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KEY POINTS
- Adam Sandler underwent surgery for his hip in early September
- The “Blended” star said his wife and daughters have been “nice” even if he wasn’t always an ideal patient
- He shared that his family took turns helping him tie his shoes
Adam Sandler is opening up about his recovery following his recent hip surgery.
During the 2022 Gotham Awards Monday, the “Blended” star, 56, shared with the New York Post’s Page Six that the operation he underwent in early September left him feeling old.
“It’s only painful to say out loud,” Sandler jokingly said. “I say it was because of basketball so that feels a little bit rugged, but then being unable to tie my own shoe didn’t feel rugged.”
The actor also said that his wife, Jackie Sandler, and their two daughters, Sadie, 16, and Sunny, 14, took turns helping him tie his shoes. He praised them for being patient with him.
“They were nice about it,” he told the outlet, adding that he wasn’t always an ideal patient after the surgery. “I screamed a lot then calmed down and ate some food.”
Sandler, who became a household name on “Saturday Night Live” in the ’90s, has been taking on more serious roles lately with films such as “Uncut Gems” and “The Meyerowitz Stories.” He confessed that he has “no idea” how he manages to evoke empathy for his characters.
“I just try to feel what I’m supposed to feel in a scene and go from there,” he explained to the outlet.
As for his acting career, which has seen him playing diverse characters, the “Just Go With It” star said it was what he wanted.
“I’ve always wanted to do everything. I’ve been lucky to have people write stuff for me that’s as cool as it gets and work with amazingly talented people that put the movies together. And the stuff I do with my friends means everything to us, too. I like to work hard,” he said.
Sandler most recently starred in Netflix‘s “Hustle,” in which he plays an NBA scout. The film has been generating Oscar buzz, with many praising his performance.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Sandler recounted his character in the 1995 comedy film “Billy Madison,” in which he played a 27-year-old who re-enrolls in elementary school. While it was considered one of his signature movies, according to the actor, 90% of film critics called it garbage.
Sandler, who co-wrote the film with his pal Tim Herlihy, admitted that the criticism stung because “you know your grandmother’s reading” and that they decided that they “shouldn’t read this stuff because it’s so harsh.”
“When ‘Billy Madison’ came out, me and my friend who wrote it, we were just like, ‘Oh yeah, they’re going to write about this in New York!’ We grew up reading the papers, we were going to NYU. And then we read the first one and we were like, ‘Oh my god, what happened? They hate us.’ And then we were like, ‘It must have been this paper,’ but then 90% of the papers are going, ‘This is garbage,'” he recalled.
Sandler added that he would still hear feedback about his first two or three movies, including “Happy Gilmore” and “The Wedding Singer,” so he learned to stop reading reviews.
“People would call us up, ‘Can you believe they said this about you?’ I’d be like, ‘I didn’t read it, man…’ But everything has turned out excellent. And it’s OK, I get it. Critics aren’t going to connect with certain stuff and what they want to see. I understand that it’s not clicking with them,” he explained.
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