Funny People, in the abundant and spotty filmography of Adam Sandler, can almost serve as the definitive midpoint of a conflicted performer. While the Sandman is still revered by audiences today as the influential (and, at times, disinterested) song-and-showman of Billy Madison and SNL fame, there’s been a clear appreciation from fans for the roles where Sandler imbues a more dramatic and earnest side to himself; an aspect that only seems to be growing with recent performances in dramas like Uncut Gems and the recently-released Hustle. There’s zero doubt that the man can deliver some of the most engrossing performances to be put on film, which raises the question of why he would choose to stray off from more serious work in favor of more comedies, and the answer seems clear based on the legacy the 2009 Judd Apatow dramedy left behind.
Funny People, the third film in the Freaks and Geeks creator’s filmography, mixes reality with twisted fiction in the form of George Simmons (Sandler), a famous and lonely comedian who receives news that he’s been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, with little chance of survival through treatment. This leads the former movie star to get back to his roots in standup, where he meets a young comic named Ira (Seth Rogen) and takes him under his wing as his assistant. When George receives word that his cancer is in remission, he decides to try and get back with his old flame Laura (Leslie Mann) in an attempt to have the one thing he sorely lacked throughout his career: a family. Those aspirations, played out like a total reversal to the typical fairytale endings of a Happy Madison production, quickly go up in smoke with the arrival of Laura’s husband Clarke (Eric Bana) and when Laura is made clear that George is admittedly apathetic in her children Ingrid and Mable (played by Iris and Maude Apatow, respectively, Judd’s real-life daughters with real-life wife Mann).
It’s made pretty clear, even before this point of the film, that George can be aggressively cold and selfish due to the ego he’s developed in his career. He’s a wealthy movie star who’s famous for his low-brow comedies about getting turned into a baby (and whatever a Merman is). He lives in a big house with big things and gets admired from fans everywhere, yet he still remains depressed because of things not going his own way. While the chemistry he shares with Ira can be playful and instructive, it often swings towards being cruel-hearted whenever he’s reminded of the things he can’t control (his relationships and his mortality being striking examples). Behind the smile and energy he brings to the stage is a soul that is angry at others and, ultimately, at himself; unfulfilled with the life he’s lived and discontent with being unable to attain a new one.
It should come as no surprise that Sandler’s performance of George is the reason why Funny People continues to find an audience today. While the film is filled with the divisive things you’d expect from an Apatow offering, Funny People holds up because of Sandler’s willingness to play a character who is essentially a crooked mirror of himself. A willingness that, like other times in Sandler’s career, didn’t pay off the way he might’ve wanted.
When you look at the box office results for Sandler’s serious romps, be it a Punch-Drunk Love or a Reign Over Me (the former Apatow rightfully cites as an influence for casting Sandler in his film), they pale in comparison to a standard Sandler comedy you’d find on Christmas weekend. When you combine the total gross of those two films alongside Funny People and Uncut Gems, their final return is a little over $130 million (just 37% of his highest grossing film, Hotel Transylvania). While these films and his performances in them were met with critical acclaim, they ultimately served as small artistic ventures for Sandler, and a business deal that his mass fanbase had no interest in watching. When all was said and done with Funny People, Sandler went back to making subpar comedies that easily printed money for quite some time until he did Uncut Gems in 2019, and until that point was mostly disinterested in returning to more serious roles.
While a large chunk of the Sandman’s hesitance to star in dramas is attributed to box office flops, it’s possible that part of it can stem from the actor’s reluctance to present himself as someone he was never comfortable associating with. In an interview promoting the film, Sandler said this about going back to doing more deprecated humor:
I would tell Judd after every set I would do, this was stuff I haven't done in a long time. I haven't talked that filthy in front of people. People recognize me. I've been around a long time. I go on stage, these nice people who know me as a certain type of person, and then I'm on stage and I'm as filthy as can be. I'm watching, some people are into it, some people are going, 'No, don't ruin it for us.' Then I would drive home and I'd be in my driveway alone and I have my two little kids sleeping and I just felt like the biggest, dirtiest human being. I was mad at Apatow. Why am I doing this movie?
The character of George Simmons serves as an insert for the two real-life friends (something Apatow makes very clear during the time he made the film), and while there are parts to him that are charming and wise, there are elements to his character that the film believes should be left in the past. Both Sandler and Apatow were lucky enough to obtain the success they received, start families, and move beyond the things they were once known for. Being George Simmons, like the film he stars in, was a self-indulgent experience for Adam Sandler, for better and for worse. While the world is certainly a better place with more dramatic turns from the Opera Man, his performance in Funny People will be remembered as a unique blip in history, when he played a person whose life wasn’t so funny after all.