- It's tough enough to shoot a film
on the streets of New York,
but to shoot one with an icon like Mr. Sandler--
- Damn right.
(laughing)
- He told me to say that.
(laughing)
But no I mean, are people screaming, "You can do it!"
while you're in the middle of a scene?
- A little bit, that'll happen, yes.
And I can do it, they're right.
(laughing)
- It's motivation, it's nice.
- Yeah like, "He's right, let me get in on this."
(laughing)
- No, this is not my Passover Seder.
This is actually talking about a great new movie.
It's like being on the brink of a heart attack
for two hours in the theater,
and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
What's the appeal of this character?
Is it about working with these guys,
or is it about this particular character that excited you?
- Well, working with these guys.
When I got exposed to their movies and I saw what they
have done and how amazing their stuff is,
and the fact that they wanted to work with me,
that was exciting.
And then when I read the movie,
and would hear them talk about the character,
I was like, "Man, this is just something I have to do."
My wife read it too and she was like, "My God,
"this is - these guys are incredible."
And, "You gotta be a part of this."
So you know, she helped me get more courage
to jump into this character.
- What's scary about it at this point in your career?
- Not a career thing.
Just me, just day to day waking up,
being a different guy.
It's not a light, fun comedy that I love doing.
My intentions on my movies are to just be -
have a good time, make sure everyone's laughing,
walking out of the theater happy.
When I was doing this movie,
I just was just having to concentrate
on a whole other part of my head.
- Was it tough on your end to convince this guy?
- Well, 2012, we sent the script over to him
and then eventually he saw 'Good Time'
and immediately reached out to us,
which was surreal, you know.
And I let him know that on set of 'Good Time,'
whenever things were getting a little tense,
and no one wanted to start, I would just scream out,
"I'm hitting the record button, now."
- The old albums, the boys like the old albums.
- Love those.
So when I heard him for the first time,
I let him know that those early albums meant so much to us.
So that was -
- And it was also, it was like we - it was a conversation.
You know, you had questions about Howard.
- Right, right, right.
- And we were like, "Okay let's work on this together."
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- And then it became a deep collaboration.
Because once the character's on the page, it's one thing.
But then, when you find somebody to breathe life
into that character, it's a whole other ball game.
You know, you have to redo a lot of stuff.
It was just a lot of fun.
- There's no one who works more like a maniac than this guy.
It's unbelievable and it was nice
because we experience that in our own lives.
We just want to work and he pushed and pushed and pushed,
you know, wanting to get to know every little moment.
"Why am I doing this?
"Why am I doing that?
"Why am I looking over here?"
And it was incredible because it really makes you
focus on every microscopic thing that we already are doing
but it's nice to have a collaborator that's doing that.
- And give persepctive to it, yeah, yeah.
- Completely.
- And Howard never stops talking virtually the entire -
- Yes. Yes, you're right.
- I mean, this is probably more dialogue
than you ever had to learn.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
- And people don't think about that
but that's like a real thing.
- Yes.
- Like you have to fill your brain with a lot of text.
- These guys always used to say
about Howard, he just dominates a room.
Comes in a room, and takes over
and just no matter what's happening, he's like,
"All right, I'm gonna run this show right now."
(laughing)
- I mean, it has that like
Altman-esque kind of thing going on
where there are six different conversations going.
- Yes, yes.
- Are there lines in this film
that are always gonna be stuck in your head
to your dying deathbed?
- These guys give me a new line every day.
They text me or they video a line from the movie.
It just, we have a lot of fun.
I think our favorite back when we were shooting it was,
"The scenario," yeah.
(laughing)
- When we were prepping for the movie,
we hung out with a real jeweler named Todd Vulpio,
and he works on the block, and he was very helpful
and generous with his time.
And Sandler hung out with him a lot, trailed him,
among other jewelers.
But when we would be in the room working,
developing this character,
Sandler would look over across the room,
and see one little detail.
And he'd look over and look at me and like,
"We need that."
But "the scenario" thing came from hanging out with Todd
because he would just say, "It's a scenario!"
