Script from Selina Scott Show

Script from Selina Scott Show (January 15 1996)

This is a transcript of another interview between Selina Scott and Sandra
Bullock during "The Selina Scott Show" on NBC Super Channel at 15th January,
1996, lasting about 12 minutes.

Thanks to Thomas Meyer for proof-reading the whole script.
Karl-Egbert Thiemeyer (ket@uni-paderborn.de)

[end of previous interview]
Selina: We'll take a break. Coming up after that I'll be catching up with
Hollywood's hottest actress, Sandra Bullock, and taking a look at her
new film, it's called "Two If By Sea". Yeah, we'll see you then.
[commercial break]
Selina: Welcome back. I talked to my next guest when the show first started
back in September in 1995 [take a look at my other transcript]. She was
and still is Hollywood's most sought after actor. Sandra Bullock hur-
tled to stardom alongside Keanu Reeves in the movie "Speed", then went
on to star in last years hit movies "The Net" and "While You Were
Sleeping". Her latest "Two If By Sea" is a romantic comedy released
through Europe later this year. Sandra Bullock joins me in a moment
from New York, but first let's take a look at the movie.
[short clip from "Two If By Sea": Roz (Sandra Bullock) and Frank (Denis Leary)
are talking in bed ...]Selina: It's great to see you again, Sandra.
Sandra: Thank you, it's great to be here.
Selina: "Two If By Sea", listen, in Europe as you well know, "Two If By Sea" is
something we do not understand. What does the word, the phrase "Two If
By Sea" actually mean?
Sandra: "Two If By Sea" based on Paul Revere's words, his wonderful words as he
was riding through the streets in the newly found United States, let-
ting us know when the bad people were coming. He said: "I'd let you
know, one if by ... if they're coming ... one light in the tower if
they're coming by land, two if by sea." And the sort of metaphor for
our film is that Denis Leary and my character make their way after
heisting a piece of art by sea to this little island of the cape. So
we're two on the sea, if by sea, to the island.
Selina: Aha, I mean, it is ... it's a story of a relationship, isn't it? A
story of your relationship with this guy called Frank ...Sandra: Yes ...
Selina: Is that right?Sandra: Yes.
Selina: And you move on, but, you know, you have fences in other directions,
you get to meet another guy and you start to wonder whether your guy
Frank can deliver it for you.
Sandra: Well, it's ... what's nice about the film is where most romantic come-
dies start of with everything perfect, and the people don't know each
other and they only show each other the best sides of each other, which
is always the case when you first meet someone. This is sort of catch-
ing the end of a seven year relationship, when things are not good at
all. And everything that they've tried to work, or she's tried to, you
know, fix or make work in a relationship, just doesn't. And every time
he says he's gonna change, he doesn't. And she's just about had it, and
at this point it's the end. He's pretty much had all his chances and
she's given up. And there just happens to be this sort of other very
attractive, very well read, intelligent, seemingly sensitive man that
crosses her path, who ends up not being what she thought. She thought
he could supply the sensitivity, the communication, the warm fact she
needed, when in fact Frank, Denis Leary's character, had it all along.
He just didn't quite know how to verbalise it.
Selina: Hey, well hey, this is a story that most women are looking for, isn't
it? It's like a parable for most women's lives and maybe the fairy tale
element in this one is finding that the guy you've known all along is
the greatest. Maybe that's it.
Sandra: Yeah, it's ... what's nice ... we sort of call it the great romantic
comedy for guys, because it sort of shows the guy's argument and point
of view. And as Denis and I have said, it's either a great break up
film or it's a great film that if you're thinking about breaking up,
you should go see this movie, and you either be broken up or you'll
just end up getting married by the end of it. So it shows you all the
flaws but in the end the flaws are pretty attractive, when you look at
what else is out, then you realize the flaws are what you essentially
fell in love with to begin with. So we kind of take our own twist of
the romantic theme.
Selina: Was it a problem working with Denis Leary? Because I know he's co-writ-
ten it and I know he's a great friend of yours.Sandra: Yeah!
