Adam Sandler is The Zohan

CRAVEONLINE: You've had a lot of fun with Judaism, with all the Israeli references in this movie, and all your Hannukah songs. Was there a moment in life when you realized all the humor in Judaism?

Adam Sandler: Oh man, no. I mean I grew up in a house that liked to be funny. Everybody liked to be funny. A lot of my friends were funny, they happened to be Jewish too. No, there wasn't a point. We've been enjoying each other's comedy for years. No, no, I can't think of a time in my life when it just happened, but yeah,  we do tend to talk about it.

CRAVEONLINE: Were there any specific inspirations for all the Tel Aviv action scenes? 

Adam Sandler: I was most excited to shoot those scenes, besides the ones with Emmanuelle [Chriqui]. You heard me but no, we just wanted it to look alive, fun,  sunny. [Dennis] Dugan shot the hell out of the movie.
 
CRAVEONLINE: Do you expect to push some buttons with this material, and would you be upset if nobody got offended?
 
Adam Sandler: No, my intention is never to hurt anybody. I'm happy when people are having a good time, and I gotta tell you if someone comes up to me and is offended by anything I've done in the past, I listen to them. I'm bummed out because I certainly don't, when we're working our asses off on the script and making the movie, I'm just picturing people having a great time. The fact that anybody walks away saying, "Oh man, I wish they didn't say that," that breaks my heart. We just want to make a funny movie. That's it.
 
CRAVEONLINE: Will this movie play in the Arab countries or Israel?

Adam Sandler: I know Israel. I'm not sure. I would think. We'll see what happens.
 
CRAVEONLINE: How into hair are you?

Adam Sandler: I've never, never been excited about going. I don't have a great hair-do. It's not great hair to touch. People get sickened by it. For years I've been looking for the right stylist and then I just started shaving it right to the bone and realized that's the only way to make it look half-way decent. I enjoyed learning a lot about hair, how to cut hair and how much of an art form it is and how much work it is. Usually when you sit in a chair to get a haircut, you're like, "Just get this done, buddy, let's move on with our lives." Now I look at a guy and go, "You've got to do some thinking back there. Good luck to you, sir."

CRAVEONLINE: Did you do all your own stunts?
 
Adam Sandler: No. Whenever it gets dangerous, there were about 15 other Zohans on set. We'd just go, "Pick that guy. Use you. Come here for a minute." Next thing you know, he'd be jumping off a building and then I would just land and go, "De Zohan." 

CRAVEONLINE: Can you really do the splits that are on the posters?

Adam Sandler: Yes. One time. One time, and then it's over for life.

CRAVEONLINE: Since Zohan sleeps with all the older women, do you expect old ladies to hit you over the head with their purses?

Adam Sandler: Ruth Buzzi did that recently. No, I don't feel any danger. I do feel like I got it out of my system. My mother’s friends and I never got to that place where we wanted to get. I feel like the fact that I did it with these women in the movie, now I can just hang out with my mother's friends and not have that weird tension.

CRAVEONLINE: You show your butt a lot in this movie. How did you keep in shape?

Adam Sandler: That’s a tough one. The ass muscle is a different kind of muscle and it has its own mind. It was a lot of just keeping it tight. My wife has huge fingers so she would place it in a cracked area of the body and say “Hold onto this thing for awhile and walk around the room.” So I would do that an hour and 40 minutes a day.

CRAVEONLINE: Would you ever consider going full frontal?

Adam Sandler: If I can guarantee I work up enough of a, like there are certain times of the day you don’t want to see it. If I can monitor my body and know the exact time to shoot when it is looking the plumpest.

CRAVEONLINE: What was the actual inspiration for this movie?

Adam Sandler: When I was a kid you always heard about the Israeli army and you always heard about this tiny little country and how everyone around them wants them gone and every time somebody comes after them they take care of business and so as a Jewish kid you were proud of that. You were like “Alright, they are trying to take out the Jews and the Jews ain’t gonna let it happen.” And so I just admired them. And then I hung out with a lot of Israeli guys out here in California. I went to some Israeli weddings and I couldn’t believe how insane it got. I had an Israeli guy who used to cut my hair, a great guy. I just thought it would be funny to see a soldier, Israeli soldier who was a bad ass warrior and fearless and he had a secret dream of wanting to do something else but was embarrassed to share it with anybody. To me my favorite stuff when we would talk about the movie was it felt like I always pictured it like Charles Bronson in Death Wish. You’re messing with the wrong guy. I was always thought it was funny that he is a hair stylist and that someone would come in and make light of what he does and think there is no possible way he could kick his ass as much as he could. That’s where it started.

CRAVEONLINE: What was your biggest personal challenge making this movie?

Adam Sandler: Personal challenge? Working out that long. I hated that. I had to do it every day. And not eating. Not eating as much as I’d like. That's all I got.

CRAVEONLINE: We just interviewed Russell Brand for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and he's in your next movie, Bedtime Stories. How did you discover him?

Adam Sandler: Apatow brought him here to the USA, but I love him. I think he’s funny as hell. I am going to do his radio show. He’s a very smart and funny guy. I did his show in England one time about four or five years ago. And I had a great time on his MTV show and me and my buddies walked back going “That guy’s incredible.” My agent represents him so when we had a part in this Disney movie we are doing right now. He said, “What about Russell?” and we were really excited to use him.

CRAVEONLINE: That's a family film. How do you like working in that territory?

Adam Sandler: We haven’t put it together yet so I will tell you. We're still shooting it but I think it could be great. You feel like you’re doing a nice thing trying to make a funny movie for kids. So we’ll see.

CRAVEONLINE: It probably won't be as polarizing as Zohan. Do you expect one side will feel more slighted than the other?

Adam Sandler: I think the end of the movie is ultimately we're saying wouldn’t life be so much easier if we were just hanging out and getting along. It is not a brand new theory. That’s what it gets to and I hope that is what people will leave with. We were trying to make sure that anyone who comes to the movie feels like “Alright, at least they said that.”

CRAVEONLINE: What was it like shooting the sex scenes with the old ladies?

Adam Sandler: You know the one who got me the most nervous and the most nauseous? Was the whip cream being licked off my nipples. That nice lady, she was like “I have to what?” She didn’t read the signs apparently and also it wasn’t one take it was four takes and it actually tickled. I think I blew the first take, I was thinking “Just get through this so this nice woman can go home." Then she's lickin' away and then in my head I was like my wife’s done this before and it feels similar. I hope I don’t have a reaction to this.” So I started giggling nervously and the woman is like “What? What happened?” Then we had to go a few more, but that was the roughest one.

CRAVEONLINE: Do you feel like comedy can actually go too far?

Adam Sandler: Yeah, you see it and you see that it goes too far and the audience shut down and you usually take it out of the movie. It didn’t happen too much on this movie. We went pretty hard. Our scenes in this movie are longer than most of the scenes we’ve done in other movies and then we kept it coming and coming and coming.

CRAVEONLINE: What do you get out of producing and do you still enjoy acting as much as when you first started out?

Adam Sandler: The best thing about producing is I get the studio to lend Schneider money. I do enjoy being the Zohan. I enjoy acting, absolutely.