in lieu of recent celebrity
scandals and Hollywood's tolerance for sexist
behavior.
In fact, a common trope in Sandler's movies
is that the oddball character always ends
up with a woman way out of his league.
Some people find the entire shtick a bit overdone,
and it was actress Rose McGowan who put the
Wedding Singer actor on full blast on Twitter
in 2015.
She posted a casting call note she received
from Sandler's company along with the script
for her audition, which read:
"Wardrobe Note: Black (or dark) form-fitting
tank that shows off cleavage (push up bras
encouraged).
And form-fitting leggings or jeans.
Nothing white."
Though it's unclear if this is specifically
tied to her Sandler tweet, a few days later,
McGowan informed her followers that she was
fired by her acting agent:
"I just got fired by my wussy acting agent
because I spoke up about the bulls--- in Hollywood.
Hahaha."
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, McGowan
later clarified that she wasn't trying to
vilify Adam Sandler, and that in reality,
she was offended by the stupidity of the note
more than anything:
"It's just the institutional stupidity and
the institutional infantilization of actresses.
Like an actress isn't going to look like her
A-game.
We need to remind her."
Granted, we have no clue how involved Sandler
is with casting notes, but McGowan raises
a valid question about the kind of culture
being fostered in his productions.
There's no denying Adam Sandler has stuck
to a shtick that he repeatedly plays in all
his flicks.
The lazy deadbeat who hasn't ever really grown
up has been the same role he's played since
his early Saturday Night Live days.
While the comedy scene has evolved, Sandler
has seemingly kept up with his own brand of
laughs.
As it turns out, viewers have gotten so used
to the Big Daddy star's crude wit, that when
he does something different, it leaves everyone
wondering if he actually has the capacity
for something new.
Forbes' review of Sandler's 2018 Netflix standup
special, 100% Fresh, noted,
"Whether it's money, or a bad habit of working
with less-funny friends, or a simple inability
to curate, it's tough to tell.
Still, he seems deeply human in this new special,
and creating the good along with the bad seems
deeply human too, it's just that he does both
at such extremes that it can be confusing."
Confusion aside, what was the verdict on the
special?
A 90% on Rotten Tomatoes along with a nomination
for a Primetime Emmy Award.
In 2014, leaked emails from Sony Pictures
sent the entertainment world into upheaval.
The leak came just a few months after Adam
Sandler signed his first deal with Netflix,
and people were still wondering just what
had happened to cause the split.
After all, Sandler's Happy Madison production
company was headquartered on Sony's lot, so
speculation was that something major had to
have happened to cause the split.
According to emails released by Gawker, it
was apparent that some Sony employees weren't
the biggest Sandler fans, as one email chain
noted:
"We continue to be saddled with the mundane,
formulaic Adam Sandler films.
Let's raise the bar a little..."
Then there were behind-the-scenes conflicts,
which were revealed in more hacked emails,
published by the Daily Beast.
First there were complaints about some unspecified
instances on the set of Hotel Transylvania
2.
Then a major confrontation between Sandler
and Sony execs over his desire to adapt the
children's board game Candyland allegedly
led to then-studio head Amy Pascal branding
Sandler with some harsh words.
There were money disputes over Hotel Transylvania
2, as well, leading many to believe that Sony
execs weren't exactly sad to see him leave
for Netflix.
The feud between Howard Stern and Adam Sandler
was so low-key that they didn't even know
how it started.
Well, Stern didn't, at least, and when they
finally got to talking in 2015, they cleared
the air.
E! News reported that in 2012, Stern was on
the air talking not only about Sandler, but
why he seemed to ignore him all the time.
Stern had a theory:
"I know Adam Sandler won't come on the show
because I've, in the past, criticized his
movies,"
He went on to imply that not only was Sandler
making the whole thing unnecessarily difficult,
but he was also being overly sensitive about
the criticism.
When Sandler finally sat down and opened up
about the feud, Stern and his listeners realized
that it was an insult and an injury that went
much deeper than that.
Things finally came to a head when the two
shared a flight, and Stern noticed the comedian
went out of his way to avoid him.
Sandler eventually hashed it out with Stern,
telling him:
"Before I forget...when I was at NYU freshman
year, you guys, I loved you.
