Adam Sandler visited his former leading lady, Jennifer Hudson, on her eponymous talk show on Tuesday, giving fans the sweet Sandy Wexler reunion they’ve always wanted. The duo starred alongside one another in the 2017 comedy, which served as Sandler’s third Netflix film.
Although it’s been six years since Adam and Jennifer worked together, it’s clear that the two still hold a great amount of affection for one another.
“I love you; you just mean a lot to me, and you always will,” Adam, 57, sweetly tells Jennifer, 42, at the top of Tuesday’s episode. “I’ve been watching you [and] when you first started the show, I was just so happy for you, and I could see the audience loved you so much.”
The comedian goes on to gush that he and his family treasure getting close to the star, adding, “My family loves her so much, my wife, my kids, my mom, my mother-in-law, we all hung out, and we literally got so close. We just think you’re the best.”
Adam and Jennifer reminisce about their time working on Sandy Wexler together, in which their characters have a brief romance. Inspired by Sandler’s talent manager, Sandy Wernick, the film follows Sandy Wexler (Adam), a talent manager working in Los Angeles in the 1990s who diligently represents a group of eccentric clients on the fringes of show business. His single-minded devotion is tested when he falls in love with his newest client, Courtney Clarke (Jennifer), a tremendously talented singer whom he discovers at an amusement park.
Jennifer shares that she and her son, David Daniel Otunga, Jr., 14, have “so many fun memories” from their time on the set, although she admits that David was a bit confused about seeing his mother kiss Adam while filming.
“That never goes over good, it never does,” Adam quips. “No, the kids don’t like it.”
The comedian, who shares daughters Sadie, 17, and Sunny, 15, with his wife of 20 years, Jackie Sandler, explains that he’s run into the same difficulty with his kids over his kissing scenes.
“You know, when I have to kiss anybody they’re not thrilled about that, but my wife is always telling them, ‘It’s OK, it’s part of the job. Let Daddy kiss,'” he shares, adding that his daughter, Sunny, tends to have more issues with it than her older sister. “Sunny would always be going over to my wife, saying, ‘You have to watch them! That’s not good. I don’t like that.'”
Adam reveals that he goes in with “a little tight mouth” for onscreen kisses to keep them “movie appropriate” and not bother his girls too much.
Although the father of two says he’s not ready for how quickly his daughters are growing up, he’s very proud of how they’re following in his footsteps.
Sadie and Sunny voice characters in their father’s new animated movie, Leo, which tells the story of the last year of elementary school through the eyes of a school’s class lizard called Leo. Adam voices Leo, Sunny and Sadie voice characters called Summer and Jayda, with Jackie lending her voice to Jayda’s mom.
Earlier this year, the family of four also starred in the Netflix comedy-drama You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, with Sadie and Sunny playing their dad’s onscreen daughters, Ronnie and Stacy. Before that, the two had numerous roles in his movies including the 2010 comedy Grown Ups and 2020’s spooky comedy Hubie Halloween.
“They both like it, they both talk about it,” Adam tells Jennifer about his daughter’s getting into entertainment professionally. “I just want them to be happy and this is kind of stuff that they talk about. My older daughter wants to go to college for it and they’re both very good. They both think about it a lot and work hard at it, so we’ll see what happens.”
See Adam’s full appearance on the Jennifer Hudson Show below.
Leo and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah are available to stream on Netflix.
RELATED CONTENT: