Detour Magazine (February 96)

When Detour first asked me if I wanted to interview actress Sandra Bullock, my response was something along the lines of, "Sure, who's Sandra Bullock?" Of course, that was three years ago.It was January of 1993, and Bullock was doing her first-ever magazine interviews to promote three films you probably didn't see- The Vanishing, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, and The Thing Called Love. We met in the pouring rain at a coffee house on Beverly Boulevard in L.A. The adjectives that Hollywood types throw around to describe her- and are currently trying to clone; easygoing, accessible, girl-next-door, et al- were pretty hard to miss, even under a baggy sweater and blue jeans. But what I found most refreshing about her was her ability to make fun of herself. It's not everyday you meet an actor who will cop to repeated viewings of Xanadu, describe her sole foray into on-screen sex as looking like a game of Twister, and marvel with embarrassment that her publicist was able to cobble together a four-page bio out of a handful of little-seen films and a failed TV series.Today, Sandra Bullock's bio is still four pages, it's just packed a lot tighter. Not long after we met, she was cast opposite Sylvester Stallone in the futuristic shoot-em-up/Taco Bell tie-in, Demolition Man. Next came Speed, the film that not only bumped Bullock up to the A-list, but proved that she can wear one outfit for an entire movie and still keep us rooting for her. Nineteen-ninety-five gave the actress the chance to prove she could open a movie on her own. So she did, twice. While You Were Sleeping was the year's warmest and fuzziest hit and The Net, well, it gave her a chance to show off those mouse skills.Bullock is admittedly taking a step back in '96, starring with Denis Leary in the "edgy, offbeat, small film" Two If By Sea. Later in the year, she'll turn up in a supporting role in Joel Schumacher's star-studded adaptation of the John Grisham novel, A Time To Kill.I've flown to Jackson, Mississippi, where A Time To Kill is shooting, to interview the actress.

Just before I left L.A., it was announced that Bullock was going to earn over $10 million to star in Ghandi and Chaplin director Richard Attenborough's In Love and War. In three short years, she's gone from the girl nobody could quite place to the girl everybody wants a piece of. As I wait for her to arrive, I'm wondering whether Sandra Bullock, with all that's happened, can still get a kick out of things like Xanadu and the Osmonds CD I brought along as an ice-breaker, or whether her head will be swollen beyond the dimensions of my $50-a-night-hotel-room door. Can the $10 million girl still laugh at herself? I'm about to find out.

I brought you an Osmonds CD. Twenty-five hits on one disc.
Look, it's all teeth.
Don't sweat it. I got it for free.
Free is the best. Anything free is good.
You must get tons of stuff for free.
Every time I say I like something, it shows up. Once I said that I like the Principal Secret, from Victoria Principal's infomercial. A month later, the entire kit was on my doorstep.
Do you suppose she dropped it off herself?
She might have, but she would probably have wanted to come in and give me a facial. Look how I'm dressed. Take you back anywhere? The first interview we ever had, I wore the same exact thing. I couldn't find the original sweater, but this was close, and the jeans.
I'm so touched. I hope you've washed them. So tell me about your new movie, Two If By Sea.
I just saw it, and I was shocked. I don't know whether I was pleased or embarrassed, but I totally veered away from what is comfortable to me. I play a cashier from New Jersey who's been in a relationship for seven years, and wants more. Her boyfriend, Denis Leary, is a no-good art thief, and she's going on this last job to make sure he doesn't screw it up. I really wanted to go into uncharted waters and do things that no one would expect me to do- probably no one would want to see me do- but let's see what happens.
Then there's A Time To Kill. You play a supporting role, right?
Yeah. It was a good lesson for me in how to listen rather than having the luxury of the joke or the pratfall, which is easy for me to do.
Who do you play?
Ellen Rourke. She's really smart and edgy and very sexual. She can hang with the boys, pat them on the butt, that type of thing.
Do you do a little butt patting?
I do a little butt watching. I look at Matthew McConaughey's naked butt.
He's a newcomer. How's the tush?
