admin Was there any trash talk?
Well… Okay, I felt more comfortable trash talking to Sandler than Chalamet. Sandler was playing really physically. Timothée shoots the ball and stays on the perimeter. But yeah, I feel like there was some blocks and some, “Get that shit out of here.”
My more sports-minded coworkers asked me to ask you: How’s Timmy’s jumper?
Surprisingly good. It took him a while to warm up, but when it went in, it looks good… And his shooting form was surprisingly good. He definitely has got something but I’ve never seen him playing basketball before online, so I don’t know. I know he mentioned that he played on the LaGuardia basketball team in high school.
Was he easier or harder to guard than you expected?
Pretty much what you think.
What was kind of the dynamic between the two of them? Between Sandler and Timmy?
Timothée’s calling him Sandman. “Great shot, Sandman.” And Adam’s super serious when he’s playing. There’s not a lot of joking around… Adam’s like a coach kind of player. He’s coaching on the court as he’s playing.
At any point did you forget that you were playing pickup basketball with Adam Sandler and Timothée Chalamet?
Obviously, the first time you see them you’re just like, “What the fuck is going on?” But you start playing and they’re just like every other random dude you start playing pickup with. I mean, aside from the countless people watching behind the cage and all the paparazzi when we were playing, it was just straight basketball. It was good vibes.
Did anyone bring up that the paparazzi were there?
I mean, I think every time I’d score a bucket on Timmy, he’d be like, “Paparazzi, you got your highlight.” Like, “Fuck, you guys are making us look silly in front of paparazzi.”
You said you played three games. Who won? What was the breakdown?
Well, I don’t want to brag, but if you’re asking, it was 3-0, me and Teddy’s team.
I guess I really only have your word for it.
That’s true. I could be totally bullshitting you.
It’s interesting, too, you went to LaGuardia, you want to be an actor. Have you had any weird moments in the last couple days, processing the surreality of it all?
The main thing that I took out of it was just that these are totally normal people. They’re just regular dudes. Once you’re just playing and talking with them, there’s no starstruck element to it. But I will say I definitely had to delete social media a couple days following the incident because I was just getting hundreds of notifications from everybody. It (was) overwhelming. People are asking me like, “Ah, did you use this to your advantage? Is Adam going to cast you in a new film?” I honestly brought up nothing about me wanting to pursue acting at all to them. I’m sure they get it all the time. They have tons of people coming up and asking them for photos. And I felt like the best thing was just (to) treat them like a normal dude on the street.
And you’re from the city too, so there’s sort of an etiquette. You let people be, in some ways.
At Fanelli’s, I’m serving Chris Rock every other week, you know?
This interview has been edited and condensed.
