There are five simple blue folding chairs set up in front of a theater filled with anxious college newspaper reporters. As the publicity representative escorts latecomers to their seats, she reminds the aspiring journalists, "Please ask questions of the other panelists, and not just of Adam."
She's obviously been around the block and knows what's first and foremost in the minds of college-aged kids. As Adam Sandler - dressed in sneakers, sweatpants, a flannel and uncharacteristically intellectual glasses - takes his seat, it becomes clear that he has the attention of everyone in the room. And for good reason - he starts the Little Nicky press conference in true comedic form, with a little bit of stand up.
Once the class clown, Sandler maintains his goofy aura... and makes millions from it. As the other panelists are introduced, he makes rowdy noises, cheering and doing quick impressions of them. Rhys Ifans, who plays one of Nicky's evil brothers, Adrian, sits quietly on the edge of the group in tousled blond hair and a retro trench coat. Though he is clearly the newcomer to this group of men who have collaborated on previous efforts, he cracks the occasional joke and replies actively, if not briefly, to questions.
Ifans remembers getting the Little Nicky script while he was working on another movie, and thinking it was "hilarious." He flew to New York to meet with Sandler and others before accepting the part of Adrian, and recalls in his lilting and attractive Welsh accent, "We both stunk of the same stench. We'd both had a bit of a night out the night before, so I thought, 'we're gonna get on.'"
Best remembered for his role as Spike, the filthy roommate in Notting Hill, Ifans is quickly making a name for himself in the industry and skyrocketing to comedic fame. He got his start doing theater work in Britain and since then has co-starred in The Replacements and plans to star in the upcoming Human Nature with Patricia Arquette (who also stars in Little Nicky).
As far as his interpretations of his character go, he didn't try to delve too deeply into Adrian's inner workings. One touch he did bring to Adrian, however, is his accent: "I used an English accent in this [instead of his native Welsh accent] because there's a lot of Englishmen in Hell." As for playing a villain, he says, "When you've got two horns sticking up out of your head, the rest just takes care of itself."
To Ifans' left is Allen Covert, who has worked with Sandler on many other occasions, including Big Daddy and Happy Gilmore. He first caught the public's attention opening for Sandler's 1996 comedy tour, and has worked with him writing, performing and producing CDs like They're All Gonna Laugh at You! and What The Hell Happened To Me?
Sandler sums up their playful relationship in a characteristically funny voice: "I think my favorite actress that I've worked with so far is Allen Covert," referring to the fact that Covert often plays the gay guy in Sandler's movies, and usually "dresses funny." Covert, for his part, confesses that recently a lot of little kids have been approaching him in the street with exclamations of, "Hey, you're the gay guy!"
Hunched in his chair to the left of Sandler and beneath a mountain of thin curly brown hair is Robert Smigel - who was waitlisted at Tufts, incidentally. He looks like the underground followers he attracts - rough around the edges and scruffy - but also highly intelligent with a very specific brand of humor. His creative genius is responsible for Saturday Night Live's popular "Ambiguously Gay Duo" animated short and football sketch "Da Super Fans."
After writing for SNL for almost nine years, he became the head writer and producer of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, introducing "Triumph, The Insult Comic Dog," and other skits that are still on the air. Once again behind the scenes, Smigel is the voice of Beefy the talking dog in Little Nicky. And why a talking dog, you ask? In Ifans' words, "Any movie with a talking dog is fucking okay with me."
To his left and on the other edge of the group sits director and most serious of the goofy bunch, Steven Brill - who applied to and was rejected from Tufts. Since that devastation, however, he has gone on to great success. Brill's first script was the original Mighty Ducks, and he has since appeared in Sandler's films Big Daddy and The Wedding Singer. Though he also jokes around with the other panelists, he offers the most serious and traditional answers to questions, providing an almost paternal presence.
The dynamic among the five guests reflects their creative process. Sandler, who co-wrote and stars in Little Nicky, sits in the center chair surrounded by friends and co-workers, "buddies" as he would call them. As they joke around with each other, doing impressions and teasing gently (sometimes not-so-gently), it becomes evident that this his how they behave both on- and off-camera. They're just a bunch of friends hanging out and doing what they think is funny.
They all admit to enjoying themselves, whether on the job or just goofing off. "It's fun more than anything because we're friends while we're not working and then we just sort of roll into this mode of being friends while we're working," says Brill. "It's like Playland, it's pretty great actually." The group explains that they would often come hang out around the set when they weren't working and the fun would continue. "Most of the time it's like circus freaks hanging out around the circus after it closes," Brill continues.
Keeping with the idea that filming a movie is like hosting a big party, Sandler explains how he decided which actors would have cameos. Many of the smaller roles in Little Nicky are played by friends from his days with Saturday Night Live, including Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider and Dana Carvey. His own comedic idol, Rodney Dangerfield, plays Lucifer, Nicky's grandfather and the founder of hell. Sandler explains that in casting, he chose people whom he liked and thought would add elements of humor to the movie. He called them up, recounting, "'Hey, you wanna come over and hang out for a couple of days?' I know they're gonna kill, I know they're the funniest guys I know."