What's funny is I couldn't bring myself to look at it. I just saw the side as I lifted up the shirt, but then I walked on, but he's really fit. Baby got back. He's really going to take off after this. It's nice to be in a film where everybody's better than me: Samuel Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Brenda Fricker, Oliver Platt, both Sutherlands, Charles Dutton. The list goes on and on. This film also has a great message in it. I think for once, in a long time, we're putting out a film that addresses issues that are on everyone's minds. This film is about black and white, it's about justice and it's about family. We're in this small town of Canton, Mississippi, and the film has brought together people who could have lived right next door to each other and have never spoken because it was a black/white issue. To see these people coming together and relating, you just want to cry.
What do you remember observing about the way different races related when you were growing up?
I wasn't raised thinking somebody was black or white. My best friend in school was black and it didn't register until five years ago that there should have been an issue there, and it never was. He's just the best friend I've ever had.
Since this is a Joel Schumacher film, you know you're going to look incredible.
This is the first time anybody has taken a great deal of concern in how I look. I went through a 100 pairs of jeans to find the perfect ones.You have to maximize that butt.As Joel says, "We want it to look like an apple." He's so great. Every idiosyncrasy that a person has, he loves.
Like?
Like putting my sexuality on my sleeve. In other films, there's nothing like a big old sweater or your hair in your face to make me feel okay. In this, I wear tight jeans, tank tops, bare arms. He took away every crutch I had.
Then next year you're going to film Sir Richard Attenborough's In Love and War. How did that come about?
He watched my work and said, "This is something that somebody needs to pull out of her," and I love that, because I've done all my tricks. I'm tired of myself. I don't want anybody to say, "You do what you're good at." I want somebody to say, "You are going to do this."
Is he going to be your first Sir?
He's a Lord. He was upgraded.
You're going to play the nurse who has a love affair with Ernest Hemingway, played by Chris O'Donnell. Any chance you can get him to do a scene in the Robin costume just for kicks?
Joel had a funny story about that. He truly believes that Chris paid off the costume department, because his....um....Codpiece?....was so much more, shall we say, powerful than the Batman one. That's something I didn't notice, oddly enough, when I saw it.You were too mesmerized by that Bat-butt.Joel said they didn't want to put that close-up in there, but when I saw it, I screamed. I was on a plane and I was like, "Aaaah!"
I read where Attenborough said that this will be the first time you get to play your own age. What do you think about that?
It's good. I've done the happy-go-lucky goofball, which I am to a degree, but there's a whole other side of just being a woman.
I've read that you're getting over $10 million for this film. Do you find it odd that your salary is printed in the newspaper?
I find it hysterical. When I decide to do a film I tell the business people not to tell me what the money is. Period. I say, "Come back at the end and tell me what you guys have worked out." It just happens to be right now that that is such a statement for not only where you are in your career, but it seems to be something that people take a great interest in in representing women and saying, "It's about time." That's a nice quality of the money. The other great quality is that I immediately hand it over to my father and say, "You're in charge of this." You can secure your family for the rest of their lives. I don't think twice about saying, "I'm taking my best friends to Hawaii."
Is it hard to trust the new people you meet?
I trust everyone until they give me a reason not to. I'm still very cautious. I don't get my diary and go, "Here.""Here are some x-rays I've just had done.""See how my prostate's looking this week." That's the hardest thing about this. You're still doing the same things, your friends are doing the same things, but the people around you sort of do different things. You find out about people's intentions pretty quickly.
What qualities can you not deal with?
I can't deal with people who taint all the goodness around them to make the goodness feel as rotten as they do- because I was there. Two years ago, I was the victim: "Nothing works for me, everyone is against me." Then you look at yourself and go, "I'm the problem." It's so simple what I like: people who know what they want out of life- whether they want to be a shoelace maker, I don't care, just have passion, and I'll go along with you.
I understand you've started your own production company. What's it called?
Fortis Films. It means strength and perseverance in Latin. I'd given this woman I work with a ring to years ago that said "Fortis" because she was going through hard times, and that day I was trying to figure out the company name, she goes "What about this?" (flips the bird) and I was like, "That's it."
I hear you're producing short films.
