Adam Sandler Gets Serious.

We get a kick out of actor/funnyman Adam Sandler but, once in a while, he takes on the role of someone with real dramatic weight; a guy with serious, real-life problems. We saw a touch of this in Click but really see Adam transform himself into a shattered 9/11 widower in the new very funny but touching and thoughtful film Reign Over Me in which he co-stars with Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith and Liv Tyler.

We sat down in Beverly Hills with the cast of the film for some personal feedback and some on-the-set stories. Hey, the guys looked swell but we really want to know about Liv and Jada fashion-wise. Picture Jada in pants and a really cute olive green ruffled, chiffon blouse and Liv in a cute white sundress by New York designer Richard Chai. We know because she asked us check the label in the neck of the dress. Read on for info on Jada and Liv's life as moms, Adam's weird hair in the movie and his heartfelt worry about taking on such a dramatic role and Don's fear of riding on a tiny motorscooter... driven by Adam.

TeenHollywood: Adam, what was the emotional state while you were shooting the film and how did you get into that mode? It looked pretty grueling for you.

Adam: I prepared for a long time and I tried to stay as focused as I can be. It was painful to do. I know it was very important to the part to feel as much as I could so I tried to just be prepared for every day. It wasn't like movies I've done in the past where I'm laughing and having a great time on the set. It was definitely heavier. I was terrified. Once I agreed to do it, I was the most scared I'd ever been. I remember talking to Don. We would rehearse on our own and at the end of our rehearsals I would say to Don, 'Do you have any idea who your guy is yet?' He'd say, 'No, no.' I was so afraid.

TeenHollywood: Liv, you play a therapist. Did you research that at all?

Liv Tyler: I was really excited to be playing a doctor and therapist because I'd never in my career had not been the girlfriend so I was very nervous as well. I know it's a small part, but it was something I took very seriously. The story as a whole touched me so much and I thought that it was so important that it was very real and not the caricature of what that would be like. I actually have a shrink in New York who I love. I spent a lot of time with her, hours on end. It was weird because I was actually learning some of her tricks. She actually told me once that if I ever wanted to quit my day job I would be an okay shrink. I was like, 'I think there something wrong with you saying that, but thank you so much.'

TeenHollywood: Don, your character is as messed up as Adam's sad widower in his own way. Did that attract you to the film?

Don: Well, I personally liked that my character went from a very selfish standpoint to growing and being really concerned about someone who was a friend. At first it was just a way to get out of the house and escape; a great excuse. No, he's in pain. Really [for my character] it was about I want to have some fun and play some video games and play drums. I thought it was a great progression from someone who was completely selfish and was really vampiring off of [Adam's character's] needs and to realize no this is something that's actually important.

TeenHollywood: Adam, did you talk to people who have lost their families?

Sandler: I met a lot of people, yeah. Through therapy sessions and what people were going through. I did that, yep.

TeenHollywood: They let you come into these therapy sessions?

Sandler: Yeah. It's actually post traumatic stress disorder or something that these people were going through and they wanted it to get out into the public more but it wasn't easy for them. I would only come inside if they were okay with it and if they needed me to leave, I would leave, but normally they would just let me sit with them and listen. They just wanted to get the word out about what they were going through. Some people who I met are still going through it five years later. Seven years later.

TeenHollywood: That's so sad. Don and Jada, can you talk a little about working opposite of each other as a couple and what you feel the other brought to the table?

Don: I had a great time working with Jada. We had a very collaborative relationship. The whole process with Adam, Liv, Jada and myself, it was a real team effort. We would always be talking about the nuances of the scene, the ways to get things out of it and kind of talking about our own relationships. 'Okay, how does it go down at your house? This is how it goes down at my house. How does it go down at your house so I can try to find the best way to realize this relationship?' I came in and said 'I had this exact argument last night,' and Jada said, 'I did too.' We just had that same beef at home with our loved ones so it just felt very real and it was real comfortable to work with Jada.

Jada: It was so easy. Working with Don is just like I don't know. It was so easy. There's a bathroom scene where [director] Mike said, 'You guys just go in there and do something,' and we created that scene on the day. It was just so natural and so easy.

TeenHollywood: Music plays a big part in the movie. Adam, your character collects old vinyl records. You and Don get to have a jam session. How much fun was that?

Adam: That was great. I had no idea how great he was. Don is unbelievable on drums, on horns, on base. It was cool.

Don: Mike said 'and then you guys have a jam session'. How do you direct exactly what we do? As soon as I met Adam I was like well I want to do it because there was an immediate friendship and it's just kicked off and it's been that way since. There's another scene in the movie theatre where I really almost peed on myself laughing. That's one of the hardest things to do in a movie. It's much easier to cry or be angry, but to really laugh, that's hard if you don't really feel that way and we would just look at each other and it would just kick off. So that was another great part of the film was to have a movie about rekindling friendships and happen to actually like the guy you're going to do that with.

TeenHollywood: Adam why did you want to do this part?

