Summary
Adam Sandler joins the SmartLess hosts for an in-depth conversation about his career trajectory from SNL to film stardom, his approach to balancing comedy and drama, and how family and personal happiness define success beyond professional achievements. The discussion covers his early nervousness on talk shows, his transition from sketch comedy to leading roles, and his philosophy on work-life integration.
Insights
- Success in entertainment requires managing anxiety and self-doubt even after achieving significant accomplishments; Sandler still experiences pre-performance nerves despite decades of success
- Strategic career pivots (like accepting Punch-Drunk Love) often result from luck and relationships rather than calculated planning, but create lasting artistic credibility
- Family stability and home life satisfaction directly impact professional performance and creative output; work quality suffers when personal relationships are unstable
- Authenticity and vulnerability in public personas build deeper audience connections than polished personas; Sandler's accessibility comes from showing genuine nervousness
- Successful entertainers often operate with extreme emotional ranges (comedic to serious) rather than moderate middle ground, requiring partners to manage emotional regulation
Trends
Intermittent fasting adoption among high-profile entertainers as pandemic wellness strategyShift toward family-integrated work schedules in entertainment industry, with A-list talent demanding production flexibility around school calendarsIncreased crossover between comedy and prestige drama for comedians seeking artistic credibility and career longevityGolf as mental health and work-life balance tool for entertainment industry professionals during pandemic recoveryMentorship and relationship-based career opportunities outweighing traditional agent-driven career development in entertainment
Topics
Career Anxiety and Performance NervousnessSNL Writer-to-Star Career PathComedy-to-Drama Career TransitionsWork-Life Balance in EntertainmentFamily as Career PriorityIntermittent Fasting and HealthParenting Strategies for EntertainersMentorship in Entertainment IndustryTalk Show Appearances and NervousnessGolf as Wellness PracticeAuthentic vs. Polished Public PersonasPandemic Impact on Entertainment WorkSpousal Support in Creative CareersEarly Career Rejection and ResiliencePrestige Film Director Collaboration
Companies
Saturday Night Live
Sandler's breakthrough platform where he started as writer-feature player, experienced career anxiety, and developed ...
NBC
Network that employed Sandler at SNL; new management in mid-1990s led to decision for Sandler to leave the show
Universal Pictures
Studio that greenlit Billy Madison with $6 million budget based on producer's track record with low-budget profitable...
Netflix
Streaming platform releasing Sandler's recent Halloween comedy project featuring comedians
People
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director who wrote and directed Punch-Drunk Love for Sandler; introduced through Tom Cruise connection
Tom Cruise
Actor who connected Sandler with director Paul Thomas Anderson for Punch-Drunk Love collaboration
Lorne Michaels
SNL creator and executive producer who defended Sandler and other young cast members during network pressure
Chris Rock
Comedian who auditioned with Sandler for SNL in Chicago; Rock was hired immediately as cast member
David Letterman
Talk show host whose appearances made Sandler extremely nervous; Letterman's show was formative for Sandler's career
Colin Quinn
Comedian and SNL mentor who advised Sandler to be more authentic and himself on stage
Tim Herlihy
Co-writer of Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore with Sandler during SNL era
Rob Schneider
SNL cast member who worked with Sandler as writer-feature player on sketches
David Spade
SNL cast member who worked with Sandler as writer-feature player on sketches
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Cosby Show co-star who mentored nervous young Sandler during early acting role on the show
Al Pacino
Actor Sandler had lunch with; still excited about scripts and work despite decades of success
Jack Nicholson
Actor referenced as example of performer addicted to work and continuous improvement
Eddie Murphy
Comedian whose career trajectory Sandler admired and wanted to emulate early in his career
LeBron James
NBA player whose shoes were left in rental house Sandler was staying in during pandemic
Quotes
"I'm doing okay. But last year, I said something and you said to me, what are you an idiot? You really burned me and I was thinking about it all year just, I wish I had had a better comeback."
Adam Sandler recounting Letterman interaction•Early in episode
"None of it is up to you. None of this is up to you."
Jason Bateman•Mid-episode discussion on career control
"When shit's going good at home, everything is good. You know what I mean? When the kids and your wife or your partner are happy. And there's nothing else to be concerned about. You're just fucking free to be who you were as a kid."
Adam Sandler•Final segment on happiness
"I'm a very lucky guy, but still. I never have a fucking 24 hour happy day. I don't see that ever, ever coming my way. But I have what I'm working on pretty like all right."
Adam Sandler•Closing discussion on contentment
"You've actually seem to have gone the other way. Yeah, you guys all seem the same also."
