Adam Sandler Lookalike Reveals How ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Role Happened (Exclusive)

Ever since Max Kessler was 8 years old, he was told that he had a striking resemblance to Adam Sandler.

Growing up, the content creator, 32, wasn’t a huge movie buff — he was “more into sports,” he tells PEOPLE — but he grew up watching many of the comedian’s most iconic roles. And because of their shared likeness, Kessler says, he always dreamed of someday meeting Sandler.

In 2016, that dream became a reality.

Kessler had come across the trailer for Sandler’s film The Do-Over — and he discovered that, by complete coincidence, the comedian’s character was also named Max Kessler.

“What are the odds of that?” laughs the creator. “So I posted about it to Reddit, and it blew up,” he recalls to PEOPLE, so much so that it caught the attention of Sandler himself, who invited Kessler to attend the premiere of the movie.

The doppelganger duo met for the first time on the red carpet, and in an on-camera interview, Sandler even called Kessler the “younger, sweeter, better version of me.”

“I was super nervous because he’s one of the best — if not the best — comedians and actors of all time, and I hadn’t met the guy,” recalls Kessler. “But it was a blast. It was probably one of the best moments I’ve had.”

For the next nine years, Kessler thought that the Do-Over premiere was the end of his chapter with Sandler and flirtation with Hollywood fame. And when his friends sent him articles about how the production team behind Happy Gilmore 2 was searching for extras to fill the background shots for the sequel to Sandler’s 1996 classic, he brushed it off.

“But then I got a message that’s like, ‘Are you interested in a body double role?’ ” he continues. And Kessler was instantly sold.

He recorded his best impression of the iconic Happy Gilmore swing (“which, by the way, was atrocious when I first started,” he jokes), and the casting team invited him to their production offices. Once there, the newbie actor says, he was asked if he felt he would be able to perform a scene in front of the hundreds of people who made up the cast and crew on set.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘I don’t really know if I could do that,’ ” remembers Kessler. “But I confidently said, ‘Absolutely.’ ” 

After he scored the role of a young Happy Gilmore in the sequel, the production team enrolled him in acting and golfing lessons to make sure his chops were up to the standards of a professional film. But nothing could prepare him for his first day on set.

“If you’re not an actor, you just have no idea what anyone’s saying,” he tells PEOPLE. “I just remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe I’m standing, about to do a scene in front of all of these people.’ ”

Luckily, adds Kessler, Sandler had his back. To help Kessler work through a scene, for instance, the comedian would act it out himself while Kessler watched — and then he would give Kessler pointers on how he could better mimic his motions.

And Julie Bowen, who shared scenes with Kessler, “could probably tell at times that I was nervous and was able to carry me through some of the scenes,” he adds. “She was phenomenal.”

“I remember leaving that day and getting in the car and being like, ‘I can’t even believe I may have pulled that off,’ ” remembers Kessler.

After two weeks of filming at different golf courses, Kessler left behind the glitzy life of an actor and returned to his corporate job in New York City. But he later reunited with the cast and crew for a screening of the finished film at the Paris Theater, which he says was one of the most surreal moments of the entire experience.

“I was shaking,” he recounts. “You film all of these scenes, and you don’t know what’s going to make it and not going to make it.”

And the next night, the celebrations continued as he went back to his hometown in Massachusetts, where his “super excited” parents hosted a screening for his family and friends.

Now that Happy Gilmore 2 is out in the world, Kessler says he’s “open to” more acting gigs — but also reiterates that he’s just a “normal person” and “taking opportunities as they come.” He’s also interested in continuing to grow his social media presence, where he’s already notched close to 200,000 followers, eventually “breaking out” of the niche of being “Adam Sandler’s mini me.”

But in the meantime, he’s just relishing in a once-in-a-lifetime experience that was nearly a decade in the making.

“Seeing yourself in the credits, you’re just like, ‘Wow,’ ” Kessler concludes. “This is just bonkers.”