Yeah. We made a 20-minute one called The Mailman, and it got into Sundance. The next ones called Making Sandwhiches, about a couple who run a sandwhich shop. This is something that I wrote and I can't wait to make it.
You know you've made it when Barbara Walters wants to hang with you. Late last year, Sandra Bullock welcomed Walters to her rented Mississippi home for a heart to heart and some trout fishing. Aside from discussing Bullock's break-up with Tate Donovan, the most dishy tidbit Walters seved up was that the actress had lied about her age. Ironically, Bullock's mystery age was something she had laughed about with me three years ago.
"I lied and said I was older to get the part in Love Potion No. 9," she told me. After a while, you have no idea how old you are because you've lied so many times. I always said I would never lie, but once, when I didn't, it worked against me. I figure, keep them guessing." These days Bullock says she's the big 3-0, and fine with it.
What's it like talking to Barbara Walters?
I couldn't believe I was talking to her. It's like, "What am I going to cry about? I have nothing to cry about."
Do you worry about being overexposed?
Absolutely. I need to lay low for a while. People are going to get sick of me. The bummer about it is in order to lay low, you have to stop working, and I don't want to do that.
Are there things you can't do anymore given your high profile?
I can't pick my nose in the car. I can't leave the house looking too much like a scum queen. I love dancing, and that's hard, because whoever's with me gets pegged as the new husband.
If you could be anonymous for one day.....
I'd go in my backyard in my underwear and know nobody gave a crap, not going, "There's somebody watching me."
Do you feel that people are watching you?
I know people are watching. My neighbors watch. They sold out this wedding that I had for my friends Mark and Joel. The entire press corps was there videotaping. I felt bad because it was such a beautiful ceremony. I did a reading from Dr. Seuss's Oh, the places you will go, and then added my own rhyme to say how I felt, and everyone was watching me saying, "She's going down, she's going down."
Meaning, "She's going to start crying"?
Yeah, which I did. They said no one could understand tha last two sentences.
All of a sudden subtitles appear in front of you.
Exactly. So I hope my friends didn't feel like it was ruined by the press. What was great about it is that it sent out a really good message.
What's the worst thing you've ever read about yourself?
The ex-girlfriend of somone I was seeing sold a story and said that he had said that I wouldn't make a good mother, and that I was a phony and that I made him cringe. Out of all the things that were said- that apparently there was an affair going on- I could have cared less. It was that somebody had said that I wouldn't make a good mother- and that's something that I always knew I would be great at. It really hurt my feelings that someone could lie and say that, and I knew it was a lie because something like that would never have come out of this person's mouth. It just shocked me so much that somebody could rock me to the very thing that means the most to me, and I've never even met the person. The things that have happened to me this year bring out some ugly qualities in people that I can't possibly understand, but I'm a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it's bad or good.
I just saw David Schwimmer's high school production of Anything Goes on Extra. Has any old stuff of yours started popping up?
Apparently, my Jurassic Park audition is showing up. I've got a lot of bad work out there, but if it wasn't for that work I wouldn't be sitting here. I wouldn't have known how to hit my mark or find my light. I'd be sitting in the dark 50 feet off my mark.
Sometimes when you see people reach a certain level of fame you see them do something insane, and you wonder if they have anyone around them who will be blatantly honest.
I think I have a good group of people around me. My parents and my sister are brutally honest. I've made mistakes, and I know why I made them, but I made that choice. Nobody's ever made a choice for me. I was lucky, because it happened to me later. If I had been 18, it would have destroyed me. I was immature. I'm still immature, but now I know what kind of immature I am, and I can snap out of that and be an adult when I have to be.
Speaking of mature, we've never discussed your cheerleading career. What was your specialty?
Back handsprings and aerials. I basically became a cheerleader so I could see my boyfriend, because I had a very strict mom. That was my way of being a bad girl."Mom, if you don't let me see him, I'm going to cheer and cheer and cheer."Which was the worst thing, because my dad was a voice teacher and I was going to ruin my voice, so I had to learn to cheer from the diaphram. I sounded like a truck driver.
What was your favorite cheer?
"First and Ten, Do It Again" because I had no idea what first and ten was, and I didn't have the balls to ask.
Why haven't we seen your acrobatic ability in a movie? I mean, would it have killed you to do a cartwheel in While You Were Sleeping?
I'll try to do one into the Attenborough film. All of a sudden in the hospital..."Nurse, can you get that I.V?"...and I'll do a flip and then act as though nothing happened.
What's something that you became a celebrity too late to enjoy that you would have loved, like doing The Muppet Show, for example?
They're doing The Muppet Show again! I'm going on it! I love The Muppet Show.
Well, there's your cartwheel.
You might be right, but the stage is so small.
What's something you have been offered that you would love to do, but it would
probably be a tacky career move?
I got a call to host "The Face of the 90's " pageant. I wanted to do it just for the cheese factor, just to see how panicked the girls were backstage, because I was a contestant in the Tobacco Queen Festival, don't you know.
No, I didn't know. I can't believe you've been holding that back.
I needed money for school. This drag queen from school put me in a Bob Mackie gown, piled my hair up and taught me how to walk. He was going, "Stop clunking!" Of course, the tobacco-company owner's daughter won, but I did a spicy little jazz number for my talent. That's what's going to show up on video.

The next morning, Bullock picks me up for breakfast, and as she barrels onto the highway in her black jeep, it dawns on me that I'm riding shotgun with one of the most dexterous drivers in screen history. I'm reminded of something she told me back in '93. When I asked if she read her own reviews she said, "My first review for the TV movie The Bionic Showdown said I was 'as interesting as a bus ride.' " Perhaps Speed was her way of saying to that particular critic, "I've got your interesting bus ride right here."
Did Speed make you a more aggressive driver?
I've always been an aggressive driver.
Is there going to be a sequel?
There's talk. If they can't come up with something as thrilling and clever as the first one, there's no sense in it. Jan De Bont, Keanu, and I- even contractually- are saying we won't do it without the others.
I think for the sequel, you and Keanu should have to clean up the mess you made.
That's hysterical. We're in the orange suits. I'll bring that up at the next meeting.
Is Disney doing an Oscar campaign in the trade papers for you for While You Were Sleeping?
Well, they called and said, "We'd like to do this," and I said, "Have a great time, but know that I'm not saying this is what I want at all."
You're not like, "Don't use that picture of me- use this one."
Exactly. Oscars are supposed to be given once you have a large body of work, and you're like 60.
What's been your most glamourous night?
The most unbelievable night I've ever had was coupled up with one of the most stressful. The Net premiere was the same night as my birthday. The first mistake of the night we call the Pink Walrus Episode, because I put on some weight doing Two If By Sea, and then I poured myself into a pink Calvin Klein dress that was so tight I was buldging from every seam. Then, after the premiere, I had friends meeting me for dinner, and I get there and my girlfriend Shannon had completely taken over and decorated, and everybody was there. I didn't expect it. Then you hear this chanting from the next room, and I walk in and there in front of me is Melissa Ethridge wailing this blues rendition of "Happy Birthday, Sandy" that would stop your heart. I couldn't stop smiling. Here I was, the big beaming pink walrus with the big cake, with candles illuminating my shining pinkness, and it was the greatest, greatest, greatest night of my life because I was the belle of the ball. I was the queen for a minute. I get goose bumps thinking about it.

In August of 1995, Sandra Bullock was on the cover of People magazine with the headline "Hot! Hot! Hot!" Three years ago, Sandra told me how excited her family was when she appeared in a tiny picture in the back of a magazine. "I haven't been able to warrant a cover," she said in mock disgust back in '93. When I suggested reavealing a traumatic experience from childhhood might improve her chances, she claimed she didn't have one, "except for the sixth grade boyfriend who dumped me for the girl with bigger breasts."
In While You Were Sleeping, did you make up that line where you say you have a flat chest, just like your father?
Well, I've been making it up since I developed. Jon Turteltaub knew I joked about it, and it was his idea to incorporate it. Now I get letters from people saying, "Don't worry about your breasts. I like your breasts. They're perfect." Every tenth letter I open up is about my breasts. I'm the poster child for breasts, but I feel really good in my body. That's something that I had to teach myself, to become really comfortable in my own skin.