Will Arnett and Adam Sandler•Discussion on success and kindness
Full Transcript
Hello, listener. This is Jason Bateman along with Will Arnett and Sean Hayes for the podcast called Smartless. If that's a place you're looking for, you found it. Congratulations. It's not a real high concept podcast. One person invites a guest. The other two don't know who that guest is. And then we chat. Here we go. Smartless. Jason, you missed this last time. Look what I got. That's a baby Yoda. It's a baby Yoda. And there's a message on here. Is that from the Mandalorian show? Yeah, this is from my friend Michael Cohen and the Cohen family. Not that Michael Cohen. But look, and he recorded this. Welcome to Smartless, the best podcast in the world with my dear friend Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. He went William. I like that he went William. Yeah, and baby Yoda said that. So he's the voice of baby Yoda? Yeah, he could you not tell him? He sounds Latin. I didn't know baby Yoda. So he is. Baby Yoda is Latin. I got to watch that show. I'm developing new show. It's baby Yoda Nanny. And it's a Nanny who works who looks after. No, it's just the doll that you leave with your kids and tell them they're watching them. Yeah. It should be noted Jason's haircut. Have you come to it? I'm good. Finally. It looks good, right? Well, this is Kai's listen. This is just rolled right out of bed. Such a thick had a hair. I know. It's so thick. But it's a very boyish look he's got going right now. It's very boyish. I know. I'm trying to get respect as an adult. But that's why sometimes I try to grow up in a facial hair. But that takes you push. It costs me a year actually to grow that because you're just saying to the world day, I'm a man. Yeah, I'm a man deal with it. All right, so speaking of men. Sure. We have a man today. This is a funny man, a family man. And for the next hour, he's a smart list man. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Sandler. Adam Sandler. Hey, the one and all. I love it. I'm sorry. Look at now that's a man. Look at this. A man. It's gross. It's gross. Good to see you. You're moving dime bags or something with a beard like that. Wow. It started off early in the pandemic. And I just kept going because I gained a lot. So it was covering the neck. You gained a lot of weight of knowledge of knowledge. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of way. But wait, I just read a report yesterday that said belly fat is now officially medically proven to lessen your life if you have a lot of belly fat. No matter how much other fat you have, let's see it, Sean. Let's see it, Sean. And scream. You guys don't like cookies. Once a week, he brings it out. There it is. The bagel. That's fun. I don't know who ate the cookies. What you call it? The bagel. The bagel. Yeah, squeeze the belly button together. Make a circle. And Adam, I sometimes I say to my husband, I'll switch, I'll fuck her this up. I'll go fuck that belly. That makes sense. That looks good. All right. So Adam, do you have a plan aside from pushing a bench press? Just like once your plan is it going to be diet? Is it going to be exercise? Well, this is what I'm doing. And I just kind of started this. So at the beginning of the pandemic, my buddy was doing the eight hours a day you eat thing, the intermittent fasting. Yeah, I did it. So I was doing that during the pandemic, but I was starting eating at like five in the afternoon. So I was going deep into the night and then I'd wake up kind of sick. So then I got some bad information. I thought I said to him anytime. And he said, yeah, he picked the hour. So I did. He responded while chewing, I think. He looks great. But I saw anyways, I started again. I just, I'm trying to calm down and I'm doing one in the afternoon to around seven, seven, thirty, I quit. And then you're then you're done chewing until the next morning or afternoon. Yeah, I try until the next one o'clock rolls around. Oh, buddy, that's so good. That's a good one. But I eat a lot during the six and a half hours. It doesn't work for me. It doesn't work for my body. It doesn't work for me. I tried doing that. I was on a strictly ice cream diet, but yeah, you got to try it longer than a couple of days. Well, you know, what do you do? Well, you look good. Well, thank you. Because like I said, I've been doing the walk and I've been working out and I've got this real kind of what I referred as my jailhouse gym in my garage. Now Jason's seen it. It's a disaster. But but there's weights and like homemade stuff you did. Oh, there's weights. And then there's like baby carriages and stuff. Just crap everywhere. Really looks like I have a question Adam. How long have you been flying a space craft? Oh, is that look like that? It's like a control center. This is in my house. Bellas, I just got to fill it out here. Oh, wow. What are those? Why do you have? He's got some Nike's in a plastic box. Those are LeBron James shoes. The man who owns this house knows LeBron. Do you know the man in the house? I don't have a met him yet. He's pandemic. So you've rent it. He leaves. Oh, I just got here two days ago. But he's left those shoes there for people to admire that are renters. I think he was just letting me know that I'm that the only shoe guy famous person that he has. Yeah, exactly. Wait a second. Wait a second. I Adam, I have to ask you this because I've never bought it up. I've only met you a handful of times over the years. We don't know each other that well. I have a tremendous amount of respect for you. And I think that you're awesome and hilarious. Same thing. And I sounds like something really insulting about. No, no, no, one of the one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed and I've quoted this a thousand times maybe more is years ago you were on Letterman. Yeah. And he said to you, I don't know, tell me if you remember this. He said to you, you came on Letterman and you said, you know, Dave, I he said, how are you doing? You said, you know, I'm doing okay. But last year, I said something and you said to me, what are you an idiot? You really burned me and I was thinking about it all year just, I wish I had had a better comeback. So I've been thinking I finally have a good comeback. And he said, okay, you said so ask me again. So Letterman says to you, what are you an idiot? And you said, no, are you? Do you remember that? I kind of do. Yeah. Yeah. It was one of my faith. I just said it was such a it really got me. I'm not kidding. I've repeated it 1500. That's amazing. I used to get so nervous on Letterman. You guys all the Letterman blackout. Yeah, blackout nerves. That was the one guy that got you nervous. Yeah, I get blackout. Yeah, for sure. Every talk show Letterman just from growing up in high school and thinking he was the best of them all. Yeah, for sure. I used to be on the side of that stage and Biff would like, okay, okay, it's coming and I start going holy. Like my whole head would spin and I feel like I was going to faint the whole time walking on, then you'd see David person. You're like, oh my god, there he is. It was so overwhelming. Yeah, yeah. Does that exist for you at all? Any more mean you put yourself in the wings right now about to go on for talk show like tomorrow. Yeah. Do you like you can't shake that? You're always going to be a part of you, right? You just if you just learned how to manage it. Not that great. I my whole career from starting I did stand up when I was 17 and stuff and and I had that same weird thing where I wish I never took the gig right before I started patting and spinning. I forget all my lines. I had noticed everyone else was like laughing and having a