New Line Cinema Beefy and Adam
Sandler star in New Line Cinema’s "Little Nicky," a comedy
about the devil’s son.
By Emilia Hwang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
All Adam Sandler wants to do is make people laugh.
Playing the title role in popular movies like “The Wedding
Singer” and “Billy Madison,” the comedian turned
college-slacker-icon can only hope that his latest venture as the
spawn of Satan in “Little Nicky” will register as
highly on the laugh-meter as his previous box-office hits.
Taking on the Prince of Darkness and his domain may seem a
little heavy for comedy. Sandler’s version of hell, however,
features far less fire and brimstone and much more slapstick and
absurdity than the typical stroll through Hades.
“When we’re writing the movie, we’re always
thinking about what could be funny,” Sandler said in a recent
interview. “We wanna hear people laugh.”
 New Line Cinema Rodney Dangerfield
(left) and Harvey Keitel star in "Little
Nicky."
Sandler and co-writers Tim Herlihy and Steven Brill, invented
Little Nicky (Sandler) as an awkward and timid soul who is half
devil and half angel.
According to Sandler, the writing team starts with a funny
character and then bases a story on it.
“I come up with jokes, those guys come up with
jokes,” he said. “We just beat out a story together
trying to come up with something that makes sense.”
When his father’s evil throne is in jeopardy, the cowering
Nicky must make his first trip to earth in order to save the planet
from destruction.
“I don’t have any fascination with the devil, but we
wrote this movie, we did some research, turns out that he’s
done some bad things,” Sandler said.
While growing up, Sandler said he chose not to think about
metaphysical matters like the existence of the devil.
“I didn’t want to know that he was out there,”
Sandler said. “I don’t know what the hell is going on
with him. I just try to pretend in my head I’ve done enough
good things and I’m never gonna have to meet the guy, so
whether he’s there or not he’s got nothing to do with
me.”
Sandler’s character lands in Manhattan, and must discover
his confidence and inner strength. He has to release the evil
within himself, armed with nothing but Popeye’s Chicken and a
talking bulldog.
“We knew we needed a character that’s like a
Yoda,” Sandler said. “We didn’t want him to be
too cuddly, so Hurley came up with the talking bulldog.”
When asked about the motivation for the movie, the
“Saturday Night Live” alum answered: “I
don’t know.”
“I don’t work hard,” Sandler said. “I
think this face will look goofy and I do it.”
With his mouth twisted into deformity and his hair plastered
over his forehead, Nicky must battle against his two older
brothers, played by Rhys Ifans and Tommy Lister, Jr., who leave the
underworld to create a hell on earth in New York City.
Cursed for letting the mutinous brothers escape, Hell’s
Gatekeeper (Kevin Nealon) is turned into a boob-head who models
various bra styles throughout the film.
“A typical day for me was two and a half hours in a
make-up chair to put the boobs on,” Nealon said. “That
was two hours of make up and a half hour of fondling.”
Nealon said it was difficult to study his character without
being able to refer to other demons with breasts on their head.
“Research was a little more inaccessible for me because
not a lot of guys have tits on their head,” Nealon said.
“But its not that I didn’t look. I actually talked to
three guys that were called “˜Tit Head’ in high
school.”
With colorful characters abounding, “Little Nicky”
is a good movie to watch with friends, Sandler said. He wants
people to be able to relax, laugh and leave the theater talking
about the lines that made them laugh.
“That’s what these movies are ““ just trying to
make people laugh and letting them hang out,” Sandler
said.
With successful films and a strong following, Sandler said
movies have become a big part of his life.
“I do my movies, I run home to see my girlfriend, I leave
her, I go back to doing my movies,” Sandler said. “So I
don’t have any time to be psychotic yet.”
“Maybe when I’m not able to make movies anymore and
I realize, “˜Hey I’ve got a lot of money,’
I’ll become a big asshole,” he continued. “Right
now I’ve got nothing but my friends, my movies and my family
and that’s most important to me.”
FILM: “Little Nicky” is now playing in theaters
nationwide.