Rumors Quentin Tarantino planned the Inglorious Basterds role of Sgt. Donny Donowitz (aka. "The Bear Jew") for Adam Sandler were confirmed by the director.
Tarantino talked to Bill Maher on his podcast Club Random with Bill Maher about his intentions when writing the character and the reason why Sandler didn't ultimately end up playing the part.
Tarantino told Maher about Sandler's sheer excitement for the part:
"I wrote the Bear Jew for Adam Sandler. When I was doing Little Nicky, he’s telling me like, ‘Oh man, I get to f**king beat up Nazis with a bat? F**king script! F**king awesome! I can’t fu*cking wait! I can’t f*cking wait!'"
"He was like telling every Jewish guy, 'I’m going to f*cking play this guy who beats up Nazis with a f*cking bat'."
The world apparently wasn't going to cooperate with Tarantino's plans, though. As luck would have it, by the time Tarantino was ready to start filming for Inglorious Basterds, Judd Apatow was filming Funny People and Sandler was unavailable.
He told Maher:
"Here’s the problem. He [Judd] wrapped up all the good Jews [to be in Funny People]. That was the problem. Seth Rogen and all the good Jews were doing ‘Funny People'."
"I’m killing Hitler with baseball bats and there’s no good Jews available! David Krumholtz, nobody! All the good Jews were all wrapped up! I’m doing the Jewish male fantasy!"
You can watch the full episode of Club Random With Bill Maher here:
Quentin Tarantino + Judd Apatow; Ms. Pat | Club Random with Bill Maheryoutu.be
Twitter was abuzz with speculation about how Sandler would have been in the role.
Some were excited at the prospect...
...while others were decidedly not.
The world will never know how different of a movie Inglorious Basterds would have been if Sandler had been in it, but everyone can definitely speculate.
