Johan Renck spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com about his new Netflix sci-fi film.
While much of Adam Sandler‘s acting career has been spent in the realm of outrageous comedy, he’s not averse to a more serious role here and there – and his latest film, Spaceman, fits into that latter category.
The Netflix sci-fi flick sees Sandler take on the role of a Czech astronaut named Jakub Procházka, who finds himself conversing with a large spider (Paul Dano) while on a mission to the outer edge of the galaxy shortly after the collapse of his marriage.
That might sound like an outlandish comic premise, but the film is actually played fairly straight, with the spider inviting Jakub to engage in some self-reflection and find a way forward in his tumultuous personal life.
Spaceman is directed by Chernobyl’s Johan Renck, and ahead of the release, the Swedish filmmaker spoke to RadioTimes.com about how he came to cast Sandler in the lead role.
“I mean, it was actually serendipity, to be honest,” he said. “I was in Los Angeles, doing some s**t, and I had a bunch of general meetings with actors, which you do every now and then – you have this kind of session of meeting various actors to see, do we like each other? Is there anything we have in common? And so on.”
He added: “And Adam was one of those meetings. And that meeting was an immensely great meeting, for a lot of reasons, because I was a big fan of Adam, I really wanted to meet him. I wanted to see what he was like, blah, blah.
“But then he said, ‘What about this space film I hear you’re doing?’ and then we struck up a conversation with regards to that.”
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Renck said that following the meeting, he couldn’t shake the idea of giving the role to Sandler – for one reason in particular.
“After we parted, I realised that if Jakub Procházka actually is an extension of me, who’s my dream actor to play myself?” he said. “That’s going to be Adam Sandler. So that’s it!”
Meanwhile, the director also praised Sandler for managing the “tremendous challenge” of acting most of his scenes alone, given that he had no other actors to interact with on set for pretty much the entirety of the film.
“A big part of your acting experience is about the dance with your counterpart,” he said.
“It’s like you’re saying something and the other person is saying something and you respond, and this becomes this kind of an interaction that sort of guides your own performances and triggers your instincts in terms of how to respond or whatever happens to you.
“Adam did all of this not only hanging in various contraptions and wires… he also did it against a tennis ball for an eyeline and me or somebody else around the corner reading out the lines with a performance that, you know, is lacklustre – primarily when I did it.”
But he said that speaking to Sandler after production had finished, the actor told him that although this process had presented some difficulties, for him he had also found the experience quite “liberating”.
He explained: “Any actor will have issues with confidence and self-esteem and stuff like that, and how your performance is going to be judged by the other actor.
“And he says, on the one hand, it was really difficult, but on another hand, he was free to do whatever the f**k he wanted, without being inhibited by himself.”
Spaceman now streaming on Netflix from Friday 1st March 2024. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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