Watch any interview with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler together and it’s pretty clear the famed actors enjoy each other’s company. Spend any time in the same room with them and the vibes are infectious.
They use words like “easy,” “funny” and “calm” to describe each other.
“I know what makes her happy,” Sandler, 56, says. “I like seeing her happy.”
“I love seeing him happy,” Aniston, 54, responds. “We take care of each other. We love each other’s families. We love each other’s friends. We just have history. And it’s something we cherish.”
That history includes their first film together, the 2011 rom-com Just Go With It. They reunited for 2019’s Murder Mystery — and after their action-comedy whodunit became a record-breaking hit for Netflix, quickly regrouped to film the sequel Murder Mystery 2. The new release finds Aniston and Sandler’s married couple, now an official detective duo, roped into another case when their friend from their previous European adventure, The Maharajah (Adeel Akhtar), goes missing at his lavish Indian wedding.
The stars’ colleagues on the new sequel all relished in witnessing their friendship up-close.
“What you see on-screen, when you’re feeling that chemistry, you’re seeing the same thing off-screen,” says director Jeremy Garelick, who was recruited to helm the sequel after co-writing Aniston’s 2006 hit dramedy The Break-Up. “They feel like best friends. They have fun.”
“It is a wonder to behold in person,” says Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim, After Yang), who plays the surly wedding guest and suspect Countess Sekou. “I hope they keep doing this forever. Because it’s just so good. And it’s so funny and fresh every time.” (Sandler and Aniston seem to acknowledge a threequel is inevitable, though Sandler cracks they’ll be replaced for part four before returning for a fifth installment.)
Turner-Smith particularly loved that her character is outwardly nasty to Aniston’s Audrey the whole film. “It was so fun, especially because I love her. Like, I’m obsessed with her. So it was fun to play that dynamic because it’s so the opposite of what our dynamic actually is.”
Enrique Arce (Terminator: Dark Fate) also has quite the dynamic with Aniston in Murder Mystery 2. As the womanizing former soccer star Francisco, he’s perpetually coming on to her.
“I was like, ‘If there’s any time in my life where I can hit on Jennifer Aniston and get away with it, it’s this time,'” the Spanish actor says, laughing. “So I went with it. It was fun. She’s so lovely. We’re friends now.”
Like any sequel, Murder Mystery 2 ups the ante, and here that includes a significant first for Aniston.
The film marks the first time, to her knowledge, that she kills anyone on-screen.
“I don’t think so,” the actress muses.
“When she was doing [Along Came Polly], she tried to kill the ferret,” cracks Sandler, who has a limited body count himself. “In Bulletproof, I shot some people,” the actor says about his 1996 actioner with Damon Wayans.
“Didn’t you [kill someone] in Uncut Gems?” Aniston asks.
“No, but something happened. Don’t tell him,” Sandler fires back about the shocking ending to his 2019 Safdie Brothers sensation. “Something happens to me.”
Murder Mystery 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
Watch the trailer:
