SANDRA BULLOCK
nyone who’s met
Sandra Bullock will
tell you she is very
A lovely indeed. She
has all the qualities
required to be America’s Sweetheart
(girl-next-door looks, scandal-free
private life) but combines them with
a charming kook factor.
Together, they make Bullock, 45,
one of Hollywood’s most popular and
most bankable stars, commanding
up to $10m a movie. Fifteen years
after being propelled into the fast
lane by the hugely successful 1994
action flick Speed, her films –
including While You Were Sleeping
and Miss Congeniality – have since
grossed more than $2.5bn worldwide.
Her longevity is perhaps down to
the canny way she deals with her
celebrity. Rejecting narcissism in
favour of self-mockery, she’s not so
much ‘look at me’, as ‘there’s nothing to
see here’. Characteristically charming,
in an interview earlier this year she was
asked about her red-carpet style,
to which she replied: “People see
me and say, ‘Oh, bless her heart.
They stuck her in a dress and she
just can’t seem to pull it off.” And
it’s very appealing. She hates talking
about her various donations to
charity – in May she was honoured
for helping to rebuild a school in
New Orleans after Hurricane
Katrina – because she doesn’t want
to be seen to do things for publicity.
When Stylist meets her in the
Four Seasons Hotel, Beverly Hills,
she’s wearing a flattering wrap-around
belted dress. Proving that, despite her
claims, she does glam very well. But
Sandra isn’t entirely at home in such
glitzy surroundings: home for her is
Austin, Texas, with her husband Jesse
James, 40 – the motorcycle chain CEO
and TV show host she wed in 2005
– where they zip around on dirt bikes.
Indeed, once asked about how she
manages to have a successful
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relationship in Hollywood, she replied:
“Don’t talk about it. Don’t go on a talk
show with it. Don’t have a relationship
‘in Hollywood’.” It is something that
Bullock has pulled off admirably, even
throughout the current custody battle
between James and his ex-wife over
daughter Sunny, 5, the youngest of
Bullock’s three stepchildren.
Happily, though, she is happy to talk
about getting naked, Ryan Reynolds
and the delicious appeal of playing an
on-screen bitch.
You’ve done a few romantic
comedies in your career…
I stopped them six or seven years
ago. I just stopped. They’re terrible.
They’re bad. They’re not funny, and
they shouldn’t be called romantic
comedies because most of the
time they’re not romantic. And they
don’t generally write well for women
in romantic comedies. I love my
comedy too much… It wasn’t being
done in the way that I loved and
could do it. It made me sad because
I felt like it wasn’t appreciated and
no one was writing it, so I decided
to abandon it.
The Proposal is out on DVD this
month. What made you want to do
the film?
I don’t call this a romantic comedy.
I call it a motion picture. It reminds
me of the films from the Thirties and
Forties, where there was a landscape
and a story, and drama was allowed
to be in there. You can’t have good
comedy without drama in it.
Or a nude scene, if The Proposal’s
anything to go by… May we say, you
looked fantastic.
Thank you for that. Sadly, my first
and last nude scene got laughs. I had
to be very secure with that. When I
read it on the page, I realised, “OK,
there’s no way to shoot this unless
you’re buck naked,” so I decided to
go to the gym and cut out the carbs.
If it turned out funny, though, it was
worth it. But shooting it was odd.
There are things stuck to you where
you generally don’t have things stuck.
Then you’d get unstuck and, oddly,
not care because you’re so tired.
Anne Fletcher [director of The
Proposal and also 27 Dresses with
Katherine Heigl] was like, “Your
vagina is hanging out. Cover it up,”
and I’d go: “Sorry, sorry!”
“Being nice is
Sandra Bullock on bad rom-coms and the joys of embracing her inner bitch
WORDS: SARAH MAY PHOTOGRAPHY: SANTE D’ORAZIO
BULLOCK STARS WITH GOOD
FRIEND RYAN REYNOLDS
IN THE PROPOSAL
We also noticed you got touched up
by Be�y White [of The Golden Girls]
and had comedian Oscar Nunez
shake his goodies at you…
When you put it that way, it makes
me think, “God, we shot a soft porn”.
Let me just say that Betty White
feeling me up was the best second
base I’ve ever had. She was tender
but firm. She found [my breasts]
instantly, which is not easy. She was
cupping, gentle and loving. I felt
satisfied afterwards.
You knew Ryan Reynolds prior to
making this film. What did you learn
in working together?
When they said Ryan was going to do
it, I said: “That’s the only person that
I could do this with”. I was slightly
worried that the familiarity would
be a little weird [the pair have been
friends for over nine years], but for me,
everything is musical in my life. Timing
is a rhythm. It’s like music. You need to
have the ability to figure out people’s
rhythms, and it all starts from the
script. With this film I get to have that
moment of timing in comedy, that’s why
I wanted to step back into it. I felt bad
that I had abandoned something that
I guess I was naturally given. I really am
thankful that I got to do it the right way
with people who taught me how to do
it better. I had to raise the bar.
You’re such a likeable person. How did
you put that energy into this bitchy
character? [In The Proposal, Bullock
plays boss-from-hell Margaret Tate]
I’m a good actress. That’s why you
know me as likeable. I am a horrible,
evil bitch but I’m a good actress and
I can act like a really sweet person.
[laughs] No. Everyone has it in them.
Having to be nice all the time is
exhausting and boring, but to play
someone who just has that under-layer
of unhappiness, you know that it
comes from someplace. There’s a crack
in the veneer. For three months, I got
to be a bitch and, when people asked,
BORING”
“Why are you being that way?” I said,
“It’s my character. I’m in character. I
don’t have to apologise for being this
way. I’m a bitch because I’m working
as a bitch.” It was pure heaven. I loved
it. We all have it in us. People who
do comedy really are the nastiest
people on the planet.
Would you do another romantic
comedy now?
I haven’t the slightest idea. I’m the
queen of planning and scheduling,
and I’m trying to stop it. I just want
to finish what I’m doing and go
home. I want to have a weekend.
I want to have a stack of pancakes
for breakfast. I don’t want to not
enjoy where I am, at this very moment.
Every time I plan something, the
opposite happens. I hope that I’m
always satisfied and content, like
I am at this very moment, but I
have no idea.
The Proposal is out on DVD on 30 Nov
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