Sandra Bullock Talks to Tim Nasson about Miss Congeniality 2
Los Angeles – It’s hard to believe, well, a few things – that Sandra Bullock is forty-one years old; that she earned only $250,000 for the movie The Net in 1995, and more than $20 million for her most recent film, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous; that she is only five feet, seven inches tall; that in 1993, yes, 12 years ago, we took notice of Sandra Bullock in not one, not two, but three movies. The first, The Thing Called Love, opposite the late River Phoenix, the second, alongside Academy Award winning actor Robert DuVall, in Wrestling Earnest Hemingway, and last but not least, right next to Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man.
Born in a Virginia suburb of Washington D.C. to a German opera singer and a voice teacher, Bullock grew up on the road with her parents and younger sister. She often performed in the children’s chorus of whatever production her mother was in. That singing talent later came in use for her role of an aspiring country singer in The Thing Called Love. The rest, as they say, is history. In her latest film, Miss Congeniality 2, FBI agent Gracie Hart, is on a quest to save Miss USA from kidnappers, and goes undercover, and in the most hilarious scene, in a drag queen bar.
Sequels can be dangerous ground and when asked about this sequel, this is what Bullock says, “Oh yeah, sequels are a disaster. But we had no intention of making this one, and then Marc Lawrence, the writer who wrote the first one, we just worked so much together and kept joking about it and we finally said, ‘What would’ve happened to Gracie if the media had caught wind of what she did? She couldn’t do what she does for a living anymore because she’s now famous. And what happens to uniqueness in people when they come into this business, this business all of the sudden wants to change you, highlight your hair, make you sort of like whatever they consider the star. And what happens to someone when their entire life as they knew it, which to her was being an undercover agent, that’s what she did, that’s who she was, was taken away? So once we came to that we didn’t think at all about the sequel. I mean, if you can take away the title and not put a two on it, it’d be great, but you know, there’s something to be said about continuing a story. Like Harrison Ford can keep telling a story and Michael Douglas can keep telling a story, but yeah, there are disaster sequels. I have been in one. But again, you know, it doesn’t always have to repeat itself. I wanted to say something especially on this subject.”
Not just an actress anymore, Bullock explains what it’s like to be hands-on with her movies, now. “Well, I think that about eight years ago is when I started producing movies and it is my career. It’s my job. It changes with every film. Just when you think that you’ve got it figured out it goes to television and it becomes a whole different animal. But I think that the one thing that I’ve learned is that to do your job well you need to delegate well. You hire the best and you allow them to do the job and you provide them with what they need. As long as everyone’s goal is to make a good film, and as long as the story is the same because you can’t have two different people making two different kinds of films, you have to make sure everyone is making the same film. And then you just provide the crew and all the artisans with what they need.” Bullock fought the studio against having a love interest in this sequel.
Remember it was Benjamin Bratt in the original. “It was not so much fought as that the continuation of the story is that it was never a romantic comedy in the first place. It just happened to have that story, but my goal for it was that I wanted women to be able to do the same thing that men get to do in comedies. They say, “That’s a comedy.” Why does it always have to be a romantic comedy? Why do woman always have to have that? There’s a lot of love in this. There’s a lot about what one does when everything you relied on is taken away and if your heart gets broken how do you get it back. It happens to everyone in life. But my love interest was Regina [King]. It’s a great love story there and it’s about having to face who I was and what I’m not anymore and she has to learn to soften up some of her edges and she’s got her journey. I wanted an equal partner in this film to carry this film with me and tell the story. In order to tell that story x, y, and z needed to be in place.” (Regina King is the girl who played Marla Gibbs’ teenage daughter on the hit 80s sitcom 227.)
One thing that has not changed is Sandra’s capability of remaining ‘normal’ amidst the fame and fortune. The first time I interviewed Bullock, nearly ten years ago, she was the same, giddy, non-affected, charming person that she is today. This, before she became a producer and $20 million-per-movie diva. Over the years, Bullock has revealed a lot of secrets during our interviews. For those with plans on becoming a contestant on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” and are fearing an obscure Hollywood question, here are some answers that may help you out.
“I replaced Demi Moore in While You Were Sleeping,” she says. She doesn’t go into details.
“Yes, I am allergic to horses, and found out while shooting Two If By Sea.”
“I wrote and performed my own song Heaven Knockin On My Door in The Thing Called Love.”
“I was a cheerleader in high school.”
“I am fluent in German.”
Oh, and her favorite alcoholic beverage? “I love Heineken and when in Mexico, great Tequila.”