Sandler's collaborative writing process for Little Nicky is another good example of how his friends get in on the action. He thought of the idea for a movie about the son of the Devil and an angel and recalls thinking to himself, "Well, this is fucking gold!" Mimicking his own interpretation of the response his friends in the business had, he quotes, "Yeah, you're unbelievable, how did you think of that? I'm so psyched I get to hang out with you, you're cool, you're charming and you're funny as shit, no one's funnier than you."
Getting serious, Sandler explains that when writing, he and his creative team sit in a room and brainstorm, coming up with situational jokes and trying to weave them into a plot line. "It's just trying to make each other laugh in the room and have the story make some sense, make sure we get enough laugh points in it." Director Steven Brill was called in when Sandler and his team reached some rough spots in the writing process. "This one was a little tricky because we had to create a science-fiction world and do a lot of thinking that we don't normally have to do," Brill recalls. "We had to actually write longer and harder on this just to get all the rules down."
Brill also admitted that they had some difficulty editing all the content they shot to fit the normal length for a feature film. As a result it's safe to assume that some of that "gold" of Sandler's original concept ended up on the cutting room floor.
There's a lot of funny stuff in there, though, and not a little of it is sexual innuendo. "The sexual stuff is goofy," Sandler concedes. "I don't think any man watching this movie gets an erection. I've seen movies where I've had full-on erections, and I was excited about having the erection... The dogs making love was nice, but no erection."
Sandler's mischievous dialogue with the audience is indicative of the thin line he walks between working and playing. Most of his characters are drawn from real-life inspirations, and Nicky is no exception. Nicky is a frustrated nerd whose temper builds until the breaking point, not unlike Sandler himself. "In real life, I snap a lot. I like playing characters who get insulted a lot and either lose their temper because of it or can't think of a snappy comeback or get in holes. But I do like snapping," he admits, "it's part of my comedy. I like yelling. I've done it my whole life. Sometimes when I would snap at my house growing up, it would make my dad laugh, or sometimes he'd smack me. It wasn't always funny, but if I watched it on tape I'd probably laugh."
On playing Nicky, Sandler says his inspiration came from real life, and proceeded into an improvisational aside:
"It wasn't that challenging for me, I just put my mouth to the side and talked goofy. I was doing an impression of a kid I knew growing up who used to talk like that. He was the kind of guy who knew a lot of rock 'n roll facts and he used to make up lies if he didn't:
'I saw Zeppelin last night, they kicked ass.'
'No you didn't.'
'My cousin saw them.'
'No he didn't.'
'My cousin's got a live poster in his room, and he says it looks like everyone's having a f--king riot.'"
Sandler admits to not challenging himself by trying different types of roles. But when you've got a formula that's as successful as his, why change anything? "Nothing that I've done so far has been that difficult as an actor, except that in Big Daddy I had to cry in one scene, and I didn't realize that I hadn't cried in about 15 years," confesses Sandler.
"I saw you cry on the plane the other day when they ran out of chicken," interrupts Smigel.
"That was a good one."
Sandler, however, admits to having strong ties to his movies and his characters. His favorite of his own pieces is Billy Madison, in part because it was the first time he was allowed to pursue his own vision and in part because it is his mother's favorite. As far as characters go, however, he's partial to one in particular. "I'd let Bobby Boucher lay on my lap and sleep."
The success Sandler has seen has been no accident. Though he comes off as the class clown and the goofball, like all of his characters he's got a heart of gold and some real ambition. "We love it," Sandler says, speaking for the group. "I mean, we're guys who like to laugh and have a good time but we also love comedy and we're very serious about comedy. We want to make sure that the stuff we wrote in the office and we laughed our asses off is executed the right way and make sure that the people in the audience are gonna get to laugh as hard as we do."
For Sandler, it's all about having fun and cracking jokes. Explaining his favorite scene in Little Nicky, Sandler spits out broken sentences through his own laughter. "That makes me laugh the hardest... out of everything in the movie... every time I see Henry [Winkler]... I see the f--king bees cover him and I hear him scream, 'Aaaahhhhh!' and I laugh."
All goofing aside, according to Sandler Little Nicky does have an underlying message: Good defeats evil. He plays the good guy because he really is a good guy, the kind you'd like to have call you up just to hang out. Sandler sparkles, both on- and off-screen, so it's no wonder that he's such a big hit. People watch his movies because there's something at once easygoing and captivating about being around him, and the camera picks up on that.
Joking around with his friends on camera has made Sandler millions, but that's not why he's doing it. He truly enjoys what he does: making people laugh. The fun he and his buddies have on camera is contagious, which accounts for the multiple viewings most of his movies get from fans. Watching a movie like Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore over and over again is like hanging out with your own friends. Sandler's inside jokes become yours, and from that develops a sense of community and loyalty... which explains why Little Nicky will probably top the charts this Friday.
