Tue., Jan. 28, 2003. 8:08 PM

CJ is not a professional interviewer with a tape recorder, so some of the answers are reconstructions from her notes. And CJ’s notes weren’t that great because she was all nervous and giddy. Who can blame her? CJ tried to hit the “record” button on her office answering machine during the interview, but all it recorded was her voice and her voice sounded three octaves higher than it normally does. Maybe the high voice is some kind of mating ritual in a foreign land. CJ will now try to seek out that foreign land, as she shares with you her inner embarrassment.

CJ: Christine James. (Good, that sounded businesslike.)

Covert: Hello? Hi, this is Covert.

CJ: Hi Covert! Glad to hear from you! (This is so exciting, God why do I sound like I sucked on a balloon?)

Covert: Are you in Georgia?

CJ: Yes, I teach at Valdosta State University. I think the first time I contacted you guys I was still in grad school at South Carolina, then I taught at Kent State and a small college in Pennsylvania before I came here. (He doesn’t want your whole life story… he probably wants to talk about Florida! Shut up! Oooom, Dan Marino Dan Marino Dan Marino…)

Covert: Oh, so you’re not from there?

CJ: No, I actually grew up in Chicago and went to Northwestern.(Really, who cares about that now, just shut up…)

Covert: I was just asking because I grew up in Florida…

CJ: I remember, you said on Conan’s show once that you were from the Miami Beach area? (Palm Beach County! Now he thinks I’m psychotic. He knows I’m psychotic. Damn.)

Covert: I still have friends in the Atlanta area too, I was just in Hawaii with some of them, it was great.

CJ: Oh that’s wonderful, I am so glad you got a chance to go have fun!

Covert: And I needed to, it’s been busy here…

CJ: That’s great, you deserve it. (Just ask him a question, now!)

CJ: From 8 Crazy Nights, what is a Scorpion Bowl, and have you ever had one?

Covert: Not me – I think Sandler had one at a Chinese restaurant once, like when you go into a Chinese restaurant and the menu has all these exotic drink specials. I think our buddy Jack (Giarraputo) might have ordered one once in Hawaii and actually didn’t finish it – pushed it away, like “I don’t need this!”

CJ: What was it about the Davey Stone story that made you decide to animate it?

Covert: We wanted to do the animation from the first – so parts of the story followed out of the fact that it was animated.

CJ: So there were possible scenes that were at their best when animated? Like the intervention scene in the mall?

Covert: And especially the part with everyone looking good in the shirts and skins basketball scene!

CJ: How did the animation process compare to making a movie in the traditional, live-action way; are you interested in doing animation again?

Covert: It was more complicated, especially in that we had never done it before on that scale, but it made it fun, we were all learning something new. It took two years to put it all together, three years counting the writing (and the original inspiration from the Whitey and Davey sketch on “Stan and Judy’s Kid.”)

CJ: It seems like one of the themes in Happy Madison movies is male characters learning to grow up and make their way in the world as adults, how is Davey successful or not successful with this?

Covert: Well, you know we write what we know. And our main focus is always jokes, making it as funny as possible. Anger Management, so funny. And Nicholson is so funny this time, pure funny pure comedy. And he really cares, like he would call us everyday and say “I was reading the script again and I was thinking of this…”

CJ: It’s like that’s something that the press normally doesn’t acknowledge or write about celebrities; the press gives a really two-dimensional picture of people who are famous like Jack.

Covert: Yes, they write about him with women or whatever. And there are some celebrities who sometimes only let the press see what they want them to.

CJ: Who has the biggest influence on Davey, Whitey or Jennifer? (Do you think he grows for love or because of having a kindly older influence?)

Covert: More Whitey, I would say. Jennifer is important because she shows him what she missed, but the main force was Whitey.

CJ: And it’s like there is something about Whitey that really makes the whole town look at their behavior in a new way.

Covert: And there’s so much about the Whitey character that is just so funny, like the whole (as Whitey) “on the computah” thing, you know it’s just this whole world that Whitey has never experienced, he’s just heard about it.

CJ: So it sounds like you have some extra voice talent there some people might not have heard yet?

Covert: That’s something we would always do when we were writing and reading it out loud, whoever read it would have to really act it out and read it in the voices, based on the skit from “Stan and Judy’s Kid.” And everyone would always know when it was me.