(laughing)
- Also, what was so hard was,
Howard had so many different modes.
There's Howard at home, there's Howard selling,
there's Howard in the back room, you know?
It's like, he's always gotta keep track of that
all the time.
And it was just amazing to see Sandler turn 'em on.
- I never expected to see Adam Sandler
in a fight with The Weeknd on the big screen.
- This has been coming a long time.
(laughing)
- The beef that goes back, way back?
(laughing)
The stunt coordinator that you got-- It was kinda loose.
- Yeah, yes it was.
- Looser than usual, yeah.
- That was both you guys doing it.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- The fight is just, it's all them.
- Violence, real violence, is always messy.
- The Weeknd's stronger than you want him to be.
(laughing)
I didn't expect The Weeknd to have strong hands.
He's solid and moved me, yeah.
- Has this given you a little cred, working with The Weeknd,
back at home?
Do the kids care?
- Gah, that's a biggie.
We listen to a lot of Weeknd in the house, yes.
And a couple of his tunes, I gotta say,
my girls are a little young
to feel that sexual vibe in the air so I'll
go to the next track.
(laughing)
But when I'm alone, I feel sexy with The Weeknd.
By the way, The Weeknd when he came by,
in the scene in the nightclub, is singing that live.
He's singing it live, did it like four or five takes.
And it was powerful, man, the whole place was going bananas
'cause he just, he just got this silky voice.
It's perfect.
- Yeah, everyone got a tiny little private concert in 2019,
not realizing 2012, you know,
that was kinda the norm for him.
- What was amazing was I remember
we were gonna do a dirty shot of him,
so we were like, "Oh, we don't actually need you to sing.
"It's okay, you can just kind of pretend."
And the whole crowd was like, "Sing sing sing sing!"
And he was just like, "All right, I'm gonna do it."
And he just went off and these people were so excited.
- Yeah, it's amazing when someone just has -
opens their mouth and like, you have that.
He just has that.
- I remember when I first met you,
you used to say you had a better voice than him.
(laughing)
- Can we go back to the tape?
- No, there was no tape, you were saying it privately to me.
You're like -
- Why are you trying to start up me
have a beef with The Weeknd?
You get into your own fights with The Weeknd.
(laughing)
One of the things I love about
what you guys have done in your films
is mixing, you know, professional, amazing actors
with non-professional actors.
You've worked with non-professional actors before,
David Spade obviously.
(laughing)
- That was a good one.
- I had that written down.
(laughing)
But does that keep it fresh and interesting to work with--
- It kept it scary at times, because the guys,
they roughed me up.
A couple of the boys they hired.
And we got along great, they're all great guys
and they were excited to be in this movie.
And it was like a gangster movie at times.
And some of these guys, you know, are just tough dudes,
and they roughed me up pretty good.
They didn't exactly know how strong they were at times,
and I walked away with some bruises.
- Some? His whole body looked like a cheetah.
- That scene in the car, it was like, we were like,
"Alright, you gotta hold back, hold back!"
And they would just latch on to his arm.
- Like, he's turning red in that scene.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- I actually pissed my pants during that scene.
- Yeah, he was scared for me.
I had to tap out on one of them, I was getting choked.
And they're the nicest guys.
They just, they're used to fighting, used to going at it
so they would get riled up with it all
and throw me around pretty good.
- I will say that I pissed my pants from laughing.
- Oh yeah, was that what it was?
I thought you were nervous for me.
- But it was nervous laughter, yeah.
- And then after, I remember it was amazing,
after you tapped out,
Tommy was - he did it again,
you were pretending to be choked.
He was like, "Oh my God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
"No, no, I'm acting, go go go."
- Oh yeah right!
And it was great because he used to say to me,
"Adam Sandler, this is so crazy."
And he would say, "Mr. Deeds, man,
"that meant so much to me."
And I'd say, "Oh, cool man, cool."
And then action, and all of a sudden, he'd change.
And I'd be like, "I'm Mr. Deeds, man!
"Calm down."
- Sadly there are four very big Knicks fans here,
and I'm surprised.