Selina: I'm thinking in terms of the pressures on someone like you, so big and
carrying so many movies. Yes, you are Sandra. You know ...
Sandra: [laughing]
Selina: ... to have that kind of extra little pressure doing it for a mate and
working with him.
Sandra: It was one of the most creative and enjoyable experiences I've ever
had, because we decided to do this movie together before "Speed" and he
took a great chance in casting me essentially, because so many other
people are known for this type of work and this type of role over me.
So he took a great chance into work. We ended up improvising half the
film. So half of what you see on that film are things that we came up
with just based on our comfort with each other. We've a great comfort
zone, where we just go out and let feel, and they just let the cameras
on, and that's what ended up on the film. So Denis was a ... such a
great joy having been, you know, the co-producer, the writer and the
actor. He could have been completely different and very, very picky
about sticking to the dialogue, but it was never the case. You'd always
forgot he was the writer when you were wondering why the line was stu-
pid, and you were saying it out loud you realize the writer was
[laughing] sitting right next to you.
Selina: That ... [laughing] that's a ... that's a good relationship ...
Sandra: Yeah.Selina: ... to have, it is.
Sandra: He's incredibly talented and he deserves ... you know, he's gonna get a
lot of attention for all the work that he's done all these years and
everyone sort of is blown off is just, you know a sort of banter, the
banter starts off with great writing and producing that material and
creating these characters that he made look so easy are now getting a
lot of acclaim, which I think he really, really deserves. So I just
wanted to be a part of it and I got really lucky that he let me be a
part of it way before any of the big boom happened.
Selina: It was before the big boom, is that ...Sandra: Big boom.
Selina: That's the secret, is it? It was 199 ...
Sandra: It was the weekend before ...
Selina: 1995 for you was just sensational, wasn't it?
Sandra: Yeah, it was ... it's been a wild year, and what was wild about it is
that pretty much for the end of '94, all through '95 I've been working
out of the country and out of, you know, my own state. So I've never
been in the place to experience what actually happened, which I think
for me is a good thing, because I don't quite understand it and I don't
quite enjoy it, you know, some of the things that happened that are way
beyond your control. So I was working, which was pretty much my element
and I let my friends inform me of what my life is doing outside of what
I'm actually doing, so ...
Selina: But what's all this about. I read ... I've got a quote here from you
saying "My greatest life ambition is to wake up one day and not think
of marriage as the next step to death". What ... is that true?
Sandra: Yeah, yes, it is actually. I mean, I don't know why I have this out-
look. It's incredibly frightening, but apparently this years predic-
tions are that I'm going to be married and I'm going to give up the
business and have babies. This was what the predictions were apparently
on "Geraldo". So based on that, it's got me a little scared, because
I'm not at all prepared for it. But in the back of your head you're
like this is just ... it's, you know, bunch of boloney. You actually
start to panic. You're like "OK, should I start making a guest list,
should I start looking at dresses and getting, you know, the, you know,
the church is rented". I ... it's the most bizarre thing, so maybe they
know something I don't. So maybe I'm getting married this year, I just
don't know who or when, so ...
Selina: Well, it's gonna be a pretty difficult thing, I would imagine with you,
the amount of work you're doing. This "Kate and Leopold", this movie
you're involved with as well, is that ... you're producing it as well
as acting in it, aren't you? It's ...
Sandra: That's something that I've always wanted to do was produce, just be-
cause I enjoy the art of starting it from the ground up. We're actually
gonna do ... I've already produced a short that went ... is going to
"Sundance" this year. Now we're doing another short actually in the
month of February that I wrote, and I'm gonna be producing that. So I'm
starting in small sections and building up from there and so by the
time I get to "Kate and Leopold" I know basically what I'm doing at
this point. But I'm producing theatre, which is what I did with our
theatre company, and producing a film - two different things, so I fig-
ured out I might will start small and work my way up that way.
Selina: Everyone loves you, don't they?Sandra: No ...
Selina: [smiling] Men, women, producers ...
Sandra: [laughing] No, not everyone ...