That's why it was weird when you used to slam
me."
"Yeah."
"It would break my heart."
He went on to say that he never went out of
his way to be friendly with Stern because
he knew perfectly well what Stern had been
saying about him, and for his part, Stern
apologized.
"I always felt bad about all those years we
didn't speak."
"Me, too!"
When The Telegraph took a shot at explaining
the secret to Adam Sandler's success, one
of the things they looked to was his departure
from man-boy comedy with The Wedding Singer,
where he met his perfect on-screen match in
Drew Barrymore.
It was the first of his films to break $100
million at the box office, and it introduced
him to a wider audience.
There's a good reason for that, because listening
to Sandler and Barrymore off-set, it's clear
that their chemistry is 100 percent real.
When Collider asked them about it in anticipation
of the release of Blended, their third film
together, Barrymore replied:
"I would sum it up with respect...I've always
respected him.
I love him.
He makes us laugh."
For his part, Sandler answered:
"I love Drew.
I've known her a long time.
In all three movies, we've had the pleasure
of falling in love.
With the first two, I faked it.
But with this one, I really did."
When The New Yorker reviewed Blended, the
outlet's main issue was with the painful stereotypes
that went along with setting the film in Africa.
The movie would have had a chance to be something
special if it had been set in, they say, a
place like the Catskills.
But location is everything in Sandler's movies,
and when he went on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he
revealed a secret.
If people were starting to think that he picked
his movies based on where he wanted to go
on vacation, they were absolutely right.
"[50 First Dates] was written in another place,
and then I said, 'Imagine if we did it in
Hawaii, how great that movie would be.'
And they were like, 'Yes, that's a very artistic
idea.'
I've been doing it ever since."
In addition to Blended's filming location
in South Africa, that mentality has taken
him on an extended trip on a cruise ship,
to Mexico, and to Hawaii twice.
Most celebrities have charities they support.
Sandler has gone a bit of a different route
with some surprising moves.
In 2015, he appeared on Comedy Central's Night
of Too Many Stars, which is an annual event
that started in 2006 to raise money for autism
research and organizations.
During 2015's celebration, he came face to
face with his old nemesis...Bob Barker.
"You like that old man?
You want a piece of me?"
"I don't want a piece of you, I want the whole
thing!"
Even though they supposedly hadn't spoken
in years, things went sideways quickly during
Sandler's visit to an ailing Barker in the
hospital, and the two were right back at where
they left off in Happy Gilmore.
"Couldn't be nice, could you, Bobby?"
He made another off-beat appearance in 2012
at 12-12-12, a benefit concert for those that
had been impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
He took the stage along with big names like
Bon Jovi and Roger Waters, but he wasn't singing
an old classic.
He was singing his own version of Leonard
Cohen's "Hallelujah" with the chorus replaced
by a dig at the hurricane.
In 2007, he proved that he hadn't forgotten
where he came from.
He donated $1 million to the Boys and Girls
Club in Manchester New Hampshire, and he said
it was for all the good memories he had of
growing up there.
Adam Sandler isn't known as an Academy Awards
darling.
The actor had a brush with success when he
was nominated for a Golden Globe for his Punch-Drunk-Love
performance, yet ultimately, he didn't win.
That's why, when the trailer for Uncut Gems
came out in September of 2019, fans were totally
shocked.
Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, the masterminds
behind the critically-acclaimed flick, Good
Time, the movie stars Sandler and looks darker
than anything he's ever done before.
As the actor says in the trailer:
"I made a crazy risk.
A gamble.
And it's about to pay off."
As it stands now, it looks like the actor
is right.
Sites everywhere are touting that the Billy
Madison star may actually be nominated for
an Oscar, especially after the film's premiere
at Toronto's International Film Festival.
So, what does the actor have to say about
the buzz?
Sandler told ET Canada:
"This is a different style of movie."
He also had a quip ready when he was asked
how he felt about potentially winning an Oscar:
"Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I thought I was getting one for Happy Gilmore
and that didn't happen so I won't hold my
breath."
The Safdie brothers certainly have some love
for the comedian, as they said before the
film's premiere:
"You know, we grew up with him."
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