Julie Bowen almost let Sydney Sweeney take her 'Happy Gilmore 2' role

Julie Bowen was genuinely shocked to learn she’d been cast in Happy Gilmore 2 after she’d already accepted the rumors and braced herself for Sydney Sweeney to take over her role.

Nearly three decades after playing Virginia Venit, the pro golf tour PR director and Adam Sandler’s on-screen love interest, Bowen, 55, assumed she wouldn’t be asked back for the sequel.

"I thought, 'Well, I won’t be in it. And that was OK — it was like Virginia Venit, it’s been 30 years, he’s got a hottie. He’s got some little bitty on the side, like a cart girl," she told The Hollywood Reporter, sharing her assumptions about Sandler’s character, Happy.

To make things more bittersweet, the Modern Family alum also heard the buzz that the Euphoria star might be stepping into her shoes.

"Before I was even told officially that there was a Happy Gilmore sequel, my now 18-year-old said, 'Mom, I hear they’re doing a sequel, and he’s with Sydney Sweeney as a cart girl,'" she recalled.

At first, the Lost actress believed the rumour and thought it wasn’t true, she joked that she respected the move, even if it stung a little. "I’m hurt, but I so respect that move. Of course, why wouldn’t you?"

"So when I got the call that I was actually in it, I was like, 'Are you sure? Come on,'" Bowen recounted, expressing shock at being invited back.

Notably, the official trailer for Happy Gilmore 2 was released at Netflix’s Tudum event on Saturday, May 31, sending fans into a frenzy.