Adam Sandler addressed all the harsh criticism that his movies faced in a recent interview. In conversation with both Deadline and the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, the comedian talked about the reception to his work. While recent efforts like Uncut Gems and Hustle have earned him rave reviews from press. No one would have to go back that far to read some truly scathing words about his work in general. Discussions of “high art vs low art” are nothing new historically, and certainly not in pop culture writing. But, there’s something about Sandler’s work that just launches that conversation into overdrive. Millions of people enjoy The Waterboy or Happy Gilmore, but the critics of the day derided them on release for not being smarter. It’s something that the Netflix star has had to contend with for most of his career.
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“When Billy Madison came out, me and my friend who wrote it, we were just like, ‘Oh yeah, they’re going to write about this in New York!’,” he told Deadline. “We read the first one and we were like, ‘Oh my god, what happened? They hate us.’ And then we were like, ‘It must have been this paper,’ but then 90 per cent of the papers are going, ‘This is garbage.’”
Getting Used to the Criticism
In the interview with Happy, Sad, Confused, Sandler explained how he had to just get used to that chilly reception in the papers. After all, his projects were still doing well and racking up the dollars at the the box office.
“When the critics started hating me, I really I just felt bad for my family and I just felt bad for the people who worked really hard on the movies. I mean, I had so many great actors in the movies,” Sandler explained. “When we would get done shooting it, they would say to me ‘I think the critics are really going to like this one.’ And I’d say ‘Oh no, they’re going to say bad things, and they’re probably going to say bad things about you being in it.’”
“I remember Kathy Bates in Waterboy, and I loved her and I loved everything she did,” he added. “I remember telling her when somebody brought up critics that I was like, ‘They’re probably not gonna like it. They’re probably gonna say bad stuff, maybe don’t read it.’ And she said ‘Well, I like it, so that’s all that matters,’ or something like that. She was cool.”
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