If you could slip into a man's skin for one day, what would you like to experience?
I'd like to see me from the male point of view, because I always fear that's it's hard for a guy to be with me. I'm probably every guy's worst nightmare, because I will not listen. Would I look at me and go, "Oh, she's a hot little number," or "she'd be a great sister to have?"
How did you learn the facts of life?
My mom gave me a book called Where I Came From. I could have ended up being a really wild child. I loved boys and kissing since I was a baby, but I always knew that I would never dabble in the cesspool until a certain time.
What's something unconventional that you find really sexy in a man?
There's something sexy about a gut, not a 400-pound beer gut, but a little paunch. I love that because it makes it okay for me to have one.

We arrive at the Cracker Barrel, one of Jackson's down-homiest breakfast spots, and once we're seated, a couple at the next table ask Sandra for an autograph. The three of them talk for a few minutes- about what, I have no idea, because I don't speak German. It is one of the few times of late, Sandra tells me, that she's gotten to use the language she learned from her opera-singer mother, and put to good use while travelling around Europe with her as a child.
Have you invested in an autograph stamp?
Nope, I don't want a stamp. If it takes me three years to sign them, I'll take three years.
Were you ever a girl scout?
I was a brownie for a day, but my mom made me stop. She didn't want me to conform. All I ever heard her say was, "Be original," but when you're a kid that's the last thing you want to be. Now, I totally get what she meant.
Did you go to your prom?
Yeah. Worst experience of my life. My boyfriend and I broke up two weeks before, and he wouldn't let me dance with anybody, and I didn't fit in the dress that was made because I put myself into an eating frenzy.
Shades of the Pink Walrus Episode. When you were ten, your father was crushed by a bulldozer and was in the hospital for a year. What was that year like for you?
I remember having all these temper tantrums and crying a lot, and never taking into consideration that he was sick. I never thought he was going to die, because my dad is invincible. I remember the night we got the call, and my mom breaking down, and all these family members coming, and me and my sister were sitting on the curb across from the house watching. It was dusk, and there was this sad feeling that something was wrong, and I just remember the car taking off with my mom, and I didn't want to say goodbye to her. Then everything got dark.

At our '93 meeting, there was something about Bullock that reminded me of Julia Roberts. When I asked her if she'd ever been compared to the Pretty Woman, she looked at me like I had three heads. "That's a great compliment," she said. "But no. I get Justine Bateman a lot." These days, Bullock and Roberts are often mentioned in the same sentence, the bulk of which read something like, "Look out Julia, here comes Sandra."
Have you ever met Julia Roberts?
No, but it's so funny, all these references about competition. Why is there plenty of room for guys in this business, and they don't pit them up against each other? It's so stupid. There's room for everybody. I think Julia and I should do a film where we make fun of this whole thing, like we're not even the leads. They just have an outtake of like a premiere where we get into a huge fight or something.
Were you into the Greek scene in college?
I was a little sister for the worst fraternity in the school, that's now been condemned.
Tell me a nightmare frat-party story.
I only have one. This guy and I were drinking shake-em-up's, which is Thunderbird and grapefruit juice. I don't remember anything, but apparently I was sick in front of him, on him, and beside him, and he had to drag me to my dorm room. I didn't hear from him for a week. I was like, "This is the worst," and then he called and we dated almost 2 years.It's like that old saying, "If you love something, puke all over it......"".....if it comes back, it's a good thing."
Who was your first boyfriend?
A red-haired Irish boy. I have a thing for red-haired Irish boys, as we know.
You're referring to your ex-boyfriend Tate Donovan. Do you watch his sitcom, Partners?
Yes, and he's so good. I was in the airport on layover, and I was watching it and I was trying to be really inconspicuous about it because I knew everyone knew I was sitting there.
And the next thing you know, you're on Hard Copy, as the melancholy ex.
Exactly, but I had to watch the whole show and everyone was talking. I was like, "Shhhh!"
When we first met, I had just been dumped, and you said, "The only way to get
over someone is to meet someone else." Still true?
