Despite his preference for casting his friends in supporting roles in most of his comedies, Adam Sandler has actually worked with a wide range of onscreen love interests throughout his career. Jennifer Aniston, Julie Bowen, Salma Hayek and Kate Beckinsale are just several of the many who have played the beautiful other half to his immature everyman. I suspect, however, if most people had to pick one actress that first jumps to mind for her work in Sandler movies, a plurality would select Drew Barrymore. They’ve found excellent chemistry together in a string of movies, and after an appearance together at the MTV Awards, fans are starting to ask when they’ll see them together again.
Sandler and Barrymore won the Dynamic Duo at the Movie & TV Awards, and they filmed a bit as part of their acceptance speech. During the conversation, the subject of working together again came up, and they mused about how they have worked together in the 90s, 00s and 10s and said since it’s the 20s, they now need to find a new project. Here’s a portion of Barrymore’s quote from the event…
Well, let’s wait until we find something amazing. We do have 10 years… It has to be special. We need to create a duo as iconic as Julia and Robbie, Henry and Lucy and -- what were our names in Blended again?
The last little joke about Blended (which is a fine enough movie) was obviously a written bit to get some remote audience chuckles, but it would actually be a shock if these two didn’t find a way to work together in the next nine years. They play off each other really well, and Sandler is still popular enough that he can carve out his own career path. For a long time, that career path seemed to only be making fine enough movies with his buddies at Netflix, but between last year’s spectacular Uncut Gems and the upcoming Hustle, where he plays a basketball scout in China, it seems like the future might be more diverse (and take place in space). That’s great. I’d love a world where we got two Sandler movies a year: one an edgy dramedy with an acclaimed or up and coming director and one a goofy comedy (and if Barrymore is the love interest, all the better).
On a personal note, The Wedding Singer is probably my favorite Adam Sandler movie, at least if we’re talking about his classic early comedies. There’s something about the friends to more than friends story arc that just feels so genuine, and both of the leads have some great scene-stealing moments. Plus, movies set in the 80s are always a great time, and there are so many great supporting roles from Jon Lovitz as the rival wedding singer to Allen Covert as the best friend to Christine Taylor as Julia’s cousin to Alexis Arquette as George. I love it all, and if Barrymore and Sandler get back together to make another movie even half as full of life as that one, I’ll be so happy.
