In the absence of George Clooney at some of the events of this year’s Venice Film Festival (he is recovering from a sinus infection), it’s fitting that one of co-star Adam Sandler’s favorite lines in “Jay Kelly,” his third film working with director Noah Baumbach is “You’re Jay Kelly, but I’m Jay Kelly, too.”
While it is said in a wildly different context in the film, the line does speak to the already fast-moving awards narrative surrounding “Jay Kelly,” even before the film first screened at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. It may be Clooney who stars as the titular “Jay Kelly,” but it is Sandler who is already getting the most Oscar buzz for his supporting role as Ron, Kelly’s longtime manager and friend.
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While the film sees the fictional Jay Kelly, an A-list actor and major Hollywood icon, try to process why he did not initially feel very conflicted about choosing his career over his family, Sandler’s Ron is having a lot more of a struggle not being around for his children, in a way that mirrors how the actor functions in real life.
“Adam does have such grace and such loyalty and generosity of heart around people. He works with his family. He really does make an effort to involve [them] that’s different from Jay Kelly. He really has found a way to successfully navigate this whole thing and do it so beautifully,” said Baumbach during the film’s Venice press conference on Thursday. “To have him play somebody that, to me, represents Adam and that generosity of spirit, and also that loyalty and love that I see that comes from him, that the character feels for Jay.”
Though the role is not totally against type, as Sandler has played plenty of family men over the past decade, it does allow the comedian to lead from love instead of anger, in a way that likely will tug on Academy voters’ heartstrings more than “Uncut Gems” ever could.
And “Jay Kelly” is really an actors’ film, shedding a positive light on Oscar winners Clooney and Laura Dern as well, who said, “Noah Baumbach had me at hello, so I’ll go wherever he asks.” The Netflix film is her first collaboration with Baumbach since she won Best Supporting Actress for her role in his 2019 film “Marriage Story.”
The most likely prospect for “Jay Kelly” is for Sandler to follow suit, with a big Best Supporting Actor push, though Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress nominations for Clooney and Dern are not out of the cards.
“I could not be more proud. … The feeling it gives you. You lock in. You’re invested. Your heart is broken. You get relief,” said Sandler of working with Baumbach. “He knows how to do everything, and he finds places to make you laugh. And all our characters have ways of you if you watch them, to laugh at any new moment, to feel pain. And as an actor, all of us, you read a script like this, you say, ‘Holy shit, I can’t believe that I’m getting this gift.’”
Netflix will release “Jay Kelly” in theaters on Friday, November 14 with a streaming release to follow on Friday, December 5.
