Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan attend the premiere of Netflix’s ‘Spaceman’ at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood on February 26th.
Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage
Despite his status as a comedy icon, Adam Sandler is no stranger to dramatic roles.Still, his performance in the new Netflix movie alien It’s probably the most serious work he’s ever done.
Sandler said at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Monday. hollywood reporter Director Johan Lenk revealed, “I kept saying, “No one wants to see Adam Sandler,” and the star said, “I understand.Even at home, I kept saying, “No one wants to see Adam Sandler.” I’ll listen,” he joked. ”
“I did my best,” Sandler said, continuing to strip his signature comedic style from the role. “He didn’t want me to sound like me and he didn’t want me to look weird. It was a difficult process.”
alien The film follows an astronaut played by Sandler as he is sent on a long-term mission to the edge of the solar system, and his life at home with his pregnant wife Lenka, played by Carey Mulligan, falls apart. To cope with this, he discovers an unexpected friendship and emotional awakening in an extraterrestrial giant spider (voiced by Paul Dano) who lives on the ship.
Lenk cast Sandler in the role after a general meeting between the two, and when Sandler told Starr about the film, Sandler responded, “‘This is a movie about me. I have to do this movie.’ ‘It felt like that,’ he recalled.
“I really like it when comedians play serious roles, because I think there’s something about their fearless side that you can tap into. We often talk about how we want to do it, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know about that,'” Lenk explained. . “Because with comedians, they live their lives making fun of themselves on stage in front of people. They’re like, ‘I’m not scared of anything.’ So from the beginning, Adam was like, “You can do whatever you want,” and that was really liberating for me as a filmmaker. ”
He further added that comedians tend to be much more vulnerable than typical dramatic actors, and that despite Sandler’s effortless comedy, the film didn’t leave room for occasional jokes.
“I’m not a frivolous person. I’m a dark person,” Lenk said. “There’s an absurdity to this movie, after all, he’s playing with spiders…but as light as it is, I don’t want to invalidate the thematic importance of this movie by enjoying it. Honestly , it doesn’t belong there. This is a movie about regret, so I don’t want it to be funny at all.”
To prepare for the project, Sandler and Lenk made phone calls with astronauts stationed at the International Space Station, Sandler recalls. , I have to look like that. They told me about their lives there, how they spent their days there, how they spent their time there, how it felt to lose their home and how heartbreaking it was. Sandler also added that he “didn’t really watch” other space movies before filming because he “didn’t want to fool anyone.”
As for her role as Sandler’s hometown wife, Mulligan said she was drawn to the story. “It’s so romantic and beautiful because COVID-19 has given us a different perspective on everything.” It’s about priorities and what’s most important to you and not being distracted by other things and what’s right for you. It was about focusing on what was important. ”
alien ” is currently in select theaters and will be released on Netflix on Friday.
