‘Uncut Gems’ Directors Are Loving the Adam Sandler and Kathy Bates’ ‘Waterboy’ Exchange After Oscars Snub

Twitter is still mourning the Oscars snub for Uncut Gems, but the movie’s directors are taking it all in stride. On Monday, the Safdie brothers tweeted about the uproar over the film, saying that they’re already happy with what they’ve accomplished. Namely: expanding the world of the 1998 hit film, The Waterboy.

Uncut Gems was a last-minute hit for 2019, with what many are calling a career-best performance from Adam Sandler. Understandably, many fans were hoping this would earn him an 2020 Oscars nomination, or at least get the film on the board somewhere in the list. Sadly, it was nowhere to be seen.

After the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences published its nominations list on Monday, Sandler took to Twitter with a bemused post about being left out. He took it in stride as well, redirecting his disappointment into congratulations for Kathy Bates, who was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in Richard Jewell.

Bates played “Mama Boucher” in The Waterboy, the mother of Sandler’s character Bobby. She doubled down on his tweet on Monday, responding to Sandler with her own references.

“I love you my Bobby Boucher!!! You was robbed!! But Mama loves you!!!” she wrote. “I learned a new urban slang word for you! You da GOAT!! Not the one we eat at home, Son.”

At the end of the day, this in-character tweet seemed to make it all worth it for the Safdie brothers.

“Honestly just happy we’ve contributed some new Waterboy narratives,” they wrote alongside Bates’ tweet.

The post picked up over 18,000 likes and 1,000 retweets on Monday, and many responses as well. Fans encouraged the Safdies to follow this impulse, perhaps directing a Waterboy sequel after all these years.

“Waterboy 2: A dark comedy about Bobby Boucher running for political office after his playing career ends,” one fan proposed.

Joshua Safdie was born in 1984, and his brother Benny followed in 1986, meaning they would have been just the right age for the irreverent humor of The Waterboy in 1998. The two hail from New York City, and have worked together on various films in the last decade or so.

Their first feature was titled The Pleasure of Being Robbed, and began as a short film meant to promote Kate Spade Handbags. It developed into a feature and established the Safdie brothers on the film festival circuit. It premiered at South by Southwest in 2007.

The Safdie brothers’ other features include Daddy Longlegs, Lenny Cooke, Heaven Knows What and Good Time. This last one premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2017 and starred Robert Pattinson. In spite of their omission from the Oscars this year, fans are confident that the brothers will go on to be powerhouses in Hollywood in the years to come.