Adam's rib

Ready for Adam Sandler’s bedtime stories? Hang on!

Adam Sandler, as if you didn’t know, is one “ribtickler” who can be funny even if he doesn’t try to or act funny. He has a deadpan face that is the exact opposite of Jim Carrey’s “rubber” face which calls to mind that of Jerry Lewis. Adam’s kind of rib is subdued and subtle. Very effective.

He wore that kind of face during my three close encounters with him.

The first time was a few years ago in Honolulu for 50 First Dates in which he co-stars with Drew Barrymore. The five-minute TV interview was held inside a tent put up on a beach behind the five-star hotel where the international media guys were billetted (while the 30-minute round-table interview was done at a suite in the same hotel).

Together with his close buddy Rob Schneider (the half-Filipino comedian with whom Adam started in Saturday Night Live and his perennial co-star), Adam showed up on the beach in colorful, floral shorts and unbuttoned shirt. Very Hawaiian! “Hi, guys!,” he greeted everybody, waving here and there. “Everybody okay?” He wasn’t “distant” at all, unlike some Hollywood biggies.

He acted with the same familiar and, I would say, appealing casualness in July last year when I interviewed him for the second time for his sexually-”howl”arious starrer You Don’t Mess with the Zohan in which he plays a “gifted” Israeli (disguising as a) hairdresser who drives his middle-aged lady clients ecstatic with his “personal” touch.

And then in early December also last year, Conversations had its third encounter with Adam at the function room of the Four Seasons Hotel (in Beverly Hills where the invited media guys were booked during the three-day event), this time for his latest movie, Walt Disney Pictures’ Bedtime Stories in which he plays a hotel handyman whose life changes forever when the bedtime stories he’s telling his niece and nephew start to mysteriously come true. Directed by Adam Shankman (The Pacifier, Hairspray, The Wedding Planner), Bedtime Stories also stars Keri Russell as the friend who looks after the kids until Adam’s character finishes his shift at the hotel. Yes, he was the same regular, casual, lovable and deadpan guy, wearing an unbuttoned shirt and flashing a reluctant smile at everybody and waving “Hi, how are you?”

“Good luck, man!” he said as we sat down for the five-minute (TV) interview (followed by a 30-minute presscon instead of the usual round-table session).

Bedtime Stories is a feel-good movie, perfect not only for the holiday season but also for the economically-challenging times we are in.

“I hope so, I hope so! I hope it does good things. You know what everybody in the world is going through. I hope this movie will help people feel better, entertain them and take their minds away from the hard times even just for two hours. I really hope so! A lot of (American) soldiers are coming home from the war with lost arms and legs, and I hope they and their families watch this movie. It will bring back beautiful memories of their childhood.”

You look natural as a hotel handyman.

“You know, when I was a kid our family was on the road a lot. We would drive from New Hampshire to New York. Along the way, we would pass the night at Howard Johnson’s, six of us in a room. That was among the best times of my life. I am fascinated by the idea of a guy who lives in a hotel. And then came the offer to do Bedtime Stories.”

I wonder, do you, like everybody else, feel the effects of the recession?

“That’s a good question. I do have money, I do have savings, but I know a lot of families and I have a lot of friends who are nervous. I get movies made but a lot of guys don’t. Yes, I definitely feel and see the effects of the recession.”

Speaking of bedtime stories, I’m sure your parents read them to you when you were a kid. What’s your favorite bedtime story?

“The one that I remember most was told to me by my mother about a magic frog. I’m now telling the same story to my own kids.”

And which bedtime story put you to sleep the fastest?

“Hahahaha! That’s when my grandmother was the one telling me the stories.”

What other bedtime stories do you read to your children?

“I have two daughters. One of them is old enough to appreciate bedtime stories and the other one is only a baby. I read to the older one stories as often as I can. During the day, it’s her mom who reads stories to her. But then, the kid likes watching TV; it’s a lot easier. When the TV is on, she doesn’t mind the story being read to her.”

How are you as a father?

“I’m like every other father. Whenever I have free time, I hang out with the kids. When they grow up, I want my children to say that I’ve been a great dad, just like what I and my siblings say about our dad.”

Lucky kids to have a funny dad. Are you as funny off camera as you are on camera?

“You know, it’s easier to be funny with writers helping you with funny lines. But I can be funny at times and a lot of people have been telling me that.”

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