good time. I'm like, oh my god, everyone else is ready and then then rare occasions. I'll go to myself in the daytime. I'll go, don't do that. Don't do that thing when you panic. Just just overcome that now. Get over that. And then don't you question yourself like why why because I go through the exact same thing and I'm like, why are we why do I why do I choose this? Yeah, I wonder we're always like, what did you choose this? It comes up a lot. That's a good one. Yeah, stick around. Well, it's got like three of them. But it's a good point. Like Adam, I think what's cool is you actually kind of sometimes you use your nerves. You can see it even in an instance like that. You use it to your advantage and you make you very accessible because you're not trying to put on, you're not a different character as you are who you are. You're very authentic in that way, which is great. Yeah, you're fucking nervous because you're on letterman. You should be. I'm nervous. But you are you weren't nervous for this bullshit today. I was nervous. Sure, I was. I mean, I liked it, though. I listened to the episodes. They're all great. Come on. It's excellent. And now I was psyched to be here. And I don't know this. I'm the same way as you guys. I'm the same way of every movie I make you go, didn't I already prove myself, dude? Why the hell am I trying to prove myself? What the fuck am I doing? Here we go again. Yeah, exactly. The only thing that can happen is it can go bad. You know, but that quality that Will's talking about that you have that's so, it's so personable and it's so kind and so authentic and so honest and so human. Has it always been like that or do you think that it's gotten even better now that you are incredibly successful and some of the ease has come into your life because you basically won. Have you gotten even nicer or like some people I'm sure you've worked with as I have people actually get mean and entitled when they get successful. You've actually seem to have gone the other way. Yeah, you guys all seem the same also. It's like I had a I think when I was young, I didn't know what I was doing as a comedian. I didn't know what I was doing as an actor. I was a little all over the place. I think I was a little more aggressive back then because I guess I wanted this so bad. You know, I wanted to work or I wanted whatever the hell I wanted. And I probably was mad at myself for not being great. I was a little more aggressive in my early 20s. And then I started going, by the time I was like 28, 30, I started calming down and being able to just relax a little more. But it took a while. Like Colin, you guys know Colin Quinn, right? Yeah, comedian. All areas. I think he's one of the greatest comedians. And he kind of when I want to NYU, used to MC the shows and he would talk to me after my show. I think the reason they used to hire me is I used to bring a crowd. So even though I wasn't that good, there was this place called the paper moon. And I used to bring a crowd. So they used to from NYU. And Colin used to say, it's so much funnier hanging out when we're talking in the daytime. You just doing something weird up to you and not really being yourself. And I used to try to go, okay, I got to be more myself. And then I would just panic right away and start doing something else. I just didn't like, I guess I wasn't comfortable with being myself. And then took a while to get to sit in it and just be okay with not getting a laugh and but plowing through. And that kind of stuff. What did you go to NYU for drama or for acting? Or yeah, yeah, I went to a Strasper. Same. Yeah. Okay. So I have a godson who's also going to New York right now to Tish. And he not only has to go through drama classes and comedy and all that stuff, but he has to go through musical theater classes. And so when I saw you do opera man for the first time, which is one of the funniest characters I've ever seen. I was like, hold on, Adam Sandler can really sing. And then you would bring out the guitar and sing like, it was always hilarious. So please tell me you did musical theater in college because in my mind, that would be one of the funniest things in the world. Man, I audition for everything at NYU. I didn't get anything. You did? I want to see you do Technicolor Dreamcook or something. I did as a kid though. I was in Oliver. I was in Oliver. I did. I played a they named a guy. I didn't really. It wasn't really. I had two lines and they said, you're I think Charlie Bates. They said, you're Charlie Bates. And I was like, yeah, I'm Charlie Bates. I kind of wanted to be the Dodger, right? And they were like, well, you're not him. You're Charlie Bates. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought so too. You got to pick a pocket or two, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How about uh, Smitty on the Cosby Show? Yeah. Was that your first? That's not your first role. My first thing I ever did was show Tom at the Apollo. I did stand up. I did, um, five minutes. Yeah. And I wasn't wasn't that great. But I got I tell me like the first first joke you ever told her. And if you like, I could tell you mine. Okay. Well, the one that worked for me back then was it was something I heard my father say to my mother. But I and I used it. I pretended it happened to me. I said I was driving up here in a cab and the driver killed the dog on the way. I said he didn't hit the dog with a car. He got out and stabbed. That was my big, that was my guarantee. Glad. And that happened because my mother, my mother was, they were in the car. My mother goes, the man, uh, uh, my father said, the sky killed the dog driving the other day. My mother goes, what happened? He hit it and he goes, no, he stabbed at you. That and so I went, oh, God. That's a pretty good one. What's your shot? Oh, I was terrible. I was nowhere near as talented or funny as you are. I was horrible. These guys know the one that I won't repeat. But the other one was, um, and it's long. So you can't, it's like, it's like 20 seconds long. Okay. So it's just long for a joke. So I would go, you know, uh, they say on Mars, the atmosphere is like 95% carbon dioxide and 5% oxygen. So imagine one day when we live there will breathe something like this. And they didn't laugh at that. They never laughed. I literally, I left crying. I left crying. That's solid. Did you hold your finger up and you did it? I like this too. That's a good one. Adam, what about this, uh, uh, discovered by comedian Dennis Miller thing? Did that happen at the Apollo? I can't imagine. Uh, you know what? It was. So I did stand up when I went to end of the video. And then Dennis didn't really discover me. He just told Lauren Michaels about me. He said, there's a young kid who was funny. But when I was young, I went to school with Anthony Quinn's son, Lorenzo. He was in my acting class and he told Bill Cosby about me. And I got an introduction to the casting Asian over there whose name was Barry Moss. Do you guys remember Barry Moss? I feel like it's a cast a lot of stuff back in the day. Right. So he, he got me an audition and I played Smitty on four episodes while I was going to NYU. That was my, my first big. That was the cause. The show was enormous. It was the biggest show on the planet. It was incredible. And that's where I developed the whole spinning thing right before going on. I was I was spinning like, Oh my God, I got six lives. I've got a choke so badly. And, uh, I don't know. I became friends with Malcolm though. He used to call me down to be like, you got this, man. Yeah, he's such a good guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. So then how long after that did SNL happen? How old