Debi Mazar Says She Regrets Turning Down ‘The Wedding Singer’ Role: “Made a Stupid Decision”

BY CARLY THOMAS

Debi Mazar is still mourning a role she passed on in the 1998 beloved rom-com The Wedding Singer.

The actress revealed during a surprise virtual appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show Friday that she turned down the opportunity to play Holly Sullivan, cousin and friend to Julia Sullivan (Drew Barrymore), in the movie also starring Adam Sandler.

“I wanted to do The Wedding Singer, and I got the part, and I was so excited because I really was such a huge fan of Adam,” Mazar recalled. “And then my agent said, you know, ‘Don’t do it, you’re not getting paid the right amount of money.’ And I was like, wait, what?”

The Empire Records actress said she ultimately passed on it “only because my agent told me, ‘Just, just hang on, don’t do it.’” Christine Taylor, who was also a guest on Barrymore’s show Friday, ended up playing the character.

“I regret it to this day,” Mazar added. “I apologized to Adam Sandler, I said, ‘Oh my God, I was so young. My agent told me the wrong information.’ I ended up firing my agent after that, obviously. And so I’m happy for you [Taylor]. To this day I have such regret, because I so wanted to do that movie, and I just was young and made a stupid decision.”

The Wedding Singer, directed by Frank Coraci, follows a wedding singer, Robbie (Sandler), in 1985, who falls in love with a waitress, Julia, and must win her over before she gets married.