Grown Ups – A New Film Made Among Friends
In a new film from Columbia Pictures being released this weekend that uses basketball as a backdrop, the real-life chemistry between the lead actors has been an easy transition to the characters they play on screen, in large part because they have known each other for years.
Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider, star in the comedy “Grown Ups”, a story about five men who were best friends when they were young kids and are now getting together with their families on the Fourth of July weekend for the first time in thirty years. Picking up where they left off, they discover that growing older doesn’t mean growing up.
“The whole project was really appealing,” says director Dennis Dugan. “These real-life friends get together for a summer to make a movie about friends who get together for a summer at a lake house. It’s a bittersweet reunion, because their (youth basketball) coach has died, but they’re also happy to see each other. They’re meeting each other’s families – it’s them and their wives and girlfriends and kids and dogs – at a moment when they’re all transitioning in their lives.”
It was the story that proved to be the key in bringing the all-star talent together. “It’s a really, really good script that Adam (Sandler) wrote with Fred Wolf,” says Rob Schneider. “It’s very funny and it has interesting characters. Dennis really encouraged us to make it real – get out there, play around with it, and make it a natural performance.”
Maya Rudolph, a veteran performer on the long-running Saturday Night Live television program and who plays Chris Rock’s wife in this film says, “There are a lot of funny people in this movie, but it’s not just a lot of funny people in this movie. It’s a movie about old friends played by people who really are old friends. You can see that history come out in the relationships.”
Once Sandler and Fred Wolf finished the script, it wasn’t hard to get everyone on board. “Adam’s whole idea was that everyone would bring their families and we’d all have a nice summer at the lake house,” remembers Dugan. “It was one of the best summers of my life. Because everyone knew everyone else so well, it was like going to a really great party. Adam really wanted that kind of atmosphere to come across in the movie.”
The aforementioned Saturday Night Live television show was the place where several of these performers first came across each other.
Co-star funnyman Rock says, “Most of the guys met at ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I met Adam doing stand-up 20 years ago easily at Comic Strip in New York. We just hit it off when we were the younger funnier guys in the club. Spade I met at ‘SNL.’ Schneider I met at ‘SNL.’”
“When the ‘SNL’ stories came out, I’d just see Kevin (James) sort of fading away,” laughs Schneider. “Honestly, though, it seemed like Kevin is cut from the same cloth. Having done stand-up comedy and surviving, he gets it.”
According to the film’s director, that familiarity between the movie’s stars going into production made for a more cohesive work environment.
“If you hang around comics or comic actors a lot, you sometimes see really competitive guys: ‘oh, he just told a joke and now I’ve got to tell a better joke,’” says Dugan. “But this set was really relaxed – partly, I think, because Adam brought everybody together. Everybody came in with a great attitude – ‘Let’s just start riffing and see how much fun we can have.”
As the director, it was Dugan’s job to balance all of the talent and realizing the vision for the film. It certainly helps that he has gotten to know the actors well by working with them on multiple occasions in the past. “I’ve lost count of how many movies I’ve made with Adam,” he jokes. “I’ve done four movies with Rob Schneider, three with David Spade, three with Chris Rock, and this is my second with Kevin James.”
The actors and director made a good team because they know each other, but a tricky challenge to making the movie work for filmmaker Dugan, was getting these comedic performers to look like they have serious “game” when it comes to the basketball scenes in the film which is a key part of the overall story. These actors may all be funny, but their hoops skills generally are not as sharp as their wit so the filmmakers brought in an expert and helped them train for this aspect of the production.
In the movie, the five characters are supposed to have enough natural basketball talent that as children they could win a local championship. However, the guys agree: only Sandler and James have game, with Spade and Schneider a step back, and Rock bringing up the rear. “I’m OK – I have a few trick shots,” says Spade. “Sandler’s the best of us, and Kevin’s pretty good. I’m OK, Schneider’s OK… sorry, Rock.”
“I am not an athlete,” admits Rock. “Can I play? No. I couldn’t play when I was young, but at least then, I played a lot, so I found ways to contribute. Now that I’m older, I really suck. It’s just horrible.”
“Sandler and I are the best. I say that like it’s close. It’s not – the rest of them suck,” says Colin Quinn, who plays one of the former opponents from their hometown who has stayed and raised a family in town. “There’s no other way to describe it. This is the problem, or maybe the good thing, about comedians – they all have the confidence. They’ll shoot 50 air balls in a row, and then they’ll mock you if you miss a shot. But that’s all right – it’s how it is.”
To train for the big basketball rematch that closes the film, the filmmakers brought in former NBA player Pooh Richardson to work with the guys on their basketball skills. “I thought, ‘OK, we aren’t supposed to be that good,’ so I thought we were just going to run and goof around with Pooh,” says Spade. “But he got there and he had us run plays. We ran a zip 45, bounce pass, switch around, underneath, reverse layup. It was fun – we learned about 18 plays. We never got any better, but we looked really cool.”
Looking cool on screen was the goal and something made easier when you are among friends.
