Wed., Feb. 1, 2006. 6:33 PM

ALLEN COVERT On Judiasm and his own rising star
written by Marcie Somers

There comes a time in everyone’s life when faith becomes as important as identity. For Allen Covert, the path to Judaism became clear while making the film Eight Crazy Nights with long-time friend and collaborator Adam Sandler. As the first studio release with Chanukah as a backdrop, it tells the story through animation of a Jewish man who finds his faith. While reading up on the Festival of Lights for the film, Covert, 41, the son of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, began to explore his own faith. Recognizing that he didn’t know much about his religion, Eight Crazy Nights led him to a deeper examination of Judaism.

“I wanted to learn more about the actual religion so I could honestly say that I’m Jewish,” says Covert. It was also during this time, that he began to study for his bar mitzvah. “I was supposed to have had my bar mitzvah in the fall of 2004, but had to stop my studies due to some filming commitments so everything was put on hold for a year,” explains Covert. “But I plan on picking up the pieces
and eventually being called to the bimah— especially after bumping into my Cantor and Hebrew teacher at the premiere of The Longest Yard,” he laughs. “They gave me a guilt trip of ‘what happened to the Hebrew lessons?’”

While the name Allen Covert might not be familiar, his face certainly is. Over the past sixteen years, Covert has worked with Adam Sandler in various roles as
business partner, screenwriter, actor, associate producer, and executive producer on almost all of Sandler’s biggest hits. His experiences in these films has had him growing an unsightly moustache and mullet in The Wedding Singer,
gaining over 40 pounds and shaving his head for Little Nicky, making out with his co-star Peter Dante in Big Daddy and taking a football in the groin (twice), in The Longest Yard.

With years of experience of being in the film business, he understands a thing or two about movie making. “If you make a funny movie, people will see it,” states Covert.

But that’s much easier said than done. Growing up, Covert’s career goals were not artistically driven. In fact, he went to the University of Florida with the intention of becoming a lawyer. It was there, while attending the first day of a drama class, after watching a video that asked what turned out to be a pivotal question, “Who’s telling you not to major in theater?” that Covert decided to switch his major to drama. The seed was planted and his desire for formal acting training grew.

“You have the talent, now learn the craft” were the words of an ad for New York University’s theater program that caught his eye. With an instinctive decision he left the palms of sunny Florida for the sidewalks of the Big Apple in search of an acting career. It was while attending a history of comedy class at NYU that Covert met Adam Sandler. There was an instant rapport between the two, fired primarily by a common sense of humor, marking the beginnings of strong friendship.

From the start, Sandler and Covert loved working together and they thrived in creating funny, off-the wall ideas. Believing in Covert’s talent, Sandler asked him to be his opening act on his 1996 college tour called What The Hell Happened To Me? For Covert, knowing the right people helped propel him into the industry and he never got to experience the feared struggle of the starving artist. “Lucky for me, my friend Sandler got started before me.”

Covert takes an interesting approach to filmmaking. While juggling various roles, he writes and produces almost all of his projects. But writing doesn’t always come naturally. He grew up struggling to write papers and avoided classes that
involved extensive essays. “If I had to do a term paper, I’d ask if I could do
a performance project instead.”

However, he finds writing comedy akin to bouncing funny ideas around with friends. “It’s tons of fun when you’re writing with friends because we’re always trying to come up with jokes to make each other laugh.”

Being a stand-up comedian on tour, forced him to write his own routines. This eventually led to the writing of songs and albums that he, and Sandler, created.

“We were sitting around and Adam started playing a guitar and we started throwing things out and at the end of it Adam was like ‘alright you just wrote a song!’ That was the first official ‘written by’ that I ever got.”

Unlike screenwriting, Covert felt album writing lacked formal structure. To him it was primarily jokes passed around amongst friends. Along with Sandler, he co-wrote the album What’s Your Name? on the set of Happy Gilmore. Writing for the big screen seemed to flow more naturally from there.

Over the years Covert has penned numerous Sandler films including Eight Crazy Nights, which he wrote with Brooks Arthur, The Benchwarmers, and more recently Grandma’s Boy, a film in which he also stars. As a writer, Covert encourages actors to give their own interpretations of his lines. “I like actors to bring something to the role that I might not have thought of,” he explains.

