The 2019 Adam Sandler role that was nearly played by James Caan: “In the air somewhere is a version”
The most annoying thing about Adam Sandler is not that he’s been coasting off his reputation for 30 years, or that he makes movies solely to get his friends paydays, but it’s that we all know he can do so much better, and yet he chooses to make Jack & Jill.
The textbook example of Sandler achieving his full potential is Uncut Gems. Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, this tense thriller stars ‘The Sandman’ as a struggling jewellery dealer who needs to pay off his gambling debts before it’s too late.
Sandler gives the performance of a lifetime as Howard Ratner, a self-destructive egomaniac who brings everyone in his orbit into his own personal chaos, and was widely praised for his commitment to the role, which earned him an Independent Spirit Award for ‘Best Male Lead’.
The Safdies were desperate for Sandler to play Howard, first approaching him about the role in 2010, over a decade before Uncut Gems hit the screens, but the star’s agent didn’t like the script, and when the duo tried again in 2015, they hit the same wall.
With their dream star seemingly out of reach, the siblings were forced to look elsewhere, posting on their joint Twitter account, “After Sandler first rejected us, our instinct was to cast James Caan as Howard. Obvs it was always Sandman’s part, but in the air somewhere is a version with Jimmy Caan”.
The Godfather star wasn’t the Sandler substitute the Safdies considered, and Jonah Hill was actually cast as Howard in 2018, but later dropped out to direct the film Mid90s. Sacha Baron Cohen was considered, potentially due to his Jewish heritage, as was Harvey Keitel, and the fact that Caan and Keitel were in the mix shows that the Safdies were willing to rewrite Howard as an older man, which would have significantly changed the dynamic of the character.
Fortunately for the directors (and for us), no such changes were necessary, and they got to retain their original vision. Uncut Gems became a lot more respectable when Martin Scorsese joined as an executive producer, and once Sandler saw Good Time, the Safdies’ previous film starring Robert Pattinson, he was convinced that they were worth working with, and the duo landed their leading man.
Sandler might not have won an Oscar for playing Howard, but Uncut Gems was by far and away one of his best movies that gave his career a much-needed shot in the arm, akin to what Punch-Drunk Love had done 16 years earlier, and reminded everyone just how good he could be.
What did he do next with this new lease of life? Hubie Halloween, of course. Sigh.
