Adam Sandler’s one lesson from making so many harshly criticised movies: “I don’t get too shook up”
Hollywood can be a hard place to survive if you have thin skin, with the business notorious for long working hours, gruelling productions and the brutal level of scrutiny that can leave many artists completely scarred from being in the public eye.
It’s an industry that forces you to keep your wits about you, encouraging you to develop a hard shell and let the negativity bounce off of you if you want to keep working. The combination of harsh critics, paparazzi, the normalised lack of privacy and a declining respect for cinema can make it seem almost impossible not to crumble under the pressure, a plight many have to find a way around to sustain their passion for storytelling.
Unfortunately, Adam Sandler is more than familiar with just how ruthless the critics can be, forming a unique response to dealing with cruel reviews that has left him in good standing to carry on doing what he does best.
Sandler is one of the greatest comedic actors of his time, and regardless of the respect that people have for his work, there is no denying that he is great at making audiences laugh and single-handedly keeping the comedy genre alive. During a time when people desperately need to laugh and have their spirits lifted, the importance of his work and creative identity cannot be understated, with a gift for a certain type of storytelling that is so silly you cannot help but devote the entirety of your attention to it.
Whether it be The Wedding Singer, Happy Gilmore or his fruitful collaborations with Noah Baumbach, Sandler is one of the most genuine and heartfelt entertainers in the business, even if the critics aren’t always kind about his work. When discussing the impact that negative criticism has on him, the actor was asked whether the feedback ever got under his skin, to which he responded, “Sometimes. Mostly because I invite all these amazing people I care about to make movies with me, and I wish they didn’t have to read s— about whatever we’ve made. But I don’t get too shook up.”
He is able to stay level-headed due to a profound piece of advice that his father gave to him, which he recounted: “I recall one time that something didn’t go right for me. I bombed onstage or didn’t get an audition. I was upset and probably embarrassed. And he said, ‘Adam, you can’t always be happy. People aren’t always going to like you. You’re going to fail’. I said, ‘But I just want to be happy, man. I don’t want all that other crap’. He said, ‘You won’t actually know you’re happy if you don’t feel that other stuff.’”
The low moments are ultimately the ones that make the high moments, a lesson that stuck with Sandler and informed the thick skin that is needed to make risky films and carry on being authentic, despite the friction that it might cause amongst the stuck-up critics.