were you when that happened? SNL happened when I was 23. I moved out to, I graduated NYU and then I moved to LA and and I was living out in Van Hies and then, uh, gorgeous. Yeah. Yes. Right on the water. Beautiful. And I, I lived with four guys from, from NYU also. And then somehow I got Saturday night live and moved back. Well, did you go in audition in LA? Did Lauren come? Chicago. Chicago. When I auditioned, it was me and Chris Rock and Dana Gould and a couple of other guys at second city or at the Chicago improv. Oh, it's going to probably. Yeah. And then I remember Lauren was there and smite Gold. Robert smite Gold was there. And Marcy Klein, the couple of others and Chris Rock got it immediately after after the show and me and rock know each other. This is with like 17 also. And so I saw Lauren run over to rock and I was like, Oh, man, okay, he's got it. I'm out. And, and then I was flying home and no one talked to me and I was flying home and remember on the planes you used to put a credit card in and it was like 25 bucks a minute and stuff. Yeah. Right. So I was scared to use that because I knew my father would kill me for wasting money. But I was just flying and flying and I was like, uh, I got to call my agent, man. So I put the credit card in and he called and I said, did they say anything? They liked you. They thought you some of your writing was good. I said, Oh, okay. And what's that being? They were like, well, they want maybe want you as a writer. And I said, what do you mean? I think I was like insane. I was like, I want to be a, but I want to be a star. I love the guy next to you on the plane probably. It's just like, oh boy. Yeah. I'm just guy wants to be a star because you can't talk quietly on a plane. But I want to be a star. Get in line, buddy. Get in line. We all do. Yeah, man. I don't know. So eventually I got hired as a writer, a writer for what like a year and then and then on camera. Yeah. I did. It was thing called writer feature player and and me and spade and Schneider had that and and you would do that. I'm sure you guys all know this stuff, but you would write for everyone else and then give yourself a line like as a delivery guy and try to get on and score. And you'd score after 10 shows, they started going, all right, that guy's okay. Let's give him a couple of months. Right. Got you. You used to see that a lot with JB smooth. He would only do it himself in the sketches. Oh, yeah. Always see JB on there. And you'd be like, Oh, yeah, but how cool you go for your audition and it's there with Lauren and Marcy, of course, and Smigel. And you couldn't have known, of course, that that would become this like lifelong partnership. Yeah. I mean, how incredible. How wild, right? When you look at that moment, yeah. Sure, man. I mean, Smigel was, in fact, I heard later that Smigel was kind of in my court that he was going that one kid was funny. I think we need that on the show. Somebody young and they were like, well, we already have David and Rob. We don't need any more of that. Yeah. And so as Smigel and Jim Downey, I heard would stand up for me a little bit. And Lauren, like, he thought I was good. He just didn't know what to do with me. I was, I wasn't easy to digest. I was mumbling up there and I was nervous. And I was hostile. Like I used to be when somebody heckled me. I used to be like yell at them and not say anything funny. No one is funny. You're getting pissed off. Well, I said, I turned it into something good. But in the beginning, I used to just be psychotic and get like challenge people to something like in her satan. And see the way he just dropped his face right then. It just got like deadly fucking seriously. I love like there. There's just, there's no middle with you. Like he's either super sweet and like, I can't get out my way. And then just drop the gloves and I'm going to fucking kill you. Yeah. I love those swings. I don't even know how that happened. I just because I'm, I don't want to fight anybody. I'd get, I'd probably get killed. But I was always ready to go. Have you been in a lot of fights as a kid or when I was a kid, when I was a kid now, I would literally just run so fast anytime I feel it coming. I start my heart's pounded through my chest. And I'm like, Oh, shit, I got to get out of here. But back then I back as a kid. Yeah. I'm sure you guys did the same. It doesn't hurt as much to get hit when you're level. I like the idea that Lauren's going like, I guess we could use a nervous mumbler. Now, what about is it true that they fired you and Farley in 95 or is that overstated? No, I mean, what happened was it was kind of the end of it. People we were repeating ourselves. I'm sure there was a new guy running NBC. He didn't, he didn't like the young guys that much. He didn't like us. I think he didn't like norm McDonald and he kept saying we got to get rid of them. Nobody likes them. And Lauren was standing up for us saying, trying to defend us and kept us on a while. And then I got a call from my manager. You know, everyone at Burlstein grade kind of represented every guy on the show and woman on the show. So I got, hey, maybe it's time to move on to me kind of call. And I was like, I don't know, man. I think maybe I'll do another year or something. They were like, yeah, but maybe you should move on. I was like, nah, I want to stay. I think I'll stay. And then he kept going, I think it's time to move on. I was like, do I have to move on? They were like, it's good if you move on. I was like, okay, okay. Now I got you're right. I'm moving on. So it was kind of like a fake quit, fake trying to get a beat them right to firing me. That was like me at every high school I went to. Swear to God. Really? You got kicked out. I'm like, no, I didn't get kicked out. They just asked me not to return. What did you do to get in trouble growing up? I did all the stupid stuff. I was, you know, smoking cigarettes in the, I grew up in Canada. So there were a lot of woods to escape to. So I was out there like, you know, drinking airplane bottles and smothering buds and all this. But also I was a wiseass. I was like, I said to my dad actually once, I was such a wiseass. And of course, the worst, the infraction or the bigger the joke that you can make and especially the teacher's expense, the bigger the laugh you'd get from the audience or as I call my classmates. And so I would fuck around and they get really mad. And years later, I remember my dad was out here and I just built this house and it was like everything. And my dad was like, wow, this house is beautiful. And I said, yeah, who knew that fucking around could pay off? And he finally had to admit like, you're kind of like, because I was a pain in the ass. You know what I mean? Like my poor dad. Oh, sure, sure, man. You figure out how to channel it. Yeah. This is a paid ad by BetterHelp. You know, you've heard me talk a lot about my mom and how funny she was and how much we love her. But boy, was she a huge inspiration to me? She gave me the tools I needed for the work ethic I have and the funny bone in my body. She's one of the best human beings, if not the best human being I've ever known. 