Absolutely. I'm not saying go out and sleep with them. I'm just saying have a conversation and know that they find you attractive and go, "OK, I'm not the piece of trash I thought I was 2 days ago." Allow yourself a week to eat bon bons and be depressed, but then make your friends take you out. The worst part of being dumped or breaking up is the nighttime, wanting to fall asleep and wondering where they are every second of the time.And the second you wake up, it's upon you again.But the greatest is when one day you wake up and you don't feel it, and you just go, "Ahhhh!"
Are you seeing someone now?
Yes, for about 10 months. Really sweet person. It's been rough because of all that's happened, plus I rarely get to see him. But for a year I was by myself trying to date, and it was the worst. I seem to have attracted everyone whose intentions were not the best.
Gold diggers?
They were nice people, but they just weren't suited for me, and that's hard because I seriously thought I'm never going to find anybody that will love me and just enjoy life.
You don't seem like the kind of girl who goes for, I guess you could call them trophy guys, like athletes or models or soap studs.
To me, whoever I'm dating is a trophy guy, but I know what you mean. I was at a point where I was like, "I'm not dating anyone who's an actor," and I generalized, and it wasn't fair, because I met some people that aren't that way.
When you get married, where are you going to register?
Home Depot.
What's the most outrageous thing you've ever done in pursuit of a crush?
I've never chased anybody like I did this person, and I'm not saying who it is. I knew he was coming over, and I was like, "How can I make him think that other people want me so he'll go, 'Maybe I should jump on it and stop stringing her along'?" So I went to the florist and got $185 worth of arrangements and signed them in different handwriting and I played on his nosiness. I left the room giving him enough time to open them all.
Did the guy ever find out?
No. And you know what? It was worth every penny I spent.

After breakfast, Sandra and I stop at Pier One imports, where she buys a small green table in the shape of a frog. "It'll be a toilet paper stand for the office," she proclaims. "Just stack 'em up there like a little pyramid, so there's always a supply.""At Fortis Films....." I say."We care about you butt."Sandra Bullock, it seems, still cares about the darndest little things. She comes off just as excitable today, at the height of her career, as she was '93 when she described how she turned in her driver's license at a move theatre, so she could sneak in and see herself in the trailer for Love Potion No. 9. "I can never enjoy anything when it happens," she said when I asked why she hadn't seen the whole movie. "It's always like 2 years later. I figure, 'If I enjoy this, I'm going to lose it.' " As we get back into her jeep for our final ride, I ask Bullock if she's changed in that regard.
Can you still not enjoy anything as it happens?
In terms of my success, no. It's just great work, to me. But what I do enjoy now is every day. Every experience that I have. Every time somebody tells me a story, I enjoy it. For so long, my senses were really deadened. All of a sudden, everything's become really vibrant. I have more energy than I've ever had. Every once in awhile I'll look at my friends and go, "This is good. Right now. This is really good."
Have you ever been to a psychic?
No, but I threw this Halloween party for the crew here- we all went as the Village People and did "YMCA". I was the Indian. Anyway, I rented a palm reader and she takes my hand and says, "You've been a lot of men in your past lives, and this is the first time you've been a woman, and you are still struggling with wanting to run everything. Those male qualities are still coming over, and your female side's not being taken care of."
Do you buy it?
I don't know about the past lives, but the thing about letting the female side in is totally true. She also said there was pain between 2 people who don't know, and don't need to.
Maybe you have some Shields and Yarnell baggage that you never let go.
That's very possible. I mean, everybody has it.
What song do you know all the words of?
"Rappers Delight." I know all the words, and I insist on singing them. It's very important that everyone notice I know the words.
More important than an Oscar campaign?
Absolutely.
Have you ever been in a music video?
No. I've always wanted to, but I want it to be somebody I know, like Keanu's band. I'd want to be like the sexy, but funny, object of desire.The Tawny Kitaen role.I'll do splits between the cars. I gotta do one thing. (She sticks the Osmonds CD into the stereo and we sing "Yo-Yo.")The great thing about the Osmonds, is that if you don't like a song, it's over in 2 minutes.They're a lot hipper than I remember.I love this. Barbara Walters didn't get Osmonds.She didn't bring Osmonds either. See, you get what you give.

© 1996 by Detour Magazine