Selina: Oh, we do, I mean, I've been hearing some great things about you, the
way that you are on set with people. I mean, you managed to keep a
sense of humour presumably going through it all.
Sandra: Well, what people don't realize is that the people that work the hard-
est usually are not the ones that are in front of the camera. So when
you get on set and you realize that these people work double the hours
that you do and they have to do double the work that you do, and you
are the one that gets all the benefits. You ... if you act anything
different than very respectful and, you know, if you don't come in a
great mood on set, everyone takes their queue from you, and you don't
realize ... you don't ... I don't never realize that until my mom said,
and I see someone else come in that's sort of, you know, in charge of
the film whose moods are not nice. And it just sort of sets the mood
for everyone. Why do that to people who work so hard? I mean, that's
... it just doesn't make sense to me.
Selina: But has there never been a moment in any of the movies you've done so
far when you walked in and you thought "Can't handle this, can't do
this" ...Sandra: Oh, absolutely ...
Selina: Let me go and beat my head against a brick wall.
Sandra: Absolutely, I mean, everyone ... you're human, you're gonna have really
bad days where you come into work and the last thing you wanna think
about is your work. You know, if your relationship isn't doing right or
something with the family or you just wake up not feeling well, but,
you know what, don't bring it into work, leave it in the trailer, you
know, you ... there's times when you go back to the trailer, bang your
head against the brick wall in your trailer, you know, take it out on
the couch or something, but you don't need to bring it into work. You
don't need to take it out on other people. That's just not right.
Selina: Sandra, just one more thing, just before you disappear, this food com-
bining, you've got to tell me about this food combining.
Sandra: [laughing]
Selina: I just picked out a line here about you working with food combining on
the set of ...Sandra: [still laughing] I mean ...
Selina: ... "Two If By Sea". What the hell was all that about?
Sandra: Well, if you think about, you know, sandwiches, which I'm a great fan
of, the sandwich, because you can pretty much put anything in between
two slices of bread, you know, which is the world of possibilities,
which is basically what my short film is based on, you know, the art of
sandwich making relating to relationships so ... I've just had this
thing about sandwiches that I like to combine as many things ... just
the whole meal under one roof, because it's quick, you don't waste
time, you know, sorting out the meal, preparing. I think eating a lot
of times wastes a lot of time, so if you put it all under one roof,
you're pretty much set. You need to experiment, you need to vary, you
need to spice it up every once in a while and surprise yourself and
others.
Selina: And others, and that's the key, isn't it? You've got all the ...
Sandra: Yes ...Selina: ... guys on set ...Sandra: Yes ...
Selina: ... to try it out and ...Sandra: Yes, yes ...
Selina: Were they sick? Were they ... were any of them sick?
Sandra: You know, what I mean, I've got a lot of complaints from Denis saying
that my eating habits were disgusting, but then once I forced it on
him, you'll soon find out that Denis Leary eats some of the same things
now that I do. He won't admit to it, but he now puts potato chips on
his sandwiches, too.Selina: Sounds absolutely foul.
Sandra: I'm a great influence on people.
Selina: You obviously are. Listen, come over to Europe, come over, because
you're half German, aren't you? You speak German.
Sandra: Yes, yes, I was just ... I was there just recently, actually. I was
there for about two weeks, so I'm going back actually in May, I'm going
back ...Selina: Right, come ...Sandra: I'm going to be in Italy.
Selina: Come see us if you're coming through London, but ...Sandra: Absolutely!
Selina: ... I'd love to have you in the studio.
Sandra: We always make our way through London, something about the shopping,
that's extraordinary on a weekend there.
Selina: You're right, you just missed the sales, of course. All the sales ...
Sandra: I know ...Selina: ... have been on, ...Sandra: I know ...
Selina: ... and they're great:Sandra: I know ...Selina: Come ...
Sandra: Oh well ...Selina: Come see us soon, Sandra.
Sandra: I'll come soon and pay full price.
Selina: OK, thank you. We'll take a break. Coming up after that ...
[commercial break and beginning of next interview]