Adam: I read the script awhile ago. The first time I read it, I thought it was a pretty incredible movie, but I was afraid of it so I just put it away. I told my guys, 'Tell that guy thank you, but I can't do it.' [Like I said] I was kind of scared of it. Then one night like a month later it was next to my bed and I read it again. It was very moving to me. It hurt my heart when I read it so much. It also made me laugh. I just wanted to accept the challenge of doing that role.

TeenHollywood: So, you thought of it as a big challenge? Why were you scared?

Adam: I think I had to just create a guy and I wasn't sure I could do it. I don't want to let anybody down who has been through this tragedy. So, I put a lot of pressure on myself and I think maybe that is what I was afraid of. But, I committed to it eventually. [Note: He does a great job].

TeenHollywood: After this, are you looking for more things that scare you?

Adam: Uh, no. I was hanging out with Cheadle the other day and Don said 'Any other serious stuff coming?' and I was like 'you know, after that one, I'm cool with just staying away from that for a while'. I had a headache almost every day on the set. Normally on movies, I go to my trailer and have ten guys hanging out with me and we're laughing. On this one, I was there all alone.

Liv: With your I-Pod.

Adam: With my I-Pod. I was learning how to play the drums every day. It was a lot of work, man and, emotionally, I don't cry in real life. I'm just pretty light and I don't get too heavy. I snap a lot but I get over it pretty quickly. With this guy, he had to hold his pain and I tried to do so throughout the shoot as much as I could so I'm in no hurry to do it again. But, I'll tell ya, I did not know how funny the movie was going to be. Then I saw it play in Seattle for the first time and it was getting all these laughs. I couldn't believe it. I was so concentrated on my character and his pain and what he was going through and how much Don's character meant to him and was just blocking everybody else out that I didn't know it was going to be that funny.

TeenHollywood: The little motor scooter was almost a character in the film. The director has said he thought of Adam being like The Silver Surfer, riding the streets of New York at night. Adam really hauls on that thing. Don, were you afraid to ride on the back with him?

Don: Well, a funny thing happened on our way to the scooter [laughter]. About six weeks before I started on this movie, I tore my Achilles so there was a lot of questions as far as was I going to be able to walk and run around; things I had to do in the movie and the scooter was a potential liability and especially the way Adam drove it [laughter].

Liv: And it was so fast. It went like forty miles an hour or something.

Don: So, it was a little scary but it was a hell of a lot of fun to ride it.

TeenHollywood: Don, we hear you have trouble watching yourself on screen. Are you kind of modest or what?

Don: It takes a long time to where I can be anywhere near to objective about it so it's like opening a vein.

Adam: He's an original, Cheadle. We were shooting this movie during last year's Oscars when Crash won best picture and I called Don that night to congratulate him and there's no answer. I'm like 'I guess he's getting a lot of calls'. I see him in the morning and I was like 'That's great, man'. 'I just found out!' He had no idea. He just got a lot of phone messages.

TeenHollywood: A double question for Liv and Jada. Liv, I think this is one of your first movies since you've had a baby and Jada, you've had a little more experience. How do you both balance being a working mom and what did both of you learn from your roles?

Liv: Jada, go first. She's a more experienced mommy than I am.

Jada: I guess, as far as the balance, I'm just really lucky to have a lot of assistants. I have a great husband and a great mother. When I'm working, she's helping me at home. At that particular time, Will wasn't working so he could go pick the kids up and make sure they have all the chocolate cake they want for dinner [laughs and claps] 'Yay, mommy's working. Yay daddy!' So I really think that's how I'm able to do that. I definitely took something home as far as...

Don: That couch. I know you got that couch [from the set]! You liked that.

Jada: [laughs] Yeah, but [I took home] the idea to really confront things when they happen. It validated something that I already knew which is you can't just allow things to occur over and over again in your relationship and just think you are helping the relationship by not saying anything. You can be festering and creating all these resentments. So it just validated the idea that, when something happens, handle it and be on top of it because that's how relationships grow and are nurtured.

Liv: I guess [I learned] something about compassion and that everybody has limits in life and I know, for me, I'm always wanting to give everybody advice but everybody has their own thing. You can only push people so far. I think I learned something about that; about patience. We're all made up of different stuff and not to be so critical. And about being a mommy, I've had the great luxury of taking two years off from work which was amazing for me. I was so lucky I did that to be with my son. So, this was my first time back to work as a woman, a mom and I was a doctor, wow! [laughter]. It was great. I could go to set and work hard for a couple of days and then have a few days to be home.

TeenHollywood: Adam, you keep your hair short in real life and, in this film, you have this sort of Bob Dylan hair. How was that for you? Was it a wig.

Adam: Yeah. I would slip it on and ....

Liv: He doesn't let them glue it. You're supposed to. He likes to take it on and off like a cap.

Adam: I'm not good with that. I can't sit still when people are touching me so I put in on in the morning and put my headphones on and I liked having it on. The long hair helped me hide and stay away from people and that felt good. If I grew my hair out that long, I think it would be covering Cheadle's head right now if it grew out a little more.

TeenHollywood: Liv, are you going to be working a lot again now?

Liv: I've just done two movies. I did The Strangers which is a scary movie and then I did a movie called Smother with Diane Keaton.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.