Adam Sandler Nearly Passed on ‘Big Daddy’ Out of Loyalty to Chris Farley
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After making comedies about the pro-golf circuit, the school system and college football, Adam Sandler decided to explore the hilarious world of child endangerment with Big Daddy, which also featured pre-Daily Show Jon Stewart, a pre-Knocked Up Leslie Mann and a pre-constantly publicly embarrassing himself Rob Schneider.
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Big Daddy recently turned 25, and to mark the anniversary, The Hollywood Reporter chatted with producer Sid Ganis and co-writer Steve Franks, all about how the beloved comedy came together.
The interview is full of intriguing behind-the-scenes tidbits, including the fact that the story was originally set at a theme park, owing to the fact that Franks penned the first draft of the script while working at Disneyland. But it was originally titled Guy Gets Kid, which kind of makes it sound like a revenge movie about a man seeking payback against a child.
Either way, it was the dead-end Disneyland job that provided Franks with the initial germ of an idea for Big Daddy. “That’s what got me thinking about, ‘What if kids showed up, and the guy who was on the track of not doing much with his life is the one who steps up?’” Franks explained. He literally wrote it while “on the Disney clock” in the Enchanted Tiki Room.
The film also came very close to starring another former Saturday Night Live cast member: the late great Chris Farley.
Per Franks, some of names that came up for the lead role of Sonny (the titular “Guy”) included John Travolta and John Cusack, but “Chris Farley really wanted to do it.” When the producers approached Sandler with the project, Farley’s enthusiasm initially inspired him to turn it down. “Adam is the most loyal, wonderful friend one could have, and Chris Farley was his friend,” Ganis revealed. “He said to us, ‘Thank you. Let Chris do it.’”
While the filmmakers did meet with Farley, those plans eventually fell through prior to his death in 1997. So Sandler changed his mind. “Okay, no. I’ll do it,” he soon told the producers.
Even once Sandler was on board, the studio still wasn’t totally convinced, questioning Ganis, “Are you sure? Shouldn’t we have a big movie star here?”
“He is a big movie star, only you don’t quite know it yet,” Ganis responded.
The head of Columbia, Amy Pascal, didn’t sign off on Sandler until she flew to Las Vegas and caught an advance screening of The Wedding Singer, which allowed Sandler to truly show off his leading man chops.
It’s hard not to wonder what the movie would have been like with Farley instead of Sandler. Arguably, it would have worked better, given Farley’s knack for playing lovable goofballs who are basically just big kids. Sandler does that too, obviously, but Farley also had a guileless naivete that would have played really well in Big Daddy.
With Sandler looking after a random kid purely to impress his ex-girlfriend, it’s hard not to root for child services.
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