Timothée Chalamet didn’t hold back his admiration for Adam Sandler during a lively evening titled “Sandler x Chalamet”, held on Nov. 15 at the Fairfax High School gym in Los Angeles. Before a full house of students and fans, the duo revisited key moments from their careers, swapping stories, breaking down scenes, and showering each other with praise.
Chalamet, speaking after a screening of a scene from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, reflected on how transformative Sandler’s performance was for him as a young actor. “Seeing you do a role like that, against everything people thought they knew about you—man, it’s one of the most powerful performances ever,” he said. “It made me go, ‘This guy is an incredible actor.’ You deserve to be standing there with a golden statue.”
Sandler was quick to return the compliment, admiring Chalamet’s impact on modern cinema. “What you keep doing for movies and for all of us—it’s unbelievable,” Sandler told him. “I can’t wait to see what you do next.”
Throughout the night, the pair reviewed scenes from across their filmographies, from Sandler’s Big Daddy and Uncut Gems to Chalamet’s Call Me By Your Name, Dune: Part Two, and A Complete Unknown. Fans were also treated to early looks at their upcoming films—Chalamet's Marty Supreme, directed by Josh Safdie and set for a Christmas Day release, and Sandler's Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach’s next feature arriving on Netflix on December 5.
Though they’ve never shared the screen, Sandler reminisced about the time Chalamet was originally cast in Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children, before his scene was cut. “Jason told me, ‘I’ve got this kid playing the quarterback—he’s incredible,’” Sandler recalled. “He knew even then.”
Between trading memories of Saturday Night Live, poking fun at their shared love of basketball and guitar, and analysing each other’s on-screen choices, the two actors kept the audience laughing. The evening ended with a surprise: two attendees were invited onto the court for a 2-on-2 half-court game with the stars.