Adam Sandler is healing beautifully after his recent hip surgery.
However, the “Happy Gilmore” star confesses the procedure made him feel old.
“It’s just painful to speak out loud,” Sandler, 56, sarcastically told Page Six at the 2022 Gotham Awards on Monday. “I say it was because of basketball so that feels a little bit rough, but then being unable to tie my own shoe didn’t feel rugged.”
The comedian recounted that his wife, Jackie Sandler, and his daughters, Sadie, 16, and Sunny, 14, took turns helping him tie his shoes.
“They were courteous about it,” he told us, acknowledging he wasn’t always an ideal patient following the operation in early September.
“I shouted a lot then calmed down and ate some food.”
Sandler blames the operation on playing basketball.
Sandler, who became a national figure on “Saturday Night Live” in the ’90s, has been straying into more serious material lately with movies like “Uncut Gems” and “The Meyerowitz Stories,” but he confesses has “no idea” how he manages to generate so much empathy for his characters.
“I simply try to feel what I’m meant to feel in a moment and proceed from there,” he stated to Page Six.
Sandler was awarded at the 2022 Gotham Awards.
Sandler, shown here with wife Jackie, was honored at the 2022 Gotham Awar
As for his broad career, the actor added, “I’ve always wanted to do everything. I’ve been blessed to have folks create things for me that’s as good as it gets and work with tremendously creative individuals that put the movies together. And the stuff I do with my pals is everything to us, too. I prefer to work hard.”
Earlier in the evening, while accepting the Gotham Performer Tribute Award, Sandler had the star-studded audience, which included Julianne Moore, Bowen Yang, and Michelle Williams, laughing at a speech allegedly written by his daughters.
On winning the award, the “Big Daddy” actor remarked to Sadie and Sunny, “It means a lot to him because most of the awards on his trophy shelf are shaped like popcorn buckets, blimps, or fake mini Oscars that say ‘Father of the Year,’ which he sadly bought himself while wandering through Times Square’s head shops in a self-pitying fog.”
»While recuperating from hip surgery, Adam Sandler laughs about feeling ancient«