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There used to be very little visibility and control in treasury. Today, JP Morgan Payments delivers real-time dashboards and control at your fingertips. That's the power of clarity. That's JP Morgan Payments. Copyright 2025 JP Morgan Chase and Company. All rights reserved. JP Morgan Chase Bank and a member FDIC. Deposit's held non-US branches are not FDIC insured, non-deposit products are not FDIC insured. This is not a legal commitment for credit or services. Availability varies, eligibility determined by JP Morgan Chase. Visit jpmorgan.com slash payments disclosure for details. All right, so then we're things sort of set up in a way where transitioning out of that show and into other possible sources of employment were kind of set up. Like, were you feeling confident? Did you go right into, was it happy Gilmore? Was it first out of there? I think I did Billy Madison when I was on the show. By the way, when I got fired, I was confident until I got fired. And then I was like, oh no. Yeah, that's the way that worked. Right, I kept while I was there going. These guys don't get it when I got, man, they don't understand. And then right when they were like, yeah, go do it on your own. Then I was like, holy shit. Personally, you humiliated that people don't watch it. And you got to tell people like, yeah, I'm not on the show when they're looking you and the eyes going, you got fired. And you're like, no, you know, you should make an upshit. But it's like, doing what we do, you're effectively getting fired at the end of every single job. You have to go find another job. And if you're having a really good year as an actor, you get fired like six or seven times. You know, like you've got six or seven. And you have, like, there's no guarantee there's no diploma that you can kind of, it's true, man. It's job interview after job interview. And it's, I remember buying the attitude that I realized I should have been renting when, you know, things kind of dried up. And I was really confident until they just didn't want me anymore. And it's like, well, now you got to build up a whole ego and coping mechanism to get yourself confident that's not reliant on employment. That's really hard to do. Yeah, oh, God, yeah, sitting a bench and being shook up. I'll tell you, I know, kidding. I loved you when I was a kid. I thought he was incredible. I swear to God, I thought you school is shit. You guys too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to look like you. I wanted to fucking be like cool and calm and funny like that. And I, and I always thought you were awesome. I'm not lying to you. And I loved your sister too. Thank you. Do you remember Jason's show yet that show? It's your move. Did you ever see that? It was like a spin-off of silver spoons. I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. I think I know more is valid on the whole family was after that or Valerie. Yeah, yeah. When Jason, when Jason got his star on the walk of fame out here in Hollywood, because he's a big Hollywood guy. And so when he was in Hollywood, we're worried because he's a liberal elite. And so anyway, so I get up and they asked me, he asked me to say a couple words, and I said, you know, when I was growing up, I remember watching family ties and seeing just the embatement and thinking, man, I wonder if she's got a brother. Well, I love them. We felt the same way. We just comes up all the time. We used to always look at Jason be like, oh, man, that guy's he was a smart ass. He was confident. Oh, man, I was so confident. I thought I was such hot shit. And then the phone stopped ringing. I did not know what to do. My 20s was a whole regroup. I just had to build it back up from zero. Jason, I had lunch like decades ago at the Chateau Mar-Mont, which houses the liberal elite. That's right. And Jason said to me, I don't know if you remember this Jason, you said to me, we were just talking about careers and whatever, the ups and downs. And you said, none of it is up to you. None of this is up to you. Yeah. Yeah. To try and control things that are out of your control. It's not a meritocracy, you know, like in sports, like if you're a 300 hitter, you're guaranteed employment in acting or any form of pardon the term art, it's so subjective. You can't rely on, well, I'm the best at singing or the best at painting or they doesn't matter. The best in who's on. And then so Adam, so kind of taking that, like one of the things that I think is really awesome about what you've done. You've had incredible success. But is is you know, I've tried to, especially in the last couple of years, I don't want my work to define who I am as a person or how happy I am. It's about family. I know you're a really big family guy. Sure. You've got a lot of really close friends. Yeah. And even in your work, you do stuff that you want to do and you do stuff because you know, it's going to take time and then you know that it's, you know, it cuts into school and all that kind of stuff. And it feels like you gear everything towards making it fit your life and making sure that you're happy. Your happiness, you're truly not a Hollywood guy. I can say that. And yeah, you don't define yourself by it, right? I kind of, you know, I lucked into having the career of getting a right stop and get to do it. And not everybody has that luxury. I'm sure more people would do it. I'm doing it if they could just, you know, just say to the head of a company, hey, let me do it in October because it's, you know, I got a lot of luck on my side. But you earned that position. You really have. I got that after a while after a while. Yeah. Let me, let me really quick ask you something about that and then back to what Will is saying because when you were younger and you're broken to film for the first time and how much of that success was like, you know, agent business driven and you were just along for the ride and how much of it was self generated and kind of ambitiously coming directly from you. I was ambitious in a weird way. I just, I always kind of got in the beginning. Hey, hey, hey, maybe, maybe next time they would hire somebody else when I would do auditions and stuff. I remember auditioning for a few movies as a kid when I was like 21, 22 and they'd always pick somebody else and I was like, God damn, these guys don't get it, man. And I was such an asshole, you know, and whoever they picked, I would be like, Oh, yeah, okay, man, like I was hot. I was like, I'll have to get one mistake. And then I wrote Billy Madison with Tim Hurley and when we were on Saturday Night Live and I gave it to Lauren and Lauren was already doing Tommy Boy with Chris. And so funny movie. Oh, yeah, that's awesome. And he was, it was the first time being Chris had either or kind of thing. And Lauren said, we're doing Tommy Boy, we can't do Billy Madison. Actually, Tommy Boy used to be called Billy the third. It was two Billy movies. Yeah, they would like to the two Billy movies and we would look at each other like, who's to get a pick in it. And they picked, you know, Tommy Boy and I was going, Oh, man, oh, man, I guess that's done. Well, right another one, Hurley. And then like, I was in this movie called Airheads. And the producer of that one called me like five months later. He's like, I read this script, you and Hurley, he wrote called the Billy Madison. Do you want to do that? And I said, yeah, yeah, why would he mean? And he's like, I could get that done for you for like six million dollar budget. I was like, I was like, I get six million dollars. He goes, no, not you. I didn't know what any of that shit meant. But he got it. Fucking, he did problem child at Universal, which was a low budget movie and made a lot of money. So they said, get some more of those kind of things. So somehow Bob Simon's got this movie. I asked Lauren. I said, no, that movie you said, you didn't want to do is it okay? If I do it with this other guy, he's like, do whatever you want. So I did Billy Madison. And then that kind of got me going, I mean, I remember when I first did that, everything that they talked to me about doing after that was doing my goofy voice and being very, you know, the