ollywood superstar Adam Sandler is unaccustomed to talking to the print media, yet this time around — promoting a very atypical film, Punch-Drunk Love — directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Sandler has decided to buck tradition.

  At the Toronto International Film Festival, where the actor arrives in navy blue T-shirt and jeans, he seems remarkably comfortable talking to the press, given his reluctance to do print interviews “just because I used to be misquoted all the time.”

  This time around, Sandler seemed more than comfortable, talking with a clear passion about a film that many initially considered an odd combination: The star of Happy Gilmore and Mr. Deeds with the director of Boogie Nights and Magnolia? It seemed a stretch. But Sandler isn’t concerned.

  “I know that people and friends thought initially it was weird, but I just wanted to work with this director,” who wrote the script specifically with Sandler in mind.

  In Punch-Drunk Love, Sandler is Barry Egan, a small business owner with seven sisters whose abuse has kept him alone and unable to fall in love. When a harmonium, a whole lot of pudding and a mysterious woman (Emily Watson) enter his life, his romantic journey begins, but not before his attempt at phone sex brings with it danger and violence.

  There are moments throughout the film when Sandler’s performance is both ferocious and sweet. The actor seemed comfortable tapping into both extremes. “In real life, I’m a little nuts and I can also be a bit sweet at times,” the actor admits, with a laugh.

  Yet somehow, for Sandler fans, Punch-Drunk Love is a departure from his very mainstream comedies that have come before it.

  “Departure suggests that I’m somehow movin’ on from something,” he argues. “I just did a movie with a guy who I think is an incredible filmmaker, and I played a role which I thought was a great part and one that would be a challenge for me to do.”

  Sandler adds that he remains “proud of the movies I have done before, but this experience was incredible and I do want to continue to challenge myself with guys like Paul.”

  Now 36, it is 10 years since he made Billy Madison in Toronto and, although he had a great time shooting his first major film comedy, he says: “I still have the need to stretch myself any way I can.”

  Sandler’s “stretch” doing this film has paid off, with critics all agreeing that this is hands down Sandler’s best work thus far.

  In the past, even Sandler concedes he hasn’t exactly been the critics’ favorite. Yet the actor insists that the desire for some kind of long-awaited critical approval was never a factor in his decision to do Punch-Drunk Love.

  “I remember when I was making Billy Madison,” he recalls, “I was thinking, ‘This’ll be fun when it comes out, they’ll actually write something about me and my parents will read it.”

  After all, he says, the last time he “made it in print” was in eighth grade “when I made the honor roll.”

  But that positive feedback Sandler was expecting didn’t come to pass. “All of a sudden, I woke up, read the paper and was shocked,” he says. “I had no idea they were going to come after me and hate me.”

  It shook up the young actor, but he was not discouraged. He says: “I called up my friends and asked them what they were writing about me there. Oh, them too, huh?”

  Critical favorite or not, Sandler has remained on top of his comic profession for more than a decade. Discovered as a 17-year old stand-up comedian, TV’s Saturday Night Live cemented his comic career.

  Although it has been the movies that have finally turned Sandler into a household name, he admits that, like his mentor Robin Williams, he might eventually return to his stand-up roots.

  “It was a great deal doing stand-up and performing in front of a live crowd and I miss that,” he says. “I work with movies and it’s very time-consuming, but at least twice a week I do think about it. Hopefully, I’ll get to do that, even though I have no idea what I’d talk about right now.”

  Sandler’s younger fans might find themselves excluded from his harder-edged Punch-Drunk Love, but they need not despair. After all, his classic Chanukah Song is heading to the big screen this December, a project just a tad different from the Anderson film.

  “The next movie is called 8 Crazy Nights,” he says. “It’s animated and it’s a fun film with music and a lot of jokes. I’ve been working on it for the last three years and I’m very proud of it.”

  It seems that Adam Sandler has much to be proud of these days.

—Paul Fischer