The last time we bore witness to an Adam Sandler awards season—on the heels of his high-octane turn in the Safdie Brothers’ 2019 movie Uncut Gems—the world was a very different place. Though the Sandman didn’t snag an Oscar nomination that winter, there was little doubt that he had secured his place in Hollywood’s high esteem for good—and that he would treat that placement with the same sort of irreverence that he’s generally applied to Hollywood his whole career.
Fast forward to this week, when the Safdies presented Sandler with a very lifetime achievement-y Performer Tribute Award at the 2022 Gotham Awards in New York City. The Sandman accepted with a rollicking speech supposedly written by his 16- and 14-year-old daughters: “Dear well-dressed dignitaries, highly educated hipsters and various other plus-ones of the Gotham Awards,” he began, “thank you for giving our daddy, Mr. Adam Sandler, this prestigious lifetime, all-time, primetime G.O.A.T. achievement tribute award.” He lovingly negged his fellow comedians Ben Stiller and Rob Schneider, and name-checked his filmography’s biggest hits (like Billy Madison, The Wedding Singer, Big Daddy, and Punch-Drunk Love) with the preface that “Daddy’s silly film career began in 1988, formed by two guiding principles: people in prison need movies, too, and TBS needs content.”
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(Lately Sandler’s been campaigning for his performance in the recent Netflix basketball drama Hustle, which might not take him as far as Gems did, though he and the Brothers Safdie do have another as-yet-untitled project in the works. While we don’t know much about the movie beyond it purportedly taking place “in the world of high-end card collecting,” Sandler did admit that his character might not look as cool as Howie Ratner did: “I can’t say that I’m gonna look that handsome in it,” Sandler told Variety. “It’s not a handsome moment…It’s gonna be tough.”)
He delivered his speech, for the most part, in a goofy, gravelly Southern accent, and despite the dig he made about his own “disturbingly unkempt beard” that “makes his head look like someone threw black and gray Corn Flakes on a fucking beanbag,” he was wearing an uncharacteristically kempt suit for the occasion. Though Sandler, whose deeply bonkers anti-fashion fashion sense made him Google’s most searched name in celebrity style in 2021, may be keen to pull out a nice navy suit for the homies over at the Gotham Awards, we can only hope that when he does eventually make it to the Academy Awards, he’ll kiss off the institutional red carpet wearing a first-of-its-kind black-tie version of a hoodie and silky basketball shorts. Maybe Hokas can make a pair of custom dress shoes.
Eileen Cartter
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