NEW YORK -- Before we meet the grown-ups of "Grown Ups," which opened Friday (June 25), we get a peek back in time to the year 1978, when Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and their pals were pre-teens on a championship youth basketball team. They have braces and bad haircuts, rock painfully retro polyester duds with butterfly collars, and generally have you laughing at them the moment they pop up on the screen.

But just how do they choose the young actors who'll play the onscreen counterparts to these established actors? And, with Sandler as producer and co-writer, do the rest of the guys even have a say in the casting process? We put those questions to the [article id="1642313"]"Grown Ups" on the red carpet[/article], when the movie premiered earlier this week.

"You would think Adam would have asked me, but no, I got nothing," laughed co-star Rob Schneider, whose younger self sports a poof to rival Snooki's. "I think my kid is funkier looking than the other kids. But I trust him. The good thing about Adam, you know, he's got your back."

That believe-in-Sandler ethos is one the rest of the cast subscribes to as well.

"I trust Sandler," Rock told MTV News. "Sandler's Dre. I'm Snoop," the comedian said comparing the pair to the West Coast super-producer and his onetime protégé. "I don't question Dre. Dre says, 'Do it again,' you do it again. It's going to be hot."

For his part, Sandler made sure to institute a bit of a DNA upgrade when it came to choosing the actors who would play the young versions of their characters. "The kid who plays me is much handsomer than I was," he said. "And Rock's got a handsome kid too."

"They had to get a girl to play me," Rock laughed.

Co-star David Spade's young counterpart was the right gender, but not quite as striking as he was hoping for.

"I didn't pick him, but I think he's hilarious," he said. "When he comes on, people laugh. They know it's me already. He's trying to be all cool like I do. But in the beginning, I go, 'How about someone like a young Brad Pitt?' And they were like, 'No. How about a young, white Urkel?' "

Which young Hollywood actors would you have cast to play Sandler, Rock and the other male leads in "Grown Ups"? Tell us in the comments!

Check out everything we've got on "Grown Ups."

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