same Billy Madison again. And then I had that happy Gilmore thing that me and her, that he wrote. And they were trying to talk me out of that. They were saying there was a movie called Ed with the monkey, you know, not no, no, that's Ed TV. It's a one with Matt, Matt LeBlanc. And they want to be with the monkey. And they were like, do that. That's more like Billy Madison. I said, I think, let me do, I'll do that one after I do the golf one. Is that okay? They were like, no. And so that had to make a stand and say, no, no, no, we got to do this happy Gilmore movie. And, uh, by the way, two of the funniest movies ever. No kidding. A hugely successful ah, thanks. I mean, good. I'm psyched that that's in my they go down in history as with all the other great comedy movies. I mean, thanks. Kind of cool. But then the success was so at one after the other after the other. It was there was was there a strategic consideration when punch drunk love came about was or was that more of a react did did Paul Thomas Anderson come to you and only in hindsight. Do you see it as a great strategic sort of balancing thing offsetting the goofiness? Yeah. Did you think ahead and kind of seek out something that might counterbalance all that? That was all luck. I mean, I in my head at will you you did Strasbourg, right? So I thought I was good at acting. I was like, wow, I'm gonna surprise somebody someday and really act. But it wasn't on on my mind. I kind of liked Eddie Murphy. Then I wanted that kind of career and I just wanted to be a comedian. And then I was doing, uh, I think a little nicky or something like that or, yeah, something like that. And um, and Paul was friends with Tom Cruise. They did Magnolia together. And I'm I met Tom Cruise when Nicole Kim and hosted SNL. You know how you get to meet everybody? Because SNL. So I met Cruise and I met God. I met Cruise. How the yanky had on like dip down low and he looked up because, hey, man, I was like in love with him. Like, oh my god, I mean, love with Tom Cruise. And uh, that makes sure of us. Of course. Anyways, Tom called me up. I'm on my set. He goes, hey, my friend, uh, with I'm doing a movie with my friend Paul. He's a great director. He and he's interested in doing a movie with you. Can I put him on the phone? Wow. And I said, yeah, yeah, sure, man. And he gets on and Paul was very nice and he was going, hey, I loved Billy Madison. And I go, okay, man, thanks. I didn't know who he was. And he's like, and I just love your movies and your albums. And I said, okay, cool, man. Okay, creep. Yeah. I didn't know what he was talking about. He's like, is that he goes, is it okay if I write you a movie? I said, you can do whatever you want, man. That's, that's great. Just stay away from my house. But he was, he was sweet. I can tell you it was funny. But that's like Picasso saying, is it okay if I paint you a painting? Right. I know, right. I know it was the luckiest thing. And then, and I honest to God, uh, fellows, I was, it was like 11 o'clock in the morning. And I had nothing to do. And Magnolia just came out and I said, I think that's that kid's movie. Wow. Paul, I'm going to go see that. And I went alone. And I was in the front row. It was sold out with all real film kind of people. And I was looking up at it. And I was going, I was fucking terrified. I was like, oh, this guy's fucking better than me, man. I don't want to fucking be in this. This, I'm going to ruin his movie. Whatever the fight, you know, I was trying to holy shit. And, uh, and I called him up and on the way home. I said, holy shit. I just saw your movies. Like, yeah, yeah. I was like, fucking the frogs in the holy shit. I was so excited about everybody. And I was like, oh, fuck, man. So you're writing that movie man. He goes, yeah, yeah. I'm almost done. I'm going to get it over to you. I was like, well, when the fuck is that coming? I started to get very excited. Wow. And then he, he, he did it so cool, man. I lived in this, this I rented a house on the top of Bel Air Road with my buddies. And he came up and he knocked on the door. And he's like, I got the script. And I said, here's my present to you. And I go, oh, okay. He goes, go ahead and read it. And, uh, tell me what you think. I go, you're going to stay here? He goes, no, I'm going to go for a drive or something like that. And I just sat in the other room and I read it. And I was like, oh, my God, man. I don't know if I can fucking do this. It's no way. And so he comes back after his drive and you, you got a bunch of notes. Right? A couple of things called it. Exactly. So marked up and move this way. That's true. No, I was fucking scared like, like, yeah, you know, when you get something and you just go, oh, she's, man, I always said I can do this ship. And this is too much, man. And he talked me through and got me comfortable. He's incredible though. I mean, he's, his taste is just unreal. I mean, I love that he's a huge comedy nerd too, apparently. Oh, man. Yeah. And then he can see the amount of acting it takes for you to pull off believably what you do is, you know, right in line with his, with his tastes and his abilities. And I just, I'm such a big fan of his. And then the sassy brothers, you know, I mean, uncut gems is just absolutely stunning. I don't mean jump ahead. But they had fun and talk Betty and you talking at Aniston's was a great night. I just I'm crazy about those guys as well. And I love the two of my favorite filmmakers. Well, that would be three. I put you as a lead in their films. And I hope that you take as much pride in that as you deserve. That was an incredible performance, man. It really was. It was, it was, it was so nuanced and deep in this guy. Like it was you guys, you know, honestly, you could do it. You guys could do it too. I know you're all great. All three. You guys are great actors and funny as shit. And who's better? Yeah. Is there one that's better? You're number one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Definitely one. We're fighting for the silver over here. Yeah. You don't need to. You're both solid. But for Sean's number one. So the, I would imagine that you, you, you love the, the creative process of doing a drama. And also the process of doing a comedy. I'm not going to ask you, which is your favorite. But what would be your ideal ratio between comedy and drama and like kind of like fun films with your friends versus kind of working for a director? I'm starting to get a lot of serious kind of offers. And, and I love reading that stuff. And I, but it is more of a decision in my brain. I'm like, shit, once I say, yes to that, then it's fucking, it's a whole other thing in your trailer and you're fucking rocked. And you got to think into shit that makes you uncomfortable. And right. It's slightly humiliating out there in front of people doing some of the shit they want you to do. And, and, and so it's a decision. But I like it. I want, I want to do that stuff. But I also love doing the comedies. Shit. And the fact that, you know, I just did it. The probably the goofiest movie I've done in a long time that, you know, shit, I would have done when I was 23. And, but I still, I'm still happy doing it. You be, you be Halloween. