There’s a sweet reason why the same people appear to crop up in Adam Sandler movies again and again. The actor’s resume is certainly pretty impressive, there’s no doubt about that.
Whether it be Grown Ups, Hubie Halloween or Happy Gilmore, Sandler has headed a ton of successful film franchises. He’s also worked with a lot of great talent too, including the likes of Chris Rock, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, and David Spade over the years.
Avid Sandler film watchers though will be well aware of the same people appearing in his films, with one group in particular showing up time and time again. You may have noticed in Grown Ups and Hotel Transylvania (and all their sequels), Sandler features alongside Spade, Steve Buscemi and Kevin James.
Elsewhere, he’s worked with Grown Ups co-stars Chris Rock and Rob Schneider on the 2018 comedy The Week Of and You Don’t Mess With The Zohan retrospectively.
Speaking on their collaboration for Grown Ups in particular, Sandler previously told Collider: “Me and Fred Wolf wrote the movie. The whole idea was about putting together old friends that get to hang out for a weekend.
“These guys are my old friends, so it made total sense. I’m glad they said yes to it.”
Spade also addressed it in Rob Lowe’s podcast, joking that he’s ‘only been in about 40’ Sandler films.
He said: “He assembled a team like the Golden State Warriors. Get guys that have their own movies and we’ll all be in one when there’s a lot of competition.
“It was a good trick. And when we shot it, he spread out the jokes, so we all got to score.”
In a separate interview with The Independent, he hailed filming the first movie of the Grown Ups franchise as ‘the best summer of our lives’.
With this in mind, the group of pals wanted to ‘relive that again’, thus Grown Ups 2 was written.
The first film has a measly 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but Sandler has long insisted that he doesn’t make films for critical acclaim.
“I didn’t get into movies to please the critics,” he told the British newspaper in 2013.
“I got into it to make people laugh and have fun with my friends.”
Fans of Sandler’s films will have also noticed he’s worked with both Aniston and Barrymore on three films. But it’s not just his friends he likes to keep close, but his family too.
His production company’s movie That’s My Boy, as well as Netflix’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, star his wife, Jackie Sandler, as well as their two daughters, Sunny and Sadie.