Acting, however, is Covert’s passion. He finds it to be the most natural of
all mediums. “I studied acting at NYU, went to Circle In The Square, and studied with a group founded by David Mamet. But at the end of day, give me a silly haircut, some clothes and let me be funny.”

Many of these character depictions reflect real-life experiences. Grandma’s Boy, in which he wore multiple hats as writer, producer and actor, was inspired by Covert’s personal experience when he was in his early 30’s, of living in a 2-bedroom condo with his 85-year-old grandmother and father for several
months, while he helped his father recover from bypass heart surgery. It
was challenging to say the least. “It meant that there were a lot of things
that I had to hide from her, like my tattoos.” In the film, Covert portrays a
video-game tester who is evicted from his apartment after his roommate
spends their money on hookers. He winds up living with his grandmother
and her two friends and then his friends meet her friends resulting in
what Allen calls an inter-ageal relationship.

The grandmothers also take an interest in their roommates’ hobbies, mainly video games and drugs. Alongside Doris Roberts, from Everybody Loves Raymond, who plays his grandmother, their artist talents are pushed into uncharted waters.

“I’m doing things I’ve never done before in almost every scene—outrageous
things!” says Roberts. Covert’s real life grandmother wants to be first in line to
see the movie, but he thinks otherwise!

“My 93-year old grandmother can’t see this film– I mean, I masturbate in it. And my grandmother is like ‘shut up’ I’m coming for the premiere.”

Although not a member of any particular Temple, Covert calls himself “a proud Jew” and stays active in the community by buying trees for Israel and donating to Chabad. Several years ago, Eight Crazy Nights won the Jewish Image Awards in Los Angeles, and Covert was presented with an award acknowledging his efforts in portraying Judaism and the Jewish people in a positive light. Thrilled with this professional recognition, he was moved even more on a personal basis as Jewish children approached him about the movie.

“I remember attending my cousin’s daughter’s bat mitzvah and having the kids come up to me and being so appreciative and thanking me for making this
film”, recalls Covert, glancing at a Star of David flag sitting on his desk.

While studying for his bar mitzvah provided him with greater understanding
of his religion and culture, Covert, who is single and plans on raising his children Jewish when he has a family, admits that he’s still a bit rough around the edges. Yiddish is definitely a challenge for him. He finds this millennium-old language that’s the mother tongue of contemporary Jewish traditionalists throughout the world, difficult but not impossible. He used to believe that his grandmother never cursed, however, with his increased understanding of the language, he discovered, to his horror that his grandmother swore frequently in Yiddish.

“When I realize what she’s just said, I’m like I can’t believe that my grandmother just said that.”

Covert staunchly believes in the long history of comedy in Yiddish and Jewish culture. He feels there are certain aspects of family that only those who grew up in a Jewish home can understand – particularly when it comes to Jewish mothers.

“A Jewish mother is the only one who can sit there and tell you you’re the greatest person and a complete schmuck at the same time,” laughs Covert. “I remember sitting at the dinner table with my family one time and my grandmother was giving my father a difficult time, so I opened my mouth to say something to him and immediately my Grandmother said ‘don’t talk to your father like that.’ That’s a perfect example of Jewish family and humour to me.” It is this kind of humour that Covert tries to apply to his performances.

After appearing in seventeen movies, including over ten Adam Sandler films, Covert’s face is easily recognizable. He is often approached in public and questioned about what it’s like working with his good friend, Adam Sandler. Covert greatly admires Sandler, but what he admires most is Sandler’s humility and his ability to remain grounded even though he is enormously famous. He recalls personally experiencing Sandler’s humble nature one evening in New York. The two had flown into The Big Apple for the premiere of Punch Drunk Love. They attended the movie, but instead of going to the “after party” where he would be surrounded by press and fans, Sandler chose to quietly go to
dinner with his parents at a local delicatessen. That experience sticks with Covert to this day and influences his behavior as he journeys along the road to superstardom.

Covert takes one thing at a time and is very focused on his work, which he enjoys thoroughly. He is blessed with a wonderful sense of humor, that enables him to laugh at himself and with others. But what is most admirable about him is his modesty and humble nature. An extremely warm and gracious man with a fun loving attitude and wealth of talent, Allen Covert is on his way to becoming
very well known everywhere.



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