Sandra Bullock
The star of Speed wastes no time in revealing her superhero plan for world domination.
Don't be fooled by her sweet smile, silly sense of humour and customary cute comedies; Sandra Bullock is complicated and she's all business. Indeed, Bullock is so ardent and animated as she pitches her way through an interview, one is moved to remark upon the sheer energy she generates in a room, but one cannot get a word in edgeways.
She's a force to be reckoned with - not only was she recently named the second most bankable female star (after Julia Roberts) by industry trade The Hollywood Reporter, but Bullock seems to work around the clock - doing several films a year as well as running her own successful production company, Fortis Films.
As a producer in her own right, Bullock's get-up-and-go rivals the frenetic pace of the City That Never Sleeps, where Fortis is based. 'I love the business and the creative aspects of the business,' she says, tipping her executive hat. 'I don't know if I always want to be in front of the camera. But I love producing; I love the camaraderie, I love the adventures, I love the stress. It's sort of an investment with the next step of my career, where I want to go.'
During the last 12 months alone, Bullock has flexed her creative muscles strenuously. She has produced and starred in the psychological thriller Murder by Numbers; lent her voice as narrator to the highly anticipated Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and started shooting her next film, Two Weeks Notice (co-starring Hugh Grant) - expected early 2003.
A force of nature
Her stream of consciousness seems to mirror her frenetic pace. For instance, in case you were wondering, she's not going to don the golden armour of Wonder Woman on film. 'I just don't have the time or the capability to think that I can pull that off,' she demurs, but suggests she might entertain another superhero. 'If they make one who stretches, who's female.
'I came up with an interesting one, what did I call it? Collagen: a woman who fell into a vat of collagen as a child and now is liquid collagen. And Meryl Streep would play my sister who felt the guilt of watching me at the time that I fell into the vat. And all the women of Beverly Hills are running after me, wanting to kiss me because their lips get full. I think Meryl's on board, I don't know.'
A little levity is probably warranted after her latest film. Murder by Numbers - in which she plays a hard-as-nails detective on the trail of two bored and ingenious teenage boys who've orchestrated the perfect murder - is a dark film that takes on more than a few serious subjects, including teenage violence and battered women's syndrome. And while Numbers was unorthodox for the actress, as with everything, she went after it with gusto.
'I was looking for a psychological thriller - not an action thriller, not something that had tools to propel the story but something that was truly an unwinding of the mind, which I find far more thrilling,' says Bullock.
'I didn't think I would find one. I've been looking for years. I love the genre, and it's hard to make. It's challenging to pull off. If it's not made well it just doesn't work. Why don't I take the easier road? I don't know; it's just not thrilling to me. Because if it works, you get that much more satisfaction out of it, and when it doesn't work, you of course get slammed for it, but I love the genre.'
Future films, however, offer more standard Bullock.
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