“The Jewish Bear” from “Inglourious Basterds” should have been played by a completely different actor. Quentin Tarantino confirms that Adam Sandler was his first choice to play the cult character!
As Variety reports, Quentin Tarantino confirmed a long-standing rumor regarding Adam Sandler and Inglourious Basterds while a guest on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast.
Interviewed alongside Judd Apatow, the director finally declared publicly that he had written the role of Sergeant Donny Donowitz, the famous “Jew Bear”, for Adam Sandler. However Judd Apatow had already hired the actor to play in his film Funny People (2008): Tarantino’s dream never came true.
“[Judd et moi] we met through Adam Sandler back when I did LittleNicky”said Tarantino, referring to his appearance in comedy in 2000. “I hung out with this team for a while. We participated in a lot of different things together.”
“I feel bad because when I did Funny People with Sandler, I didn’t know that was the exact moment you were trying to get him for Inglorious Basterds”, cut Judd Apatow.
“Obviously he had to do yours because of all this”, replied Tarantino. “I mean, you start with the fucking videotape of you when you were kids. But yes (…) I wrote the Jewish Bear for Adam Sandler. When I was doing Little Nicky, he was like, ‘Oh man, can I beat Nazis with a bat? S*** scenario! B*** awesome! I can’t f*** wait!’ He used to tell all the Jewish guys, ‘I’m going to play this fucking guy who beats the Nazis with a fucking bat.’”
FIND A REPLACEMENT
At the time, while Quentin Tarantino and Judd Apatow were both looking to shoot their films at exactly the same time, the latter had already convinced Adam Sandler to agree to star in his film a year and a half before production began. . It was therefore the first who had to find a replacement for him, which was not easy since, according to him, all the “good Jewish actors” were taken!
“Here’s the problem. [Judd] hired all the good Jews [pour Funny People]”, said Tarantino. “That was the problem. Seth Rogen and all the good Jews were doing Funny People. I kill Hitler with baseball bats and there are no good Jews available! David Krumholtz, person ! All the good Jews were all busy! I do the Jewish male fantasy!”
Universal Pictures International
But he obviously ended up finding his star in the person of Eli Roth, a longtime friend, who made the character certainly cult.
The full episode of Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast with Quentin Tarantino and Judd Apatow will be available December 18 on YouTube.
As for Inglourious Basterds, you can currently (re)watch the film streaming on Amazon Prime Video.