Julie Bowen thought she was going to be replaced with a younger woman in Happy Gilmore 2.
Believe it or not, actress Julie Bowen says she was surprised when she was asked to return for Happy Gilmore 2. She mistakenly assumed that she would be replaced by a younger actress.
The only explanation as to how the 55-year-old would have come up with that is that she forgot how important her role as Virginia Venit was to the first movie.
Bowen is a huge part of Happy Gilmore’s happy place. You don’t go from one movie to another and kick the actress who brought Virginia Venit to life to the curb.
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Not to mention that that’s not how Adam Sandler rolls. If you’re in one of his movies, you have a good chance of appearing in another one, especially as one of the main characters.
Julie Bowen attends NETFLIX TUDUM 2025: THE LIVE EVENT at The Kia Forum in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Netflix)
Even with that, Bowen let those thoughts creep in. She revealed during an interview on the Inside of You podcast that she thought she was going to be replaced in the sequel.
“I didn’t think they’d bring me back at all,” she said, reports Variety. “I mean, who am I supposed to be? He’s got to have a younger woman in this one, ‘Happy Gilmore 2.'”
Julie Bowen obviously didn’t realize how big of a role she played in the first Happy Gilmore movie
Who is she supposed to be? She’s supposed to be Virginia Venit, the love interest of Happy Gilmore, that’s who. And that’s who she’ll be when Happy Gilmore 2 hits Netflix on July 25.
This isn’t the first time she’s doubted that she’d be cast as Sandler’s love interest. In the first movie, she thought the part would go to a “hot girl.”
“I read and they were relieved,” she said. “They were visibly relieved. I go, ‘What’s going on?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, some of these girls are just so aggressively sexy.’ And I was like, ‘That’s a bad thing?'”
They made the right choice the first time around and again with the sequel. Are they going to add the likes of Paige Spiranac and others in part two?
Yes, but they’re not playing or replacing the role of Virginia Venit. There’s only one actress for that role and it’s Julie Bowen. She was too important to the first movie.
I’m not even a golf guy and I know that.
