Allison Strong from 'The Week Of' is a real Jersey Girl

Imagine Adam Sandler and Chris Rock as inlaws.

That's what Allison Strong, who plays Sandler's daughter Sarah in the new Netflix movie "The Week Of" is dealing with. Allison, whose mother is Columbian and who comes from my hometown of Union City, has performed on Broadway in "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Mamma Mia". We talked about her roots as well as the movie when she came on the show Wednesday night.

"I grew up around 'Veronica's Veil,'" which Strong saw once when she was really little, she told me. "I remember being so scared when I went in there."

It was in Union City where she learned English.

"We went to a 'Toys R Us' and a woman asked me questions that I didn't know, so I had to learn," she said.

From that point on, her mother only spoke to her in English. When she got to high school, she threw herself into an English as a Second Language program.

We also talked about how great the food is in Union City: "The best food ever. My family came to the right place. I love walking down Bergenline Avenue. You can get every food from all over the world on Bergenline Avenue."

I asked her what it is like working with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock.

"It was such a joy. When I auditioned I thought. 'What are the odds?' but I didn't have a problem imagining him as my father because I grew up watching Adam Sandler movies."

Strong got the job after only two auditions. She said "it was easier than a Broadway audition."

In the film they have a close relationship.

Allison told us a little about the movie: "It's about a father trying to pay for his oldest daughter's wedding and they love each other so much so the daughter excepts all the antics that he basically performs trying to cut corners and he just wants so badly to pay for it all without Chris Rock's help."

Allison's a big fan of Sandler. "From day one you look into Adam's eyes, he's so genuine, so sincere, that you basically fall in love with him." As for Chris Rock, she said, "They're old buddies and they're always testing out material." She once saw Rock in a movie theatre in Edgewater but was too shy to ask him for a picture. "Now he's playing my father in law and I finally got that picture," she said while laughing. The film is directed by Robert Smigel, another Jersey guy who created "Triumph the Comedy Insult dog" on Conan O' Brien and wrote for Sandler in "Saturday Night Live." The father character Sandler plays is based on both their fathers.

Another actor Allison got to work with on "The Blacklist" was James Spader. She said, "I was actually a fiancee in a mafia wedding. James Spader is so cool, so professional, he would drop a line and keep on going and he was drinking wine all the time- how cool is he?" I said he's got what they say is sex appeal to which she responded, "He definitely has it. It's never going away."

The Week Of premiers Friday, April 27 on Netflix.

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