“Nobody Can Be Happy All the Time”
Comedian, actor, writer and producer, musician, as well as former Saturday Night Live cast member, Adam Sandler forayed into films, found considerable success as a comedian, and became the man behind a genre of comedy blockbusters.
There’s a faction out there that likes Adam Sandler the comedian, but also loves when he steps out of that raw comedy and they like Punch
Drunk Love (2002) and they are going to love Uncut Gems (2019). Can I have some of your thoughts on that, on when you take on dramatic roles and experiment with great success?
I’ll tell you, I don’t know what the answer is. In my life, I have been getting to do movies for almost 30 years. My main goal to moving out here to LA and my dream was to be a comedian and make funny movies and I got to do that. And then in the course of my career, some of the best directors have come up to me and said I have a movie for you, would you want to do it? And I studied acting, I went to NYU, I studied at Strasberg, I did all that stuff that helps you prepare. But it wasn’t my main goal, comedy was. But I’ll tell you, after doing The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), I got to be with Dustin Hoffman, and I got to be with Ben Stiller, and I had an amazing time making that movie with that cast.
And then these guys, with Uncut Gems and that character and as an actor when you are reading every scene saying “Oh my God, there’s massive range and massive emotion and just so much going on,” this is a new kind of excitement I don’t think I felt. And I did it and I loved doing it, and I was so in it and so prepared and feeling so creative with every cast member and we all knew we were doing something that was kind of interesting to all of us. It has made my head spin a little bit about what am I doing, what am I doing next, what am I supposed to do. I do love comedy, I don’t want to
Acting wasn’t my main goal, comedy
was.
stop doing comedy. But after doing Uncut Gems, I don’t know what movie I could get presented.
The movie is about the power of money and, of course, gemstones. What did you learn about not just business basically, but the transaction of money and the evaluation of gemstones from the district where you spent time filming?
It was not on my mind before doing the movie. But the more I was on the block, the more I learned, the more I saw stones, why certain things were worth more, it did get exciting, and I needed to see why a rare stone is so incredible. The backstory at the beginning of the movie, talking about where this stone came from and in thinking about that, this was just a whole other way to look at it that I never knew before. And just knowing how much it means to certain people, I get it, I get it now, I get why, even in character. It is neat to talk about the backstory of the stone, where it came from and the guy who made it. Just getting to see that process made me appreciate jewelry a lot more.
I know you are a huge basketball fan and I believe you play and you are a competitive player.
Yes. I’m not great, but I am competitive.