Tom Cruise helped Adam Sandler get one of his best roles

It may sound unthinkable in 2024, but 25 years ago the idea of ​​Adam Sandler appearing in a film with even the slightest hope of an award would have been considered preposterous. The “Saturday Night Live” veteran was one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, but almost all the movies that propelled him to the top of the mountain were panned by critics. Besides sweet rom-com The Wedding Singer, Sandler was seen as a juvenile vulgarian who aims low without remorse. Although he could enlist the services of respected actors such as Drew Barrymore, Steve Buscemi and John Turturro, Sandler’s inspired silliness could not be accepted as worthy of their generation’s comedic imbecile Jerry Lewis.

So when it became known in 2001 that Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the most exciting young authors working at the turn of the millennium the power of Boogie Nights and Magnolia, has announced that it has cast Adam Sandler as the star of its fourth feature film which he wrote for the blockbuster Gun.cinephiles of a certain age were horrified. Not only did Anderson assemble an extremely prestigious cast for Magnolia, he landed perhaps the biggest star in the world in Tom Cruise—who had just worked with Stanley Kubrick. Was Anderson going to work with Sandler now? After he bombed with “Little Nicky?”

Ironically, what felt like an insult to many film snobs was launched by a man who made his third film a cinematic event.

Adam Sandler took a look at the SmartLess podcast in 2020 and told hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes that his journey to working with Paul Thomas Anderson began when Nicole Kidman hosted Saturday Night Live in 1993. Kidman was married to Cruise at the time, so her husband reached out to the show and found himself exchanging phone numbers with Sandler. Years later, when Anderson was filming Magnolia with Cruise, he told his star that he wanted to work with the clown prince of the multiplex.

According to Sandler, this is what happened next:

“Tom called me and said, ‘I’m doing a movie with my friend Paul, and he’s a great director, and he’s interested in doing a movie with you. Can I call him?” Paul was very nice and he said, “Hey, I liked ‘Billy Madison.’ And I said, “Okay, thanks,” but I didn’t know who he was or your albums. Is it okay if I write a movie for you?’ I said, “You can do whatever you want, man.” He was cute, I could tell he was funny.

“Punch-Drunk Love” received mostly rave reviews, but failed miserably at the Academy Awards. Anderson’s creative risk-taking earned his film zero Oscar nominations, and while the film directed plenty of snobs at Sandler, he still hasn’t received an actor’s nod from the Academy (interestingly, Sandler was afraid he would ruin the movie). That day, I’m sure, will come. And, as is often the case, it will probably be an Oscar for this and “Gems in the Uncut.”