(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Stills)
Sat 30 August 2025 19:45, UK
I’d wager there aren’t many Hollywood actors who have received a personal phone call from the reclusive Daniel Day-Lewis telling them how much he loved their latest performance. Brilliantly, though, one star who can lay claim to that very phone call is Happy Gilmore himself, Adam Sandler.
Admittedly, the idea of Day-Lewis, the only man in history to win three ‘Best Actor’ Oscars, and Sandler, the only man in history to wear basketball shorts to every glitzy industry event on the Hollywood calendar, being mentioned in the same breath sounds absurd. Their filmographies couldn’t be more different, and their approaches to their craft are poles apart. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that if you asked Sandler about ‘craft’, he’d adopt a silly voice and make a fart joke.
Having said that, though, it is a matter of public record that Day-Lewis, the platonic ideal of a method actor, is a big fan of at least two Sandler pictures. The first one is Punch-Drunk Love, a quirky dramedy made by director Paul Thomas Anderson five years before he first collaborated with Day-Lewis on There Will Be Blood.
Perhaps the Gangs of New York star decided to dive into Anderson’s back catalogue when he signed up to play the terrifying Daniel Plainview, or maybe he’s always been a Sandler guy. Either way, he told Movies, “Of all his films, I feel it is his [PTA] most personal. What a great film. And Adam Sandler’s performance is one of the best I’ve seen in years.”
That was high praise from a man often considered the greatest actor of his generation, especially considering Punch-Drunk Love was the first time Sandler attempted anything even approaching ‘serious’ acting. However, Anderson saw something in the star of mainstream laughers like Billy Madison and The Wedding Singer that he felt could be applied to drama, and even though Sandler was intimidated at the prospect of anchoring such a film, he trusted the director’s judgment.
(Credit: Press / Columbia)
Anderson’s trust was obviously vindicated, and after delivering his greatest performance up to that point, critics expected more dramatic work would soon follow from Sandler. Over the next two decades, though, the ‘Sandman’ dabbled with drama on occasion (Reign Over Me, Spanglish, The Cobbler, The Meyerowitz Stories), but the vast majority of his career was still devoted to making the critically reviled comedies with pals like Kevin James, Rob Schneider, and Chris Rock that audiences love or love to hate so much.
Then, in 2019, Sandler made a scintillating return to dramatic filmmaking in Uncut Gems, a breathless, frantic, heart-pounding thriller from the Safdie brothers. Cast as a jeweller in New York’s Diamond District beset on all sides by the criminals he owes gambling money to, Sandler was a taut revelation in this onslaught that had viewers on the edge until credits rolled.
Oscar buzz is a troubling thing, in general. More often than not, it is generated by the studios that made the movie as they add fuel and cash to the embers of a picture to try and capture a few more dollars at the box office. For Sandler, the hubbub seemed to be more authentic. The entire world had seemingly been waiting for Sandler to shake off the pink and fluffy shackles of comedy and embrace acting’s serious side. Now he was fulfilling those fantasies and enthralling everyone. Everyone, that is, including a certain Mr Day-Lewis.
During an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Sandler revealed that he was shopping for basketball gear (how fitting) in the wake of Uncut Gems’ release, when he received a phone call. He answered it and was shocked to discover it was Day-Lewis on the other end. “He starts talking about grabbing the seat in front of him,” the almost-pathologically humble star revealed with barely restrained shock, “I couldn’t let go of the seat in front of me.”
The bashful star was taken aback, especially when Day-Lewis continued gushing about “how much he dug the movie”. However, by the end of their chat, perhaps he’d started to believe in his dramatic chops a bit more, and he admitted, “It was the best call ever”.
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