Quentin Tarantino first came up with the idea for Inglourious Basterds more than a decade before it was released in 2009, and for that reason, the movie went through a number of changes. Casting-wise, Tarantino wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play Hans Landa, the SS officer portrayed by Christoph Waltz in the final film. Nastassja Kinski was similarly sought for the role of Bridget von Hammersmark before it was given to Diane Kruger. Tarantino was also in talks to hire French actress Isabelle Huppert at one point, but that didn’t pan out either.
Another interesting actor Tarantino had in mind was Adam Sandler, who was originally supposed to play the part of Sergeant Donny Donowitz (or, as he’s sometimes known, “The Bear Jew”). In fact, as Tarantino revealed in a 2022 episode of Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, he’d actually written the “Bear Jew” role specifically for Sandler. While promoting You Don’t Mess With the Zohan in 2008, Sandler confirmed to RTÉ.ie that he’d been approached by Tarantino years earlier and was disappointed that he couldn’t do it. “Yeah, it’s true. It is, and I read the script, it’s fantastic. But I’m shooting at the very same time,” Sandler said back then.
Tarantino had known Sandler for years and offered him the role when the two were working on the 2000 film Little Nicky. Sandler was excited at first, and reportedly went around telling people, “I’m going to f—–g play this guy who beats up Nazis with a f—–g bat.” Unfortunately, by the time Tarantino finally started recruiting actors for Inglourious Basterds, Sandler was already locked in to star in Funny People with longtime pal Judd Apatow directing. As much as Sandler was looking forward to playing the “Bear Jew,” there was just no way around it.
Apatow later said that he felt bad for preventing it from happening and that he wasn’t aware that Inglourious Basterds was going into production when Sandler signed on. Ultimately, Tarantino understood the decision given Sandler and Apatow’s much longer history together, and the fact that Funny People was a more personal film for the pair. However, the situation didn’t make Tarantino’s casting dilemma any easier because, according to him, Apatow had scored all of the “good Jews” for his movie. “Seth Rogen…all the good Jews were doing Funny People. I’m killing Hitler with baseball bats and there’s no good Jews available. David Krumholtz, nobody,” the director joked.
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