Chris Rock Calls Oscars ‘F*cking A**holes’ for Snubbing Adam Sandler
Chris Rock is calling out the Academy Awards once again, but this time, it’s for snubbing his longtime pal Adam Sandler.
Rock, who was slapped by Best Actor winner Will Smith during the 2022 Oscars and subsequently turned down hosting this year’s ceremony, slammed the Academy for overlooking Sandler’s robust filmography during the ceremony for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
“I’ve known this guy for 30 years,” Rock said of Sandler. “The Oscars, you know, they’re fucking assholes. And if they don’t want to give my man his props, we will tonight.”
Rock called his former “SNL” co-star “one of the greatest of all time.”
Sandler was poised to receive a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 2019 film “Uncut Gems.” His acclaimed past work also includes “Punch-Drunk Love,” which “TÁR” writer-director Todd Field recently called one of the best onscreen performances ever. Sandler has never been nominated for an Academy Award, though this year he had buzz for Netflix’s “Hustle,” for which he earned his first Screen Actors Guild nomination.
The “Murder Mystery 2” actor previously weighed in on the “Uncut Gems” Oscars snub, tweeting that at least he can “stop wearing suits” during awards season since he was not nominated. Sandler also joked that he would go out and make a movie so “bad on purpose just to make you all pay,” citing even a “Grown Ups 4.”
The “Billy Madison” comedian recently recalled the crushing reaction to reading negative reviews and assuming critics “hate us” with past poor reactions. Looking back, Sandler admitted that he now learned “critics aren’t going to connect with certain stuff and what they want to see. I understand that it’s not clicking with them.”
Sandler added, “I say the first two or three, ‘Happy Gilmore,’ ‘The Wedding Singer,’ we would still kinda hear about it. People would call us up, ‘Can you believe they said this about you?’ I’d be like, ‘I didn’t read it, man.’ Mostly because I invite all these amazing people I care about to make movies with me, and I wish they didn’t have to read shit about whatever we’ve made. But I don’t get too shook up. I always remember something my father said. I recall one time that something didn’t go right for me. I bombed onstage or didn’t get an audition. I was upset and probably embarrassed. And he said, ‘Adam, you can’t always be happy. People aren’t always going to like you. You’re going to fail.’ I said, ‘But I just want to be happy, man. I don’t want all that other crap.’ He said, “You won’t actually know you’re happy if you don’t feel that other stuff.’”
Sandler is currently in the works on a follow-up film with “Uncut Gems” directors Josh and Benny Safdie.