I mean, you have Kevin Garnett in this film.
You could've, 2012, you could've gone Melo or Amar'e.
- So we started writing the movie in 2010,
and it started with Amar'e.
You know, he was playing overseas
and he didn't wanna change his hairstyle.
So we ended up going back to the drawing board
and looking at other players.
And then once we met Kevin, he was--
- [Adam] He's pretty funny.
- [Benny] There's a passion.
- [Josh Safdie] A passion, yeah, and just one of these
people, you talk to him and you don't want to get off.
Very interesting person.
- And knows a lot.
Knows a lot about sports, knows a lot about history.
He is, he is a strong man.
- If you could will one thing into existence,
either a Knicks championship
or Adam Sandler getting an Oscar nomination for this,
what do you want?
- We all want the Knicks.
(laughing)
You know, it's just better for New York.
- Yeah well, no.
- Me getting an Oscar would be like, funny for a day.
The Knicks winning a championship changes the tone
of a whole community.
- Yeah, come on, it's a championship.
- They have one and it's like, lasted 45 years.
- It's good for 40 years. - [Adam] Exactly, man.
- I mean, you're getting such amazing accolades
and well deserved for this one, Adam.
- That's right.
- And the thing that surprises me
is that it is surprising for people at this point.
- Yes.
- Yeah, I mean, come on.
- This guy's worked with James L. Brooks
and Jason Reitman and all these amazing filmmakers, P.T.A.
Do you have more confidence now
going into this kind of situation, than back with P.T.A.?
- Probably, probably.
I mean, I always was confident I could -
I'm confident that I'll put the work in.
And these guys not only believed in me
but this project meant so much to 'em
that I just don't want to let them down.
- I'm curious, when you first kind of made the shift,
and started to kinda work in this kind of other sphere
on Punch Drunk,
were those first days nerve-wracking at first?
- I always get nervous,
more nervous in the rehearsal process
and figuring out what I'm supposed to do
and what everybody's seeing and what I'm seeing
and how I can click with it and make it my own.
So on the set, I think I get there.
When you shoot a movie,
doesn't matter if it's day one or day ten,
it's in the movie. - [Josh Horowitz] Right.
- So you gotta be ready day one.
And I think we prepared so much and that's the way to do it.
- The last year in particular
must be so creatively satisfying for you.
- Yes, yes!
- I mean, the Netflix special is amazing.
- Thank you, man.
- We had the benefit from working on the coattails of that.
- They think cause I was doing so much stand up
and that I was more alert and more ready to improvise
and remember lines, and I think that's probably true.
- Yes.
- I was more, I was alive from being on stage a lot.
And I did have a great time doing that special.
- And the Farley tribute was just remarkable,
that we saw both in the special and on 'SNL.'
Is that tough for you to do though,
like repeatedly, to think of your friend in that way?
- It was a moment every time
when I was on the road doing it.
I would say, "Here we go."
But I just, I think just that crowd reaction,
I was excited to hear that, hear them cheer for Farley
and see the images of Farley behind me just made it
like a different mood for the audience.
And it was a big high,
knowing that they loved the man so much.
And also, the best was talking to Farley's family
and them talking about their mom being psyched
and then Mrs. Farley wrote me this long, sweet note.
I was away all summer and when I got home,
this note was on my counter from Mrs. Farley,
just talking about how much that song meant
and how all the friends -
it just brought up a lot of nice stuff
because people keep talking about Chris again to her.
- [Josh Horowitz] It keeps him alive.
- Yeah, it was great.
- That's awesome, man.
You've resisted the urge over the years
to go back to, outside of 'Grown Ups,'
I don't think you've done another sequel
to any of your characters. - No.
- Is there any of the old characters
that you ever think about coming back to?
In this age of reboots, where literally everything
gets a sequel and a reboot?
- I don't think about it, I don't know.
I don't know, I don't know what the hell I'm doing anymore.
(laughing)
- All evidence to the contrary.
- No, but I do, just in real life,
walk around as Bobby Boucher a lot.
(laughing)
- Sandler's the character, Boucher is the real guy.
(laughing)