Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has finally confirmed the long-standing rumor that he created a role specifically for Adam Sandler in his WW2-set 2009 feature “Inglourious Basterds”.
Making an appearance on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast alongside Maher and fellow director Judd Apatow, Tarantino finally confirmed on the record that the role of Sergeant Donny ‘The Bear Jew’ Donowitz was conceived and penned for Sandler.
The trouble was Apatow had already locked Sandler in for filming on his comedy “Funny People” alongside Seth Rogen, Eric Bana, Leslie Mann and Jason Schwartzmann. Apatow, Tarantino and Sandler all knew each other from working on “Little Nicky” in 2000.
Apatow says in the interview that filming on both “Funny People” and “Inglourious Basterds” took place at the exact same time, but he wasn’t aware and had already got Sandler to agree to star in “Funny People” a full a year and a half before the start of that production. Tarantino says:
“Obviously he should’ve done yours because of the whole thing of it. I mean, you start with the f—— video cassette of you guys as kids. But yeah, the Bear Jew was going to… I wrote the Bear Jew for Adam Sandler.
When I was doing ‘Little Nicky,’ he’s telling me like, ‘Oh man, I get to f—— beat up Nazis with a bat? F—— script! F—— awesome! I can’t f—– wait!’. He was like telling every Jewish guy, ‘I’m going to f—— play this guy who beats up Nazis with a f—— bat.'”
Sandler couldn’t do both and once Tarantino realised he wouldn’t be getting “The Wedding Singer” star, finding his replacement was difficult:
“Here’s the problem. [Judd] wrapped up all the good Jews [for ‘Funny People’]. That was the problem. Seth Rogen and all the good Jews were doing ‘Funny People’. I’m killing Hitler with baseball bats and there are no good Jews available! David Krumholtz, nobody! All the good Jews were all wrapped up! I’m doing the Jewish male fantasy!”
Ultimately the filmmaker ended up cast his longtime friend and “Hostel” director Eli Roth in the role. The film went on to gross an impressive $321.5 million worldwide from a $70 million budget, won the Oscar for Christoph Waltz’s performance along with seven other nominations, and became one of Tarantino’s big success stories.
“Funny People” meanwhile, which cost an even more expensive $75 million, ended up becoming a costly flop for Apatow – taking in only $71.6 million worldwide and facing mixed reviews with criticism over its lengthy 146-minute runtime.
