HOLLYWOOD -- Rob Schneider just wants to be allowed to behave badly.

The badder the better.

That's why he came running to the set of Big Daddy when his friend Adam Sandler called.

"I love Adam because he doesn't put tight reins on his actors," explains Schneider, who starred for two seasons in TV's Men Behaving Badly.

"The idea behind the TV show was great. It was supposed to be even more outrageous offensive than Married With Children, but we had only 23 minutes and as many censors.

"They wouldn't let me behave badly. They kept toning the show down, so we finally had to call it quits."

Schneider and Sandler have been friends since they worked together on Saturday Night Live.

He starred last year as a demented football fan in Sandler's hit comedy The Waterboy.

"Adam called and said he had a role for me in Big Daddy. I read the script and called back. I told him there was no role. It was two lines. The character was a delivery man with no name and he was Chinese."

Schneider turned up on the set. His character never did get a name, but he had an ethnic change and ended up in half the movie.

"I was supposed to film for 10 days. I stayed 10 weeks.

"I'd get calls at 2 a.m. from Adam telling me he'd need me at the set in four or five hours.

"That's Adam. He works all day in front of the camera and then goes to his trailer and reworks the script at night.

"He loved what I was doing, so he did everything possible to keep bringing my character back.

"The day he ran out of ideas and I finally had to leave, he begged me to stay."

Even Schneider admits his fast-food delivery man has an accent that rivals Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace.

"When people on the set would ask me what nationality my character was, I'd tell them he was an American mutt. My great grandfather was from Eastern Russia, so that was definitely an influence."

Though he now has a major role in Big Daddy, Schneider admits he would have been happy doing a two-minute cameo as long as he could work with Sandler.

"Adam is an incredible guy. He creates a playground atmosphere for his friends, himself and ultimately his audiences. That's why he's so popular."

Where Schneider is concerned, Sandler is no fair-weather friend.

Schneider has been tossing around an idea for a movie a few years.

Called Deuce, it's the story of a timid little aquarium cleaner.

"The guy's next door neighbour is a gigolo. When the gigolo goes on holiday, he hires the tank cleaner to take care of his fish tanks.

"The little guy starts answering the stud's phone and eventually begins going out on the calls himself."

While they were filming Big Daddy, Schneider told Sandler about Deuce.

"He said if I'd write it, he'd produce it. It's his first outing as a producer. He sold the project to Disney in less than three hours and we should begin filming this fall."


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