Adam Sandler’s biggest comedy inspiration: “He would speak very favourably of me”
Adam Sandler seems to be one of the most genuinely humble souls in Hollywood, despite having a filmography that has amassed over $2 billion at the box office and entertaining audiences through a vastly eclectic number of genres.
With roots that lie primarily in the comedy world, the actor made his start as a cast member on Saturday Night Live before sparking a niche era of mid-budget comedies, starring in films like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer.
However, while there are many great comedians who have forged similar career paths, with the likes of Jim Carrey and Robin Williams also going on to star in an equal number of dramatic projects, there is one comedic actor who most influenced Sandler, with the pair eventually joining forces on screen.
Sandler might be one of the most effortless and unassuming movie stars of all time, with a laid-back persona that contrasts with his high-achieving body of work. The actor has stacked up credits working with everyone from Paul Thomas Anderson, the Safdie brothers and Noah Baumbach, with a dramatic career being sprinkled alongside his prolific comedic catalogue.
But while he is a one-of-a-kind character with an irreplaceable screen presence, there is one star who he modelled his career after, describing the contagious powers of Rodney Dangerfield and his eternal influence on the comedy scene.
Dangerfield was a shining emblem of the comedy scene in the 1960s and ’70s, rising to fame through his fabled appearances on talk shows and accidental coining of what came to be his most iconic catchphrase. Similarly to Sandler, he ended up starring in his fair share of Hollywood comedies, all with a slightly otherworldly tone to them due to how unapologetically bizarre they are, all with a mind of their own and following their own unique set of rules.
Sandler had always been a huge fan of Dangerfield, immediately listing him as one of his greatest inspirations and saying, “I love Rodney, he was as Rodney as you would think. He was a good dude. I remember eating lunch with him during Little Nicky, it was just me and Rodney sitting in my trailer, just talking, relaxing, and he was just a sweet guy”.
But Sandler’s love for him was very clear even to Dangerfield, with the comedian saying, “Back around 1995, people started saying to me, ‘Adam Sandler keeps talking about you in all his interviews.’ He would speak very favorably of me. I’d never met Adam, so I was touched. I finally got to know Adam when he asked me to be in his movie Little Nicky. I had a very small part, but Adam and I got to hang out a bit. He told me that when he was fourteen years old his father took him to see me at the Sunrise Theater in Fort Lauderdale”.
It’s a miracle when our heroes turn out to be actually great people, with many people in show business warning against this type of encounter and encouraging you to steer clear of those you deeply admire. But luckily for Sandler, his hero turned out to be a great co-star and friend, with their 2000 film becoming another strange classic in their combined work.
