Adam Sandler was faced with a new challenge on the set of his upcoming Netflix film “Spaceman“: using wires to appear like an astronaut floating in space. At the film’s Berlin Film Festival press conference on Wednesday, Sandler cheekily reflected on the experience, saying the “wires hurt me.”
“The wires were tough because my body’s not the most flexible body. The wires hurt me, they dug into me. The stuntmen who would wire me up every day, I would say ‘that hurts’ and they didn’t believe me,” Sandler said as the room erupted in laughter. “But we did it as a team. [Director] Johan [Renck] would say, ‘You don’t look like you’re floating, what are you doing?’ And then I would say, ‘Well, what should we do?’ And then they’d wire Johan up and he’d be like, ‘More like this!'”
Sandler stars in the Netflix sci-fi film as a lonely astronaut who is having marital problems with his wife (Carey Mulligan), and is comforted by a CGI alien arachnid voiced by Dano. Renck, Mulligan and Dano were also on hand for the press conference.
“We got deep together, I felt pain and he helped me try and get out of that pain,” Sandler said of working with Dano. “We did rehearse together before we shot the movie … On the day though, I’d be talking to a tennis ball or Johan’s friend who came and dressed up and would crawl around. It’s a movie about being alone, and the tennis ball allowed me to be alone and in my own world.”
Directed by Renck, who helmed the HBO miniseries “Chernobyl,” “Spaceman” is based on the 2017 novel “Spaceman of Bohemia” by Czech author Jaroslav Kalfař. It’s set to release in select theaters on Feb. 23 and on Netflix March 1.
In addition to Sandler, Dano and Mulligan, the cast includes Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin and Isabella Rossellini. The script for “Spaceman” was penned by Colby Day. Producers include Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin, Peter Kiernan, Michael Parets, Tim Headington, Lia Buman and Max Silva. Executive producers are Ben Ormand, Johan Renck and Barry Bernardi.
“Spaceman” world premieres at Berlin Film Festival on Wednesday night.
