Adam Sandler wishes Portugal good luck and says “Ronaldo is cool”
O Actor Adam Sandler, praised for his role as a basketball scout in the movie “Hustle”, wished the Portuguese Football Team good luck and praised Cristiano Ronaldo, during an event in Los Angeles in which Lusa participated.
“Ronaldo is fixed as hell [‘cool as hell’]”, said Adam Sandler, a self-confessed basketball lover. “I didn’t know football as well as I would like to”, he admitted, but said he has been following the men’s World Cup matches. “I’m watching football now, I saw it today a game”.
“I know the US is performing well, which is very exciting. I felt sad for Mexico,” he continues. “The next round is the round of 16? Good luck to Portugal”.
In the movie “Hustle: The Great Leap,” Adam Sandler’s scout Stanley Sugarman repeatedly expresses disdain for the king of sports. Sandler explained, in response to Lusa, why he included this joke.
“The idea in the film is that he travels to Europe and he’s trying to bring in good athletes and football is always leading them astray,” said the actor. “I don’t think Stanley Sugarman doesn’t know what an amazing sport it is and how great the players are, it’s just that he’s losing to this other sport.”
In a conversation about the Netflix film, which co-stars Spanish basketball player Juancho Hernangómez – a Toronto Raptors player – Adam Sandler said he always liked movies about sports.
“‘Hustle’ was a good idea for a movie, a scout to find a player who had magic,” he described. “We knew it would be good to have some comedic moments, but that we would make a sports drama, like what ‘Rocky’ was for us growing up,” he said, referring to the saga starring Sylvester Stallone.
“When I went to the cinema to see ‘Rocky’ it was, like, two years in a row talking about the film. That film crushed us”, he recorded. “It will never be possible to make another ‘Rocky’, but this had the opportunity to be a good story about an underdog in basketball.”
The first draft of the script was sent to him by Joe Roth and basketball player LeBron James, who co-founded SpringHill Entertainment and jointly owned the rights with Roth/Kirschenbaum Films.
“We spoke to every scout we met, NBA coaches and players, people around the world about what it means to get into the NBA, how important it is to them,” Sandler described.
After a limited theatrical release, the Netflix original, directed by Jeremiah Zagar and also featuring Queen Latifah, is being talked about as a potential contender for Oscar nominations, especially in the Best Actor category for Adam Sandler.
The Hollywood veteran was appreciative of the critical praise for his performance and also praised Brendan Fraser, another potential nominee for his role in “The Whale,” directed by Darren Aronofsky.
The actors starred in the silly comedy “The Airheads” in 1994 and are now in the Oscar race for two dramas.
“Brendan is so smart and deep and kind. We’ve been talking a lot lately,” Sandler said. “The movie is so good. It’s always been excellent, as deep as it’s possible to be.”