'Hustle' director says Adam Sandler and Queen Latifah shined as an interracial couple in the movie: 'They looked like a real couple'

• Director Jeremiah Zagar spoke about the importance of casting Queen Latifah as Adam Sandler's onscreen wife.
• Zagar said Sandler knows Latifah so he called her personally to be in the basketball drama.

Though Netflix's latest Adam Sandler movie "Hustle" showcases the actor's obsession with basketball as he plays an NBA scout who believes he's found the next great player overseas, it also features a rare casting relationship in Hollywood.

In "Hustle," set against the diverse landscape of Philadelphia, Oscar nominee Queen Latifah plays Sandler's onscreen wife in the movie, who is the rock Sandler's Stanley leans on as he makes the difficult decision to alter his career to help an unknown basketball player he believes deserves a shot at the NBA.

"Hustle" director Jeremiah Zagar said Queen Latifah's casting couldn't have been more perfect.

"Adam and Queen are friends and for me, it was wonderful having a mixed couple," the Philadelphia-based filmmaker told Insider. "I'm in a mixed couple relationship. And Philly it's a very Black, Jewish, Italian city so to see that combination was cool to me."

"When Adam suggested Queen we were thrilled," Zagar added, noting that he felt that not only would their talents as actors shine but they just looked right together.

"They looked like a real couple," he said. "That comes from years of friendship and they are these movie stars that aren't the perfect Hollywood archetype. There's something more. They have that every person quality."

Previously, over the decades-worth of Sandler movies, he's starred opposite the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Salma Hayek, Winona Ryder, Marisa Tomei, and Kate Beckinsale.

"Hustle," now on Netflix, also stars Robert Duvall, Ben Foster, and an amazing collection of current and former NBA stars, including Allen Iverson, Trae Young, Doc Rivers, Julius Erving, Anthony Edwards, and Juancho Hernangómez, who plays Bo Cruz, the phenom Sandler's Stanley character discovers.