Adam Sandler’s Daughter Sunny Had Her Actual Bat Mitzvah Right Before Shooting Movie Together (Exclusive)

The whole Sandler family appears in the new Netflix film “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah”

Janine Rubenstein is Editor-at-Large at PEOPLE and host of PEOPLE Every Day podcast, a daily dose of breaking news, pop culture and heartwarming human interest stories. Formerly Senior Editor of music content, she’s also covered crime, human interest and television news throughout her many years with the brand. Prior to PEOPLE she’s written for Essence, The Cape Times newspaper and Los Angeles Magazine among others. On-screen Rubenstein can be found featured on shows like Good Morning America and Entertainment Tonight and she routinely hosts PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly’s star-studded Red Carpet Live specials. Follow the San Francisco native, Black Barbie collector and proud mom of two on Instagram and Twitter @janinerube

The movie lands on Netflix on August 25h. Check out the trailer above.

“What’s really funny is right before we started prepping for the film, Sunny had her actual bat mitzvah,” Cohen says of the Happy Gilmore actor’s now 14-year-old daughter. “So I went to that service, and we got to do the real-life bat mitzvah and then left to make the movie. It was a really fun life movie moment.”Cohen, who previously made their directorial debut with the 2022 Hulu film Crush, says the celebration “felt equally as fun as the parties you see [in the film].””It was really, really fun. And it was, again, it was just such a perfect moment of life meets movie. It was just magical.”

Adam and wife Jackie Sandler’s older daughter, Sadie, 17, also appears in the film.

“Lifelong best friends Stacy (Sunny Sandler) and Lydia (Samantha Lorraine) have long dreamt of epic bat mitzvahs,” reads an official synopsis for the movie. “But when popular boy Andy Goldfarb (Dylan Hoffman) and Hebrew school drama come between them, their perfect plans go comically awry.”

The synopsis goes on to state that the new film “chronicles the high comedy and modern teen angst that comes with family, friendship, and first crushes.”

Adam Sandler and daughters Sunny and Sadie. PHOTO: MARC PIASECKI/WIREIMAGEAdam Sandler’s daughter enjoyed her actual bat mitzvah before being in a movie about one.

Sammi Cohen — who directed the actor, 56, and his family in Netflix’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, an adaptation of author Fiona Rosenbloom’s 2005 novel of the same name — tells PEOPLE they got to enjoy the celebration with the Sandler family ahead of filming the movie.
Jackie Sandler, Sadie Sandler, and Adam Sandler at at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Netflix’s ‘The Out-Laws’ in 2023.IMAGE PRESS AGENCY/NURPHOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK

In November, the sisters helped guide their dad’s speech as he received the Film Tribute Award at the 2022 Gotham Awards.

Obliging their request to accept the award “in that goofy Southern accent that you do all your dumb speeches in,” Sandler’s daughters launched into what the award meant.

“It means a lot to him seeing how most of the awards on his trophy shelf are shaped like popcorn buckets, blimps or fake mini Oscars that say ‘Father of the Year,’ which he sadly purchased himself while wandering in a self-pitying fog through the headshops of Times Square,” he read, laughing at the teens’ jabs.

Though they were disappointed not to be at the event, they did joke about doing everything they’re “not allowed to do when Daddy is home,” in his absence.

“Like eat his Yodels, try on his Spanx, or – dare we say – laugh out loud at Ben Stiller movies,” he read, with Stiller in attendance. “The last time Daddy caught us chuckling away at the Meet the Parents trilogy, he immediately stormed into the room he calls ‘The Screaming Room,’ which we just call the shower, and bellowed out the phrase, ‘Only the Sandman makes people laugh!'”