Adam Sandler Felt ‘Invisible’ Going to NBA Game with George Clooney During ‘ER’ Fame

Adam Sandler is looking back at the time when he was first getting to know his pal George Clooney — and realized he was rubbing elbows with the man of the moment.

In an interview with The New York Times to promote their new film, Jay Kelly, Sandler and Clooney — who were joined by director Noah Baumbach — reminisced about meeting on the set of Saturday Night Live in 1995 and then stepping out to an NBA game together.

For Sandler, 59, it was a humbling experience. “It was at the height of ER, and I went to a Knicks game with George. I remember feeling as invisible as I’ve ever felt. I thought I was becoming a star, and I was like, ‘Oh, not a soul’s looking at me,’ ” the comedian recalled.

“Every woman in the place was looking at him, every guy’s going, ‘Man, I wish I was that guy,’ ” Sandler added.

Clooney’s role as the hunky Dr. Doug Ross in the medical drama catapulted him to stardom — and solidified his Hollywood heartthrob status. He would go on to launch a prolific film career.

“That was really fun,” Clooney, 64, said of the basketball outing with Sandler. “We’ve always kept in touch, but never found a project. Then Noah called.”

Elsewhere during the conversation, the two actors reflected on fame, sharing their impressions of what they thought it would be like before they achieved it.

“I’d seen it from the point of view of my aunt [singer Rosemary Clooney]. She was a big star in Hollywood in the ’50s, then pop music changed, and she was out of business. She didn’t handle it well and lost about 30 years on drugs and booze, being pretty angry at life,” Clooney told the Times.

“So I got to see fame from the when-it-doesn’t-work-out side,” he continued, adding, “It’s a great lesson because you understand how little it has to do with you and that there is no success at all without massive amounts of failure.”

For his part, Sandler remembered going to audition after audition and never getting hired.

“But it didn’t ever get in my way,” the Murder Mystery star insisted. “Because I was young and I just was like, ‘All right, keep going. Go, go, go, until it happens.’ ”

In Jay Kelly, Clooney plays the titular character, a famous movie star who, together with his “devoted” manager Ron (Sandler), sets off on “a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey through Europe,” per a synopsis.

“Along the way, both men are forced to confront the choices they’ve made, the relationships with their loved ones, and the legacies they’ll leave behind,” the synopsis continues.

Chatting with PEOPLE at the movie’s Los Angeles premiere on Oct. 23, Sandler shared that he and Clooney bonded on set and discovered they have a lot in common, including a desire to surround themselves with their friends in their work.

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“He loves his friends,” the Big Daddy actor said. “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.”

Jay Kelly is in select theaters now and will be available to stream on Netflix on Dec. 5.