Throwback Thursday: Paul Thomas Anderson Has An “Obsession” With Adam Sandler’s ‘Big Daddy’

Hey, it’s #ThrowbackThursday and each week we look to the past and highlight something in cinema history that’s fascinating, amusing, perhaps something you never knew or have seen, you name it.

You wouldn’t think the filmmaker behind such classic dramas like “There Will Be Blood,” “Magnolia,” and the recently released “Phantom Thread” would be such a fan of Adam Sandler.

In our latest #ThrowbackThursday, we want to remember an interview that director-extraordinaire Paul Thomas Anderson gave where he professed his love of all things Adam Sandler, particularly the classic (really?) film “Big Daddy.”

“I particularly love ‘Big Daddy,’” admits Anderson, in the clip.

For those PTA fans that don’t venture to the Adam Sandler side of the Hollywood spectrum, “Big Daddy” is a 1999 film that found Adam Sandler playing the loveable Sonny Koufax, a man-child who finds out he may be the long-lost father of a little boy. The film came out at the height of Adam Sandler mania, and went on to gross over $230 million at the box office.

READ MORE: Throwback Thursday: Steven Spielberg Reveals 8-Hour Long ‘A.I.’ Conversation With Stanley Kubrick

While many see the film as one of the better Sandler offerings, no one would put that film next to anything that PTA has done. “Big Daddy” currently sits at a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, but hey, you love what you love, right? And for Anderson, he loves “Big Daddy.”

“I think I really graduated to obsession level with, like I said, ‘Big Daddy,’” said Anderson when talking about his love of Adam Sandler films.

PTA goes into detail about what makes “Big Daddy” such a classic film, using terms like “polished” and “sincere,” and says the film features all the “crazy fucking dirty shit” that you expect from a Sandler film. But that’s when the conversation turns more towards Sandler, in general. Then you start to see Anderson truly fanboy out about the comedian.

“He’s so good looking now, as he gets older,” Anderson says.

All kidding aside, the conversation is another example of showing that Anderson isn’t the stodgy, curmudgeon-y director that you might imagine, judging solely on his films. He’s a truly likable guy, with more mainstream sensibilities. And, as with anyone, Paul Thomas Anderson has a few guilty pleasures of his own. He’s just able to admit them publicly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6gNUetQoE