CJ: What's up with Eleanore and the lobster bib - tushie protector? Have you ever had an embarrassing experience with a lobster in a restaurant, or has it all been like dinner with Jennifer Beals in Flashdance?

Covert: That’s one of my favorites! One thing is that that was part of a subplot that was in early versions of the script, that Eleanore hadn’t left her house since her wig got stolen, so all of these things are new to her, like the corn dog, she had never been to the mall before, it’s like she’s finally out and about.

CJ: Do you think you see the world in a comedic way most of the time, as an actor who studies people's emotions, or as a producer/organizer/planner -- or maybe there isn't really a difference if you do them all correctly?

Covert: It’s weird because we’ve been doing everything for so long, from making it funny first to dealing with budgets and advertising. We just kind of ended up at first this way, since we started out as this group of guys who made their little movies and we ended up doing everything ourselves, then as we got bigger it was like we were already doing everything anyway, so why change it? The producing issues can create limitations you have to work under, it can be hard when you think of something funny and then you also have to think of the costs or production issues that might be involved. So there’s juggling to be done. We all do a bit of everything, for example Jack does a lot of production but also sits in on the writing and contributes to that too.

CJ: Many of your roles have involved drastic physical changes, so much so that you are like a Master of Disguise. Do you think that for you acting is more physical, or mental? What are some of the techniques you use to really dig in and feel what the character would feel?

Covert: Those are all my acting crutches!

CJ: Tell me what that means!

Covert: It makes it all easier and more fun! “Hollywood is very into that is you and so that is what you do.” But that may not be what is most enjoyable or fun.

CJ: Like typecasting?

Covert: Yeah, like in Happy Gilmore, I played this homeless caddy and when some of my friends went to see it, it was like they were disappointed – “You only had two lines! You should talk more.” But I loved it, I got to play that fun guy. And like after the Wedding Singer, I auditioned a little, but everything they kept sending me were characters like that guy (Sammy the Limo Driver) – the 80’s guy or the guy who hits on chicks. I mean, I’m from Florida, that’s not me! And then with Big Daddy, that’s when the guys had even more fun with me, with the kissing (Peter) Dante thing. When we first told Dante about it, we built it up, like “We wrote the greatest part for you! You’ll be Sandler’s friend and… Covert’s boyfriend!” And at first he was like “Huh?” but then right away he thought about it and he was totally on it. And then in Little Nicky, no one would have cast me as that guy (theatre actor Todd) except my friends. That’s the greatest thing, I get to be whoever. And I don’t force myself in either, like in Waterboy, I knew I was too young to be a college professor, and we had great jokes for the Clint Howard fan character, and that was where I worked the best for those jokes.

CJ: Well, don’t forget, it’s not like age necessarily has something to do with being a college professor… (oh no, he thinks I’m 80.)

Covert: Oh yeah, but we just wanted that Colonel Sanders older southern gentleman, and I couldn’t play that.

CJ: And did you do the Colonel Sanders piece because Sandler has the same birthday as Colonel Sanders?

Covert: No, you know I didn’t even know that, it was just because of Colonel Sanders as this southern icon, and me being from Florida I grew up in the south and you would see Colonel Sanders everywhere.

CJ: What are you doing next? Are you going to get to star in your own movie soon?

Covert: Anger Management is Covert’s revenge! And certain other things will be happening in the next movie we are writing now,

CJ: Hot Chick? No what am I talking about, Fifty First Kisses.

Covert: Yes, I actually don’t like that title, I think it’s confusing, so I call it “The Untitled Adam Sandler Drew Barrymore Movie.”

CJ: I see what you mean, it is a little confusing unless you know it involves short-term memory loss.

Covert: Yes! And in that I’m going back and forth, I might have a small but very funny part. We’re writing that a lot. And, I’m also working on a movie for me to star in called Grandma’s Boy, it’s written by a guy who did some television writing for us. Right now, I’m waiting for the next draft. It’s about a guy who always did everything his father wanted, studied what his father wanted, went into the family business, and wakes up one day and realizes he is miserable. He decides to quit and do what he wants to do, and he becomes a video game tester! But then his Grandma gets involved, and keeps trying to set him up with every girl that goes by. We’re hoping to do that after 50 First Kisses.