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is it? What is it? I don't know anything about it. It's on Netflix, right? It's coming out on Netflix. And it's Halloween movie. And it's all comedians and all it's like a, and our kids will love it. Yeah. And my end of it's I do that because I get excited for kids to laugh and stuff like that. And shit, I've been doing my whole career. And I still love that stuff. But being able to do both, I mean, good God, that you can make, you know, an eight year old laugh. And you can make, you know, a 70 year old cry. I mean, it's like, come on. Like not a lot of people can do that. That's right. All. Thank you. I'm happy. Yeah. Yeah. Adam, you said, I read somewhere a long time ago. You said, I'll do this for as long as they let me. Yeah. And they love that. And they keep letting you because you're incredible and talented and likable and winning. And is there a time when you actually tell them that you're done or you're still having the time of your life? Like, what, what else? Because you work more than anybody like you'd never stop working. I don't know when I'm going to stop. I look at like, you know, I'm no Dustin and I know Nicholson and Pacino and those guys and those guys, they're addicted to work too. I mean, I had lunch with Pacino and he still gets excited about shit. And he's just, I read this amazing script. And he still wants to kick ass and I kind of think I could stop. And then I, when I'm stock like this pandemic, man, what, what not working holy shit was I lose in my mind and fucking every day becomes the same jumpy shit in my fucking family. Certainly wanted me to work. They were like, Jesus Christ. He's fucking insane. Get him out of here. I heard you were out on the golf course a little. Yeah, we heard, from a friend that, oh, I hit it to your buddy. Yeah. Who's your buddy that I almost hit by the Tom Warner? Tell Tom, I'm sorry. Okay. There used to be very little visibility and control in treasury. Today, JP Morgan payments delivers real time dashboards and control at your fingertips. That's the power of clarity. That's JP Morgan payments. Copyright, 2025, JP Morgan, Jason company, all rights reserved. JP Morgan, Chase Bank and a member FDIC deposits held non-US branches are not FDIC insured, non deposit products are not FDIC insured. This is not a legal commitment for credit or services availability varies eligibility determined by JP Morgan, Chase visit jpmorgan.com slash payments disclosure for details. Are you a big golfer? Because I'm finding that that is keeping me off the streets a little bit during this pandemic. You've been playing a lot. Yeah. Well, you know, I, I, I bet you long time ago, like 20 years ago, you, you, you were friends with Brill. Yeah. I think back then. And I was at a party and I saw some thing that they interviewed you on like a show and you had a, you golfed on it. And I saw you at the thing. I said, dude, I just saw you said, you got a great swing. And you kind of like, okay, okay. And that was it. But I remember go, oh, that fucking guy knows how to golf. He's got a great swing. He does have a great swing. I didn't have a career at that point. He's got, he's got a great swing. We, we both taken it up in the last couple of weeks. We've been a little irritating to our significant others. Long day golf day, right? Are you addicted to it or is it just something that you just kind of slap around? No, tell you buddy, what happened was I'm a member of Riviera and I fucking live right right down the street. So, so I, I haven't golf since I've had kids. I don't golf that much, just like you're saying, Will, right? Because of the whole five hours away and the, the, the stare you get when you get home, I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? But while they're in school, we got to pass while they're in school, right? That's right. That's supposed to be it. But I get, I still get nervous leaving the house and coming back to a fucking whole other mood. So I know what you guys are talking about because when I make banana bread, I'm like, do I, do I pull it out at the right? Like, when is the, do I leave it in five, another five minutes? Do it not? It's crazy. Just like it. Well, listen, I know you must feel guilty about paying all those dues over their Riviera and not using the course of willing. I want to help you out. Yeah, I want to help you just kind of getting a little bit more active out there. So you just let us know. You guys are playing real well, a lot like in the 80s and 70s. No, well, he is. I'm playing like shit, but Jason's game is getting together. But what we've been doing is we've been calling guys that we know who we know belong places because we don't. Yeah, that's where you come in. Hey, you playing these days and then they go, yeah, and we go, well, Jason, we're, we're available on Wednesday. We're going to keep you company. Yeah, man. Adam, I'm always like, I always ask funny parents this. Like, well, and Jason are two of the funniest people I know. They always make me laugh so hard. And I've, we've always talked about, do their kids find them funny? Do your kids find, and you're obviously fucking hilarious. Your kids find you funny or not at all or like, do they get your sense of comedy? Do they watch your funny movies? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm pretty good at home. They, I'm happy when I make them laugh because when I'm asking them to practice something or that kind of guy, they're like, they don't like him, but they like the funny me. They get, they, I do pretty good. Oh, good. I make them comfortable. And I definitely try to be funny a lot and try to get laughs. I don't always, always score like I try to take them out of their moves. I think growing up that, that was my move too. When I felt my father about to fucking go nuts on me, of course, I said a few jokes to lighten them up. I think I do that with the kids too. When I see him upset about something, I go to the jokes. You guys do that? 100%. Adam, who's the disciplinarian then? If you, if you make them laugh, everyone's, I mean, is Jackie the one that's laying down the law or do you do both? I heard you guys talking about this. You're lighter than Amanda, right? I'm lighter, but it's, I would imagine you might be similar to me where you're, super, you're the, you're the, you're the class clown. You're the Joker. But then you can swing all the way to the other side and really get serious if you need to. And there's really nothing in between. Oh, I, yeah, I think I get really fucking nuts when I just get scared eyes at me when I'm like, no, you have to know this. Right when I start raising my voice that Jackie would not do. Like Amanda would not do that. She covers the whole middle ground and I'm like the bookends. Jackie cuts me off in the middle of that too and starts going, she takes a weapon out of your hand. Right? Yeah, she's like, they can't understand what the weapon I guess is my fucking loud. Right. You know, semi angry tone, all of a sudden, she's just like, stop, stop. They don't understand what you're doing that. And just like, they have to know this. All right. Listen to how loud I am. Yeah, exactly. And then it goes away. And then I'm a kiss ass most of the time. I like keeping them fucking happy. I like when they're happy and laughing. And but I put some pressure on them. Not, not about, I don't know if you guys have this, but everything I did, I would just go outside and practice and fucking basketball baseball, even bike riding, just like being my own fucking world is driving a circus, trying to hop off a curb, trying to pop a wheelie, whatever the fuck that was. And I don't see my kids want to do that as much as me. So I'm like, there's nothing you want to get good at. Right. I do that. That shit. And they're just like, not just not what you want us to get good at. We want to get good at what we like, you know. All right. Well, in closure, I have one last question for you. What makes you happiest in all of these, all of these areas of your life? There's, it seems like there's so much harmony and everything's kind of cruising. And there's so many things to bring you happiness. I'll bet you'll say family or some garbage like that. And by the way, this is Jason's looking at this is going to be informative. He's looking for something to make him happy. So he's looking for you, whatever kind of. Yeah, just find him. Yeah. If you had to put usually where do you find yourself the most sort of just serene and this is a great day. Well, fuck, I would have to say when shit's going good at home, everything is good. That's true. You know what I mean? When the kids and your wife or your partner are happy. And there's nothing else to be concerned about. You're just fucking free to be who you were as a kid. You know, like that's when I feel like, shit, I'm making a movie. This is great. When I'm fucking making a movie and I get a call from home and something's off, I'm like, I'm fucking lost. Totally. Lost until that shit gets resolved, right? And you got to act good. And the other actors are joking around and you're kind of like what? Like you're beat behind. And you're looking at your phone because you're like, fuck is this thing going to resolve itself? