Adam Sandler’s Daughter Sunny Sandler Gets a Cute ‘Spaceman’ Cameo

Spaceman on Netflix, which began streaming today, is certainly your typical Adam Sandler movie. This slow-moving sci-fi drama is almost entirely devoid of humor. And yet there’s one element of Spaceman that is very typical of a Sandler film, which is that Adam Sandler’s daughter, Sunny Sandler, gets a cameo.

Directed by Johan Renck and written by Colby Day—who adapted the script from the 2017 novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař—Spaceman tells the story of Jakub Procházka (Sandler), a Czech astronaut on a year-long solo mission in space to collect special space dust on the edges of the galaxy. He spends his days all alone in space, but he is in regular contact with mission control. Sometimes he even video calls in to press conferences, as he does in the scene that opens the movie.

Speaking to the Czech people, Jakub agrees to take a question from a little girl named Anna. And wouldn’t you know it, that little girl is played by none other than Sandler’s youngest daughter, 15-year-old Sunny Sandler.

“Hello, my name is Anna, I’m in sixth grade, and I read that you’re the loneliest man in the world,” the young Sandler says, in a grainy video call image. “Does it make you sad to be so far away?”

And that’s it! Jakub never sees Anna again. It’s a brief appearance, but this scene is crucial to Jakub’s character. When Jakub responds that no, he’s not lonely, he’s setting up the theme of the entire movie. Over the course of the next 100 minutes, Jakub must learn (with help from a giant spider voiced by Paul Dano) that not only is he lonely, but that his loneliness is self-inflicted. That’s one important cameo!

Sandler has a long history of family cameos in his movies.  His wife, Jackie Sandler, has appeared in over 30 of his films. Their daughters, Sadie and Sunny Sandler, have appeared in over 20. But recently, Sunny in particular has been taking on more significant roles in her father’s films—like her heartwarming performance as the lead in You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, a delightful Jewish coming-of-age movie that released on Netflix last year.

Is it nepotism? Of course, it is! But this is one nepo baby that I’m willing to endorse. Go Sunny!