CLICK : An Interview with Adam Sandler and Kate Beckinsale

After doing so many laugh-out-loud comedies, Adam Sandler is settling down with his films. With recent roles such as “The Longest Yard” and “Spanglish”, the comedic tone is not as grossed out as it used to be. Meanwhile, Beckinsale hasn’t done comedy since her early years in the business. She’s more known for her latex outfit in the “Underworld” films and romantic drama. Together, on-screen, these two make a cute couple as they both star as a married couple going thru “changes” in life when Sandler’s character gets a remote control that can him back and forth in time in “Click”. In speaking about the film, Sandler and Beckinsale talked about the film and dealing with parenthood.

Can you talk about when you first read the script and if you thought your life was fast forwarding?

Adam Sandler: Yeah. We all read this thing and connected to this because when you’re shooting a movie, you’re away from home most of the time and it’s something that you love to do and it’s amazing that we get to do what we get to do, but you are definitely away from the family more than you’d like to be and time keeps passing and I go movie to movie a lot and I’m 39 years old and I do feel that looking back at the last ten years of my life, I’ve been at work more than I’ve been at home, so I connected with this movie. By the end of this movie when I watch it, as I watched the playback the other day, I went home. I was excited to get home and do the right thing and be with the family, and I think I heard a fw people comment on that.

Is it harder playing a moron as you get older?

AS: I don’t seem to be getting much smarter so no. I like being a moron. I’ve been called a moron since I was 4. My father called me a moron. My grandfather said I was a moron. A lot of times when I’m driving, I hear I’m a moron. Coraci never called me a moron.

Kate, earlier in your career, you did some comedy like “Cold Comfort Farm”. Was it nice to return to your comedic roots?

Kate Beckinsale: It really was. It was a big coming home. For me, it was kind of a personal thing. I think it was because my father had been in England and had been a well known comedy actor and I think I was very attracted to that, but I also slightly tried to stay clear of it. I wanted to try my own path, and on this movie I actually turned a year older than my father got to, and it was a very degrading moment. I made it to 32 and I’m in a comedy and everyone’s very nice.

How was it being married to Adam Sandler and how did you enjoy being gracefully aged?

KB: The gracefully aged thing was big shocker. I thought I was going to handle it better than I actually did.

AS: I thought you looked great; every step of the way.

KB: That’s very nice. (Looking at Adam) You looked like a mixture of Humphrey Bogart and George Bush, but in terms of being married to Adam, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn’t have to take him home. I didn’t have to yell at him about doing stuff like playing golf or doing stuff if I wasn’t married to him. (Laughs) I had this total movie pleasure of everything apart from anything gross or leaving me on my own, so it was perfect. It was a blissful marriage and I was sad when it was over. As for the aging thing, I think at some point, everybody turns into their mother or their father. It’s just not from morning to afternoon, and there was a moment of total panic. You sit there for six hours and it’s kind of boring and it goes on and on and on, and at the end of it you look so much worse than when they started it. They modeled my hairstyle on the style that my mother wore at my wedding, so the whole thing was a bit spooky.

If you had a click that could go back and forth in time, which feature would you use?

KB: I’ve been a parent for seven years,

AS: I think we all know not to fast forward now.

How tough was it for you to do the second half of the movie where it explores the dark side of your character? Do you think your Billy Madison fans will be upset?

AS: I felt like with the remote control itself, we had a lot of jokes and a lot of humor in the movie and the thing that was attracted to all of us was that second half of the movie and I thought people who have seen some of my movies in the past, they can handle it. We’ve given up jokes to relax you, but it gets heavier than we have before in more of our movies. As an actor doing some of those scenes where it was heavy, the stuff where it had to be the heaviest was about my father and I lost my father a couple of years ago so it was very fresh. I had a different relationship with my real father than I did in the movie. My father in real life, I wanted him to be at my house all the time and I couldn’t, and when he would go away, I would be like, “Goddamit, I want to hang out with my father today”, but I never thought my dad was a pain in the ass like my character does, but the actual finding out that your father is sick or your father is dying or he’s dead, that was easy as an actor to play because it was very fresh.

If you could use the remote control to go back in time, where would you go?

KB: Everyone’s got porn in their head.

AS: I liked Little League a lot. Cracking a basehit always felt good. I’d like to get back to that, with the aluminum bat, smacking a ball that sounded good. Felt good in my hands, running to first base, and seeing my father actually thinking I’m a stud for a second, I’d go back to that.

KB: What would I go back to? Gosh, I’m British. It’s all been ……
I’d probably go back to when my daughter was really a small baby. It would be nice to go back to that in a relaxed frame of mind.

AS: The baby stuff? It’s great. I love that kid. Everyday, I get more and more excited. I feel comfortable with her. I just want her to feel comfortable with me. My arms aren’t perfect for the kid when I hold her in a certain way. I gotta grow the boobs. (Laughs)

How old is your kid?

AS: Today is 4 weeks.

Are you changing diapers?

AS: I see that go on. I’m cheering on my wife. I’d say, “Way to go”, “Can I have some milk”.

Where you in the delivery room?

AS: I saw that though. That was heavy. I was shocked by the birdlike image coming out of…

What’s been the most surprising part about fatherhood so far and how did you decide on the baby’s name?

AS: Well, the baby is name after my father and my wife’s grandpa. So the kid’s name is Sadie Madison. My wife wanted Madison for her grandfather and to have some New York in the kid. There’s nothing surprising about fatherhood. I knew I would be excited. I was dying to do it. It’s fun. What’s surprising is that the kid looks through me. Every time I think the kid likes me, like when she’s staring at my forehead. There’s hasn’t been a lot of eye contact.

Wait til she goes on her first date.

AS: That’s going to be ugly. What do you do? How am I supposed to handle that? You have to encourage that date, right?

You should watch the scene in Bad Boys 2 with Will Smith and his daughter’s date. With “The Wedding Singer getting some Tony nods, what was the process of getting to Broadway”?

AS: We (Adam and Frank Coraci) didn’t have anything to do with that. My buddy Herlihy, who we wrote the original movie with, he took care of the play; him and some of those over there on Broadway. I don’t much about it. I saw it. It was nice. It was fun and those guys did a great job, and the actors are really good; but I don’t know about bringing it to Broadway. I don’t know how to do that. It’s a nice honor that they did it; to make a movie that was able to go to that.

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