The movie Adam Sandler was “fucking terrified” to take on

Since Adam Sandler rose to prominence in the 1990s, he has primarily been associated with cringe-inducing comedies, leading the general public to take him wholly unseriously. From Billy Madison to The Wedding Singer and Big Daddy, Sandler isn’t typically associated with ‘high-brow’ cinema.

After performing stand-up comedy in Los Angeles, Sandler landed a job as a writer for Saturday Night Live, soon becoming a featured performer. Despite being fired in 1995, Sandler’s career was quickly boosted by a string of commercially successful comedies. Yet, the actor failed to receive critical praise for his performances, with his films often labelled as stupid and predictable.

However, Sandler proved himself more capable than critics gave him credit for when he starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s romantic comedy-drama Punch Drunk Love in 2002. The director had previously released three features, Hard Eight, Boogie Nights and Magnolia, with the latter two finding significant widespread praise. Anderson’s work is a far cry from the family-friendly comedies that defined Sandler’s early career, yet that didn’t stop the director from wanting to work with the actor.

Anderson had an “obsession level” love for Sandler’s films and wanted to cast him in Punch Drunk Love, writing the movie with the actor in mind. According to the director, Sandler’s character, Barry Egan, was directly inspired by one of his skits. “I saw this Best of Adam Sandler DVD from Saturday Night Live, and an amazing thing happened. There’s this moment when he’s doing this talk show called The Denise Show, about his ex-girlfriend who’s left him, and his father calls up and says, ‘What are you doing; you’re embarrassing the family’,” Anderson explained.

He continued: “And Adam goes into this fit of rage, screaming at his father, and honest to God, I saw this moment where it appears as if the whites of his eyes turn black and they roll back in his head. It was like, he just lost his mind. I would play it back, over and over again, and you can see him kinda snap back to reality. The audience is laughing, and it’s almost like he finally started to hear them laughing a few seconds later.”

Although Sandler gives an excellent performance in Anderson’s film, demonstrating real talent, he was “fucking terrified” to take on the role. While Anderson was preparing the screenplay, Sandler decided to watch Magnolia, which deeply impressed him. On the SmartLess podcast, Sandler revealed, “I went alone, and it was sold out, and I was in the front row, and I was looking up at it, and I was fucking terrified.”

He continued: “I was going, ‘Oh, this guy is fucking better than me. I don’t want to fucking be in this. I’m going to ruin his movie! Holy shit!’ I called him up on the way home and was like, ‘Holy shit. I just saw your movie. Fuck. The frogs! So you’re writing that movie still?’”

The movie was a success, and Sandler earned a Golden Globe nomination for his nuanced performance as the socially anxious and lonely Barry, who falls in love with Emily Watson’s Lena Leonard.