CJ: So Grandma kind of takes him under her wing, and it’s a nice loving and floppy Grandma wing?

Covert: Yeah!

CJ: And is it written by the same guy who wrote the pilot that Lovitz and MacDonald worked on for NBC?

Covert: No, Herlihy actually wrote that one. This is written by Barry Wernick. He used to write for Two Guys and a Girl. He and I were talking and he had an idea and I had an idea and we put them together to make one hopefully big idea. Sony has bought it, and so we can officially say they are interested in doing it.

CJ: Can you tell us about your tattoos? There's a rasta-reggae goat on your right bicep people will probably understand, but how about that symbol on your upper left back? (See, I wasn't just checking out your tush in the shower scene in Mr. Deeds. But I think that was all Bren was doing because she didn't seem to know you had tattoos.)

Covert: Okay, on my right shoulder – more the upper bicep – I have the Goat from the “What the Hell Happened to Me” Tour and underneath it is “Respect.” See, on this 1996 tour we had video of the goat, everyone loved the goat and the goat was like my favorite thing. So I actually brought the picture in from the cover and got them to make it into a tattoo when I got home from the tour. And then on What’s Your Name? We had the Goat opera. So on my back left shoulder blade I got a small Chinese symbol for the Goat. It was funny, when I was walking out of the Mr. Deeds premiere, one of my friends was there and was like “A little question; those tattoos, are those yours? or are they make up?” And I had to tell them they were mine, they were real, and my friend was just like “That’s a little scary.”

CJ: With the latest site revision at http://www.adamsandler.com everyone is very open and willing to share a lot of the creative process. Has the website changed how people work around the Happy Madison offices? (i.e. is Loughran cutting down on the bananas?)

Covert: Nothing has changed in the least, no difference at all. Meatball and Izzy are still running around. And we’re all so used to Nick being around. Every so often we’ll say we have to a message and we’ll get together on one, or someone will see something funny like “Goosen, get in here quick!” There was one with Loughran sleeping during night shoots that was like that, and we didn’t even tell Loughran it was on there for like a week. Someone in like Philadelphia told him like two weeks later or something! And we like doing the animated shorts, we haven’t done one in a while, since The Ticklish Biker.

CJ: And when you do those, do you have to do all the same steps as a full production?

Covert: Yes, in terms of funding and all of that, but it’s good because we can do it all here in Flash, Nick edits them right here in the Happy Madison offices. It really helps when we are too busy and we just don’t have time to do a full album. And it’s like it’s better than just press releases, this is how we really are.

CJ: Do you get to play with Meatball very much, is Meatball getting all bossy around the office with his internet fame or is he still just the same little cuddle-bundle-poop-factory he was as a puppy?

Covert: Meatball is an idiot! Meatball has a food obsession. He has an eating disorder, and it’s psychotic! He’ll be sleeping and someone will open a bag of chips and suddenly he’s wide awake and alert! And he runs to whoever feeds him. You can always tell who has been feeding him, and no one is supposed to, because he will run to them, and then everyone will be like “Oh, you’ve been feeding him! You know he doesn’t do that because he likes you!” And everyone gets bummed when he isn’t around the office, like some days he’ll be with Jackie, Adam’s fiancée, and people will ask where he is and everyone gets bummed. But you know what will be really a bummer, much of Fifty First Kisses will be filmed in Hawaii and so we can’t take the Meatball because there’s a quarantine period.

CJ: Oh, that’s going to be so sad!

Covert: But whoever has to stay here with him will be even more bummed, because they don’t get to go to Hawaii. And you know what else is funny, Meatball is the King of Sony! You’re not really supposed to have dogs on the lots at all, but everyone knows him, security guys and truck drivers all greet him, everyone knows him. And what’s also funny about Meatball, he spent his whole life around big crowds so he is never freaked out, he’s used to hundreds of people.

CJ: I remember the night Sandler brought him on Craig Kilborn’s show.

Covert: Yeah, he was a little freaked out that night.

CJ: It was like he was working the crowd or looking for someone or something, it was amazing!

Covert: I think someone in the audience must have had popcorn or something, he was like “food, someone’s got food!”

CJ: Is there anything else we should talk about or mention?


Covert: We’re just glad people like what we do, and we’ll keep doing it until they tell us to stop!



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