The Oscar-nominated director desperate to make an Adam Sandler movie: “There’s no one like him”
Adam Sandler often takes the wrong path, leading himself down a road of poorly-received comedies which fail to highlight his talents as an actor – something that has even led people to accuse him of being a bad performer.
Yet, he’s actually not at all, as many people discovered when he appeared in the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems in 2019. Those who had grown up watching him in the likes of Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore, and Grown Ups were suddenly exposed to a man playing completely against type. And he did a great job, too. How was this the same guy?
The thing is, Sandler has always had it in him, as we learned back in the early 2000s when he was cast in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love. A sad comedy-drama about a lonely man who wants to find love, no one, at least at first, could understand why Anderson had cast Sandler. Critics soon realised they were wrong to doubt him, though.
JoAnne Sellar, who produced the film, was initially confused as to why Anderson wanted to cast Sandler. She revealed (via Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks by Adam Nayman), “After Magnolia [Paul] wanted to make a really short movie. That was the first thing I remember him saying. But yeah, he wrote it for Sandler. He was a huge Sandler fan, and I was just befuddled.”
She continued, “I just didn’t get the whole Adam Sandler thing at that stage. I mean, the Saturday Night Live stuff, yes, but the movies that Adam had done weren’t for me. As a British person I didn’t really get the humor. But Paul just kept saying, ‘Oh my God, he’s so great!’ And he completely made me change my mind about Adam.”
If Anderson could convince people to see the genius of Sandler, then maybe he had a point. Punch Drunk Love was a success, and it opened people’s eyes to Sandler’s underused versatility. One director in particular was amazed by the performance, and it made him long to work with the comic actor.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Todd Field, director of the Cate Blanchett vehicle Tár, revealed his deep admiration for Sandler. “The first film of Adam’s I ever saw was Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love…It floored me. It really is one of the great screen performances – for me – of all time. He has an incredible range; there’s no one like him.”
Field, who began his career as an actor, appearing in the likes of Eyes Wide Shut and Twister, has only made three features as a director, but perhaps his next one will feature Sandler. Considering that the actor recently made another dramatic turn in the acclaimed 2025 film Jay Kelly, which comes after recent performances in the likes of Hustle and Spaceman, it seems like Sandler is branching out a bit more.
Maybe he’s not exclusively dedicating himself to shitty comedies that stink of a cheap and infantile laugh anymore, although it doesn’t look like Sandler will ever fully retire from the genre, having made the sequel Happy Gilmore 2 last year. I guess he likes to soak up the best of both worlds.
