After raking in a whopping $US39.5 million last year, Adam Sandler was the 8th highest paid actor in Hollywood, according to Forbes. Granted, it was mostly because of a huge deal he made with Netflix to churn out some objectively bad films, but hey! Get that money, Sandy!
Point is, Adam Sandler has been a huge movie star for what feels like forever now, but if he’d listened to his acting professor, we never would’ve been given films like I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Jack and Jill or Just Go With It. Can you imagine?! Okay, okay, for real though, what about films like Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison or The Wedding Singer?
In a conversation with Brad Pitt for Variety Studios: Actors on Actors, Brad recounted his favourite Adam Sandler anecdote, in which he revealed that the actor’s NYU professor once told him to give up acting.
“You were at NYU, and it was your acting coach, or acting professor, I believe,” Brad said, with Adam confirming the deets.
“He took you out for a beer and he kindly said to you, ‘Think about something else. Listen, you got heart, but you don’t have it. Choose another path.’”
But that wasn’t all.
“There’s a second part to this story.” Pitt continued. “This is why it’s my favourite Adam Sandler story and I think it says a lot about you. You ran into him when you were getting the ultimate payday, you were with a bunch of friends. Anyone would think, that’s the opportunity to rub it in his face. Reportedly, what you did was, you said hi and you introduced him to your friends and you said, ‘This is the only teacher to ever buy me a beer.’ That’s the guy I know, and I think that’s why you’re here after all these years.”
Obviously touched by Brad’s kind words, Adam replied: “I love you. I gotta tell you, when you tell me I did good in Uncut Gems that feels good. What you’ve been doing and crushing for so long. I’m so much more comfortable with comedy, and if you’re saying well in this, that does feel good.”
Watch the full conversation here.