After starring together in the 1994 comedy, Airheads, Hollywood legends Brendan Fraser and Adam Sandler had an enjoyable reunion while interviewing each other for Variety‘s Actors on Actors series. At the time of Airheads filming, Fraser was coming off of Encino Man while Sandler was a rapidly rising star on Saturday Night Live. Neither one had a huge amount of clout, but Sandler immediately used what little he had to get Fraser into Airheads by any means necessary.
Much to the surprise of The Whale actor, who had no idea about any of this, Sandler threatened to walk from the film if Fraser wasn’t cast in the role of lead singer Chazz:
Sandler: The director, Michael Lehmann, was very against you. He was like, “I don’t get it. I don’t see the caveman being in the movie.” And I just said, “He can do other sh*t, man.”
Fraser: Are you pulling my chain right now?
Sandler: I eventually went to his house at like 4 in the morning, woke him up, and I said, “Just know Adam Sandler ain’t going to be in ‘Airheads’ unless old Fraser is in it.” So he changed his little tune.
However, Lehmann wasn’t the only obstacle in Sandler’s path. According to the Hustle star, Pauly Shore asked Sandler not to push for Fraser for very opportunistic reasons. “He kept saying, ‘Just in case we do Encino 2,’ I don’t want him doing other sh*t,’” Sandler recalled. “And I said, ‘Don’t do that to him.’”
Fraser remembered that part and that Shore angled to get himself in Airheads, which Sandler confirmed. Instead, the role Shore wanted went to David Arquette.
(Via Variety)