Bad Bunny has revealed he was moved to tears when he first met his Happy Gilmore 2 co-star Adam Sandler.
The Puerto Rican rapper, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, appears in the forthcoming Netflix sequel to the 1996 golf movie, as part of a string of celebrity cameos, including Eminem, “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans and athlete Travis Kelce.
Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers alongside the film’s lead, Sandler, Bad Bunny revealed that he was starstruck the first time he encountered the actor, when they were sitting opposite each other at a Los Angeles Lakers game.
Sandler had noticed the musician because his daughter had recognised him and she began hitting her dad with excitement.
“And then we locked eyes,” Sandler said. “And then I gave you some love from across the court.”
Bad Bunny, best known for songs “Me Porto Bonito”, “I Like It” and “Safaera”, explained he had been waiting a long time to meet Sandler, and was even tearful when it finally happened.
“When he [made] eye contact with me, I was like, 'Bro!’” he said. “I cried.”
The rapper tried to hide his emotions, telling himself: “I can't cry courtside... He knows who I am!”
“I was waiting for that moment!" he added. “I'd been to a lot of Lakers games. I saw every celebrity, but never Adam Sandler.”
Netflix announced last year that Sandler would be reprising his role as Gilmore, an ice hockey player with anger management issues who realises he can channel that anger towards major pro golf wins.
Much of the original cast will return for the sequel, including Modern Family star Julie Bowen, who played Virginia Venit, a rep for a professional golf tour and the girlfriend of Sandler’s character.
Sandler recently revealed that the script had to be rewritten following the death of his co-star Carl Weathers, who had famously played Chubbs Peterson, the mentor to Sandler’s Gilmore, in the original film. He died last year, aged 76.
“We had a painful change,” Sandler told Collider. “Carl Weathers had a massive part.”
He continued: “I would talk to Carl, and we were excited, and then Carl passed away. We had to rewrite a lot of the stuff, and even what the story was. We made a lot of nice references to how great Chubbs was in the movie. That was the biggest change.”
Asked how Weathers’ character would have featured in the film, Sandler explained: “In the first version that we came up with, he had a son. He was coming back to me a lot in my dreams, and he had a son who was mad at Happy for causing the death of daddy.”
Newcomers to the cast also include Margaret Qualley, Eric André, Sunny Sandler and Benny Safdie.
Happy Gilmore 2 is released on 25 July.