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're fucking heart, heartache, heartache for no reason. And then all of a sudden, I doubled mine because I now have like an ex-wife. So I want to make sure that Amy's happy and also my partner and every, I've got like way too many people. I'm worried about her happy now. Sure. Sure. Yeah. So it sounds like a complaint. Listen, I'm a very lucky guy, but still. Yes, absolutely. No, we all are. But the depth definitely ups and downs in my own brain. I can't, I never have a fucking 24 hour happy day. I don't see that ever, ever coming my way. But I have what I'm working on pretty like all right. Let's, how about you guys when you're working? Are you like, this is great? Are you kind of like when the phone is off because you're working and it's when you're on set and you're in that thing, that is a great space. When you're really in it, I remember for me, one of my happiest times was when, when Jason, I were first doing a rest of development. And so people, you didn't text as much back then. It was because everybody's told the flip phones. I remember we got a new flip phone. That was so psyched and two way of patient, two way of page or thing. We had those, we had those. And I just remember like you'd go to, you'd go to work, you leave your trailer or whatever your dressing, you'd go on a set and you're on there for like four hours and you're not contacting the outside world and you're in this thing working in your in it. That is a happy memory for me. But if you know that there's that there's something a little sideways back home, you still can't 100% enjoy it. So staying a little bit ahead at home and making sure that that's all running smoothly. And it will be smooth again tomorrow too because I'm not just, you know, you know, I'm doing something proactive to keep it going forward and staying ahead of it. I've been trying to do lately. My wife's, when I know I go on Tuesday, I got a pretty that big scene blah, blah, blah. She'll go, okay, and then she'll kind of block ship. She should not bring shit up to me on a big day. Oh, that's nice. That's pretty nice. And then yeah, that's nice. Anyways, and then yeah, she runs lines with her. Yeah, oh my god, all the time. And she's good at finding shit that I wasn't going to do in the scene and going like, well, don't you know what that line means? That's awesome. She does that for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do it all the time here. You do that with Scotty constantly. That's nice. Are you good at memorizing your lines at them? Not too good. How about you? Jason's the best in the biz. The best of all time. Well, it's really good at it too. That's that fucking TV shit. That's that TV shit. Yeah. Fucking unbelievable. I'm surprised at Sarah Nightlife didn't kind of grind that in on you. Or you just want looking at the cards the whole time. Oh, they tell you to, right? I would do the panic thing like before Letterman. Well, I remember I did this shit on We Can Update where I did costumes crazy. I'm crazy pickle arm and all this shit. And I do this thing where I was I'm crazy under the desk guy. So I remember in my head, I went, when you're crazy, the under the desk guy, there's no cue cards because you're going under the desk and you gotta remember your shit. I remember I fucking live. I went under my desk and it was like my head's going holy shit. There's no fucking cue cards. You're a trouble man. And I think I remembered most of them and got it done. But no, I like knowing the cue cards were around. You were tight with Wally, right? Was Wally doing things like that? I know. He just texted me out of the blue the other days. Oh, yeah. He's doing well. I've got fucking some other business he's doing right now. Yeah, I don't know. He's yeah, I've been heard from him here. But Wally was the guy, the cue card. It's got an amusement park now. I think you just started an amusement park. Oh, John Candies working there. It's nice. Adam, you're incredibly generous to give us all this time. Thank you for saying yes to doing the show and the first go for asking me guys. We love you. You're asking your show. It's a great thing you're doing it. Get to hang out all the time together and you're great guys. We're pretty lucky. We're very appreciative. So looking forward to seeing on the golf course tomorrow will be their probably about eight thirty nine. Yeah, we're going to warm up first. I know you don't like to warm up, but we will warm up right on, man. All right. We love you. Say hi to your family. Love you, pal. Thanks, buddy. Okay. All right. Later, guys. Oh, he's fantastic. What a good decent guy. I'm so engaging. Like I could listen to him talk for hours. And by the way, how he's talking about all that anxiety that he has. I'm like, yeah, I totally get that. I relate. Yeah, he's stayed. He stayed so human when he's had many opportunities, probably not to. He's able to stay very loyal to his friends. He's also putting up a great product. He's got his family with him. Like he's just been so smart the way he's kind of put all these pieces that are available to him into a certain direction that I would imagine perpetuates so much happiness for him and so people that are close to him. And obviously his audience as well. He's a good human being. Yeah. Yeah. He's a well-rounded, smart guy. And he's got a sort of happy life. And for me anyway, I like looking at the people who are having a happy life because it's not defined by what they do, but it's defined by so many other things starting with family. And what they do with the things that are available to them in their life, whether it be, you know, really expensive, nice things or not. What you do with what you've got, I think, is a good test. Yeah. Thank you to Adam for joining us. That was, that was great. So good, Jason. You better take us golfing. You better take us golfing. And thank you, listener, for joining us for another hour of Smartless. Smartless. Smartless. There used to be very little visibility and control in treasury. Today, JP Morgan Payments delivers real-time dashboards and control at your fingertips. That's the power of clarity. That's JP Morgan Payments. Copyright 2025, JP Morgan Chase & Company. All rights reserved. JP Morgan Chase Bank. And a member of FDIC. Deposit's held non-US branches are not FDIC insured. Non-deposit products are not FDIC insured. This is not a legal commitment for credit or services. Availability varies. Eligibility determined by JP Morgan Chase. Visit jpmorgan.com slash payments disclosure for details.