MANILA, Philippines — Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler’s “years and years of friendship” serve them well anew as co-stars in Murder Mystery 2, the sequel to their 2019 global hit action-comedy.
Set four years after solving their first murder mystery, Adam and Jennifer return as the chaotic duo Nicky and Audrey Spitz to deliver the laughs as unlikely sleuths offering their professional services to solve another murder mystery.
With this new high-stakes case that sends them to Paris, France, the husband-and-wife tandem hopes to get their struggling detective agency business back on track. Directed by Jeremy Garelick, the film starts streaming on Netflix come March 31.
Ahead of the premiere, The STAR and two other Filipino reporters were given a glimpse of why the two stars are friendship goals.
The brief virtual chat started with Jennifer being asked and answering about how and when she knew she had a gift for comedy. With Adam reacting on the side, it felt like eavesdropping on a conversation between BFFs.
Jennifer began, “I would write skits for recess in the third grade.”
“You would write them and you would perform them at recess?” asked Adam.
Jennifer: “Uh huh.”
Adam: “That’s amazing! You write it on paper and you pass out characters.”
“(I’d put) attention to what is happening in my class and I would write skits, and we go do them at recess, and then I will probably usually fail the class,” said Jennifer.
To which Adam commented: “Yeah, but you had a good recess.
“I had a good recess.”
Jennifer then went on to recall that she once did a Chekov play that had people laughing on their seats. “And they shouldn’t have been,” she said.
“So, like the drama teacher said, ‘I think you might try comedy.’ And I was offended. I was like I’m a dramatic actress.”
But “you certainly went to a good school for it,” added Adam.
Jennifer: “Yeah. I did okay. Although my Russian acting coach said I was a disgrace at the Moscow theater (laughs).”
Adam: “Really? Well, maybe you’d wake up one day and find out that man had one-percent Spanish blood.”
“Oh possible. I don’t think he’s with us anymore,” Jennifer said before saying sorry because they were digressing.
But with the two seemingly finishing up each other’s sentences, this paper had to ask why they clicked in the first place.
“No idea,” Jennifer admitted.
Adam paused before saying: “Yeah, why do we click? I have a good time with you.”
He continued, “You’re very… you know, you think about like… when I’m coming to your house, you say you might like this and this. You always look out for me.”
“I always look out, you always look out for me,” Jennifer said. “Yeah, we always look out for each other. We kind of… I mean (having) years and years of friendship helps.
“But you can’t really talk about what it is because you can’t put a finger on it.”
“I also respect the shit out of him and he makes me laugh so hard,” Jennifer further said.
“He’s such a… he’s one of the funniest human beings.”
“You are,” Adam was quick to note. “You are one of the hardest workers so we both got that in common. We like to work hard.”
“We like to work hard. And then we like to go home (laughs),” Jennifer said.
When both were asked about personal challenges and objectives of being in the business of making people laugh, Adam shared that their ultimate goal is to make everyone laugh and not just one segment of society.
“You certainly want anyone who’s going to see your movie to have a good time. So, I guess we think about everybody who’s going to see the movie and who the audiences are,” he said.
Jennifer said, “At the end of the day, what makes people laugh is pretty universal, isn’t it? It’s timeless. Yeah, it’s not like fashion. It’s not like a chase, right?”
“We definitely look to get laughs and possibly not hurt anybody’s (feelings),” said Adam.
“Yeah, lately, it’s harder to… There’s a little more rules now. But that’s the hard part — the navigating of sometimes what you can and cannot say anymore. But we’re lucky we’re still here. To be honest,” Jennifer added.
Now, if a punchline falls flat during filming, Jennifer shared that “Adam punishes himself for days.”
“Yeah, I lock myself in the room and start screaming, ‘What happened to you? You’re worth nothing’… And then Jennifer knocks on the door and just says, ‘They need us. Let’s go (laughs),’” said Adam.
Still, if and when a joke wouldn’t work, they candidly said that they would either cut it out or rewrite it until they would come up with something that satisfies everyone.
“And there’s usually always alts as they call them. ‘Try this, try that, try this, try that.’ And whatever seems to land the best wins,” said Jennifer.
“We don’t give up!” stressed Adam.
“Never,” said Jennifer before joking, “Or should we?”
“We are about to,” Adam also jumped in on the joke.
Murder Mystery 2 was shot in Paris, France where its most well-loved landmarks make special appearances, such as The Arc de Triomphe, The Opera House, The Eiffel Tower, The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte and The Love Locks Bridge. Jennifer and Adam looked back on what they liked doing in Paris during the filming period.
Adam said he loved the Monet Museum and “I also like visiting Aniston’s hotel. That was ridiculous.”
“And just walking through the streets of Paris, honestly, is one of the most beautiful things. You can just walk and walk and walk,” Jennifer added to which Adam agreed, “There wasn’t a neighborhood that wasn’t beautiful.”
“Yeah, we had a good time, Ani (Aniston). Go for a morning walk or in the afternoon, and nighttime is amazing,” Adam continued.
“Adam really got addicted to walking,” joked Jennifer as the actor was actually pacing back and forth during the Zoom chat. (It had something to do with his hip).
“I love walking now. Never did I like it until now,” he said.
“Watch him, he can’t stand still and he’s not being picked up on the mic for crying out loud,” Jennifer laughed. “He actually walked so much. He now has a beautiful new hip.”
“The left hip is new and ready to go,” said Adam.
Adam was moving in and out of the camera frame that Jennifer had to ask the Filipino press during the virtual roundtable, “Can you hear him at all?”
One jokingly said that the press were picking up on his answers like clues in a Murder Mystery film.
“And he’s speaking so loud that Murder Mystery 3 can hear him.”
With this kind of comedic banter and chemistry that spills out of a Zoom chat, audiences and fans of these two Hollywood superstars wouldn’t mind a Murder Mystery 3 for sure.