At first glance it may have seemed like a surprising choice of venue for a high-profile awards event, but really it made all the sense in the world when Adam Sandler<\/strong> and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/strong> teamed for a crossover Q&A on a high school basketball court in Los Angeles Saturday night. Both are huge basketball fans and ardent players \u2014 Sandler infamous for his occasional red-carpet fashion involving baggy mesh shorts, Chalamet as visible as Spike Lee<\/strong> during the New York Knicks\u2019 long playoff run last year. The friends have played a lot together, too, and both regularly ball at Fairfax High School court that hosted the conversation (apparently the school is very accommodating for Hollywood star-athletes looking for pickup games).<\/p>\n Competing studios Netflix and A24 collaborated on producing the event billed Sandler x Chalamet, with the former promoting his supporting turn as a talent agent opposite George Clooney<\/strong>\u2019s movie star in Noah Baumbach<\/strong>\u2019s Jay Kelly, and the latter touting his performance as the titular ping pong ace in Josh Safdie<\/strong>\u2019s Marty Supreme. And the distributors brought the energy, enlisting a DJ, hype man and team of cheerleaders to fire up the frenzied crowd before the main attractions trotted out.<\/p>\n More from Gold Derby<\/strong><\/p>\n In a wide-ranging conversation that well-surpassed its planned hour-long runtime, played like a live version of Variety\u2019s Actors on Actors series and ended with an actual basketball game<\/a>, the actors cracked wise, compared notes, repeatedly gushed over one another and showed past clips from their respective careers. We certainly didn\u2019t have Big Daddy being met with as much reverence as Call Me by Your Name on this year\u2019s awards season bingo card, but that\u2019s what made this one so compelling and entertaining.<\/p>\n Here are some the other highlights:<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up on American media,\u201d Chalamet joked when first asked by the moderator how the two first met. \u201cNo, we did a movie called Men, Women and Children, that I got cut from,\u201d he noted of Jason Reitman<\/strong>\u2019s 2014 ensemble drama about small town Texas families struggling with technology that starred Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt<\/strong>, and Jennifer Garner<\/strong>. \u201cIt was the right call,\u201d immediately cracked Sandler.<\/p>\n Chalamet was 17 when he made his film debut as Danny Vance, whom he described as \u201cthe world\u2019s skinniest quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n The now-29-year-old star recalled how he was \u201cbummed\u201d at the film\u2019s Toronto International Film Festival post-premiere party when Sandler was leaving the event. \u201cAnd you gave me a nice little shoulder pat, and it meant a lot,\u201d Chalamet told him.<\/p>\n \u201cI do remember meeting you, we hung out, there were a bunch of you little youngsters,\u201d Sandler said. \u201cI thought you were fantastic, kid. \u2026 I remember when Jason Reitman was talking about you being in it, he said to me, \u2018I got this kid playing the quarterback, he\u2019s fucking incredible.\u2019 He knew right out the gate how good you were.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, but then he cut me, man,\u201d Chalamet bemoaned to laughs from the crowd.<\/p>\n It\u2019s well-established now how daunting it can be for Saturday Night Live players when it comes to the cutthroat competition for airtime and getting their skits green-lit.<\/p>\n Sandler, who rose to fame on the late-night sketch show from 1990-95, confirmed as much. \u201cIt\u2019s always been the same \u2026 you\u2019re having the best time of your life, and you\u2019re also panicked out of your mind. You\u2019re like, \u2018This is a one-shot opportunity.\u2019 You gotta do the best you can, you try to stay focused. \u2026 But that energy will always be there. You just gotta enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n But as Chalamet explained, the show is also incredibly stressful to host, which he has done three times, in 2020, 2023, and 2025. \u201c[Your head is] spinning,\u201d he said. \u201cEach time I\u2019ve been a little bit more comfortable. But every time I do that, I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, why did I do that?\u2019 Risk versus reward, not that you do it for those reasons, but I could really fall on my face. It\u2019s a crazy vibe back there. It\u2019s intense\u2026 It\u2019s kind of a mind-f–k.\u201d<\/p>\n Sandler, though, was there for Chalamet yet again on his most recent stint, as he promoted his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Bob Dylan<\/strong> in A Complete Unknown and performed tracks from the film on SNL. \u201cI remember the last time I saw you in the hallway between sketches,\u201d Chalamet said. \u201cYou made me feel good, man, you gave me a pat on the back. You were like an apparition.\u201d<\/p>\n Netflix’s Sandler retrospective surprisingly skipped his two most iconic ’90s comedies, Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore \u2014 especially given a sequel to Gilmore burned up the charts on the streamer this summer. But Big Daddy holds a special place in the hearts of Sandler fans, too \u2014 like Chalamet.<\/p>\n \u201cAmazing movie,\u201d he told Sandler.<\/p>\n After showing the scene in which Sandler\u2019s Sonny Koufax<\/strong> encourages 5-year-old Julian (Dylan<\/strong> and Cole Sprouse<\/strong>) to bathe by posing as the living manifestation of his favorite action figure, Scuba Sam, Sandler revealed the scene\u2019s touching origin.<\/p>\n \u201cThat scene in particular was from my real life,\u201d he said. \u201cI loved this doll called Diver Dan when I was a kid. And I lost Diver Dan. \u2026 And apparently I was very upset, Timmy. And my father had this scuba suit. So he dressed up as Diver Dan, we lived in an apartment in New York. And he knocked on the door and my mother goes, \u2018Somebody\u2019s here to see you.\u2019 And it was my dad dressed up, he had the mask on. And he said, \u2018Are you the boy who was taking care of my son?\u2019 And I go, \u2018Yeah.\u2019 And he goes, \u2018I just want to say thank you, he\u2019s back with me now. But I wanted to just personally thank you, he really had a great time with you.\u201d And I was like, \u2018Yeah, no problem.\u2019 I always loved that, and my family talked about that story for years, so when we were doing Big Daddy, I tried to make sure we put something in there for my pop.\u201d<\/p>\n While it was unsurprisingly a clip from his tour-de-force in the Safdie brothers\u2019 Uncut Gems that drew the biggest cheers from the crowd, it was Sandler\u2019s first widely recognized dramatic role, in Paul Thomas Anderson<\/strong>\u2019s 2002 entry Punch-Drunk Love, that made a heavy impression on Chalamet as an up-and-coming actor.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever really gotten to pin you down and talk to you about this film,\u201d Chalamet told Sandler, \u201cBut I will say, to actors of all ages, but particularly my generation, it is one of the most important performances \u2014 important is not even the right word \u2014 impactful, moving [performances]. \u2026 People who aren\u2019t in the know don\u2019t understand how impactful that performance was, how incredible and nuanced and deeply lived-in and heartbreaking it is. \u2026 So thank you, because really as a young actor and knowing you for your comedic work and seeing thrown against the context of your other work, I went, \u2018Wow, this is an incredible fucking actor. I hope I can give a performance like this.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI know you probably don\u2019t want to hear me say this and we\u2019re supposed to keep it light, but I hope for Jay Kelly, they should\u2019ve done it for Uncut Gems, and I know it\u2019s not about awards blah blah blah, but you should have a golden man in your arms and you\u2019re one of the best f–king actors [alive].\u201d<\/p>\n Sandler was equally wowed by Chalamet\u2019s work in Denis Villeneuve<\/strong>\u2019s Dune movies. \u201cThat must\u2019ve shocked the world, seeing you like that, just taking over and being a badass,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst of all, you were very fluent,\u201d he added in regards to the sequence screened from Dune: Part Two in which Chalamet\u2019s Paul Atreides delivers a rousing speech to the Fremen, declaring himself the prophet, in the fictional language of Chakobsa.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a helluva thing to memorize,\u201d shared Chalamet, who noted he just wrapped production Dune: Part Three a few days ago and admitted to tearing up watching the clip.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re memorizing something in a made-up language. So I\u2019m always very proud of that. Denis had me memorize it in English, too, so there\u2019s versions of that that are normal spoken word [English].<\/p>\n \u201cBut that sequence I\u2019m so proud of. \u2026 I always circled that scene, like, \u2018OK, this is my shot.\u2019 I wanted to prove to Denis and myself that in a movie this size, doing a speech in a made-up language in front of 800 people, that I can own it. And I\u2019m so proud of that. I remember even calling a good friend of mine that night we shot it and I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, that went f–king awesome.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Gold Derby<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Gold Derby’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n
They met on the set of 2014\u2019s Men, Women and Children (and Chalamet\u2019s role was cut<\/strong>)<\/h2>\n
Saturday Night Live is also incredibly stressful for the hosts<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Sandler shared the touching inspiration for Big Daddy\u2019s Scuba Sam scene<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Chalamet thinks Sandler should\u2019ve won an Oscar for Punch-Drunk Love<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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There is one scene in Dune: Part Two that Chalamet is particularly proud of<\/strong><\/h2>\n