Adam Sandler ‘Absolutely’ Has a Lot in Common with George Clooney (Exclusive)

Adam Sandler feels that he and George Clooney have quite a bit in common.

At the Los Angeles premiere of Sandler and Clooney’s new movie Jay Kelly during the American Film Institute (AFI) Festival on Thursday, Oct. 23, Sandler, 59, tells PEOPLE that he and Clooney, 64, are “absolutely” cut from the same cloth because they surround themselves with their friends in their work.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes. He loves his friends,” Sandler says. “We are good friends now, George and I. I love him. I really enjoyed my time doing everything, exercising, running around, playing hoop, throwing the baseball, throwing rocks, talking, hearing his stories about being a kid. It’s a very similar kind of upbringing in the fact that our buddies were important to us.”

Clooney and Sandler portray a fictional famous movie star and his manager who take a trip through Europe in their new movie, written and directed by Marriage Story’s Noah Baumbach. 

While Jay Kelly marks the first time Sandler and Clooney have acted together in a movie, Sandler tells PEOPLE that they met for the first time when Sandler was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s. “We went to a Knicks game together with Lorne Michaels, and I just thought he was a really funny, good man,” he says.

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When PEOPLE asked Sandler whether he or Clooney is better at basketball — a sport both men are known for playing in their spare time — Sandler adds, “I can’t say. We never did that, but he’s a tough bastard. I wouldn’t want to have to do it.”

Clooney himself sounded off on his friendship with Sandler when he caught up with PEOPLE at the movie’s New York Film Festival premiere on Sept. 29. 

“I actually [have] been making Adam wear suits. Don’t you think he looks nicer instead of those big baggy shorts?” Clooney said on the red carpet. “I love him. He’s the sweetest man in the world. He’s a dear friend and the fact that I got to work with him again is [great].”

Jay Kelly, which made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 28, also stars Laura Dern and Billy Crudup. When Clooney’s title character and Sandler’s manager character, named Ron, take off “on a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey through Europe,” as a synopsis reads, “both men are forced to confront the choices they’ve made, the relationships with their loved ones, and the legacies they’ll leave behind.”

Jay Kelly is in select theaters Nov. 14 and begins streaming on Netflix Dec. 5.