Télémoustique (September 96)

Sandra Bullock Slows Down.

Interview first published in " Telemoustique " of the 12th September 1996, n°3685.
Interview : Pascal Stevens.

It Took just one film, "Speed", for Sandra Bullock to speed through the Hollywood Galaxy. Another two - "The Net" and "While You Were Sleeping" - to get crowned. And an unsuccessful one, "Two If By Sea (Stolen hearts)" to slow down. She'll be soon on the list with "A Time To Kill". A film painfully of the moment since it is based on the rape of a child. A crime which affects her deeply and against which she tries, in her own way, to fight.

Her forthcoming movie is A Time to Kill , a courtroom film where, strangely, she appears only briefly and in a supporting role. She plays a low student who tries to help a bright young lawyer (the excellent Matthew McConaughey). He is defending a man whose young daughter was raped and who does justice himself. The trial takes place in a stormy mood : if the rapists were white, the accused is a black man. And in this city of the Southern States, there is still an atmosphere of primary racism. In this context, the search for real justice is almost impossible.

Generally sparkling, over-excited and natural, Sandra Bullock is here concerned, caring and dramatic. A change of attitude, and a certain risk, for someone who, during some period, was considered as the most charming "beautiful-girl" of an America always in search of new Hollywood fairies. A Hollywood conquered by her smile and her vivacity, enough to earn her a princely salary (Bullock is the best paid actress after Demi Moore and Julia Roberts): six million Dollars for five week's work in A Time To Kill. John Grisham was paid the same amount for the copyright of the book on which the film is based.

Even if she intends to slow down, she nevertheless keeps releasing movies steadily. She has finished filming of In Love and War, by Richard Attenborough, and recorded the voice of Moise's sister in Prince of Egypt, a long cartoon by Spielberg inspired by the Biblic captivity of the Hebrews. She is also preparing to shoot in Kate and Leopold, a romantic comedy, before starting with Speed 2,this time though without Keanu Reeves (" He chose to do things differently, avoiding having to refuse enormous sums. Why not, I find this attitude very honourable"). Finally, beginning '97, Lost Paradise, will be released, a small film of 1991, unreleased up till now, with, in the background, the destruction of the Amazonian jungle.

• At this stage of your career, you can allow yourself to pick the movies which put you exclusively in the limelight. However, in A Time To Kill, it is almost the opposite!It's true, and for a very simple reason : it was really time that I shrank back, changed style and thus, rediscovered the taste of risk. When a whole movie weighs on your shoulders, you've no time to think at something else than your performance. When you have a small part, however, it allows you to integrate yourself in the filming process. You have the time to watch its evolution, talk to the techniciens, etc.
  

• Were you tired of being on the front line ?It is undeniable that I was there in no time ! And I admit that not long ago, I ran behind movies that gave me, before anything, the chief role. Presently, I'm more attracted by the story of a film, its message and its human context : the director, the location, the other actors ... . More over, when I learnt that Joel Schumacher and Samuel L. Jackson took part in A Time To Kill, I didn't hesitate a second : it was directly , yes.
  
• Even more so when Schumacher is a director famous for his choice of actors.Exactly. And it's important to know that we'll have good partners and thus feel confidence even before stepping on the stage. Sometimes, we watch a movie and we think : "Isn't this actor a bad one ? Doesn't he play bad ?" Most of the time it is because he has a director weaker than himself, who hesitates to push him to the last limits. I don't want this to happen to me. I don't want to be treated delicately because of my fame. At the end, my game would suffer and I would be the first to be punished. Thus, I wanted someone with character, which is the case with Joel.
  
• Behind your "Young Woman" side, we have the impression that you are a strong head.I don't know. It's a fact that I know what I want and I don't hesitate to throw myself in the fight when I believe in something. I did so when I started in New York, where it is not the easiest place to start a career, and where I often hit "empty". But it's true that insecurity motivates me and fear stimulates me. The fear to wanting to give my best hoping that this will appears on the screen.
  
• In A Time To kill , a father kills the rapist of his daughter. Does this kind of violence seem to you appropriate ?Of course! For this film I did some research myself and find some examples like this up to 1906. That he kills him justifies of course the story, but this is not the only message. There is also the understanding between races. For racial tensions still exists, less than before, but it still reigns in the more isolated regions, in these small towns -and not only of the South- which we can hardly locate on a map. Less than twenty years ago, we could never have filmed where we did, in Canton, in the South of the USA. Joel would have only got in trouble. Big Trouble!
  
• Were you yourself afraid during the filming ?Not really. And then what happened during this filming was extraordinary. To find the hundreds of necessary extra's, Joel had to search in the local population. Thanks to that, he succeeded into talking between people, Blacks and Whites, who had never talked for ages! Something unique happened, something big in the history of the cinema, but also in that of racial conflict. During the scenes of hate, including the Ku Klux Klan, you should have seen those extra's swear, threat to hit and then, after the "Cut", remove their masks, lower the fists and kiss each other, sit for games of cards, give news of the town. It was magnificent. This film, believe me, lifted us. It made us grow. Which shows that, sometimes, Hollywood is good! (Big laugh)
  
• Up to July, tens of black churches were set on fire in the Southern States.I know, even though it's another subject, it's a bit sad the film was released at this time. For my part, I always found stupid to burn unanimate objects like a church where people express a will for happiness. To burn them only magnifies those places of joy and the need for good of their faithful.
  
• To the element of racial conflict, the film also adds that of personal vengeance and children abuse. A problem which affects you especially, I think.Absolutely. With my mother, I work for organizations for protecting children, especially to make them more efficient. In the USA, we've stopped counting single mothers without a roof for their children. We've stopped counting the cases of sexual harassment and child murders. Unfortunately, we are not yet powerful enough to stop them, like we saw with the two girls, in your country, Belgium. (At the time of the interview, only the bodies of Julie and Melissa had been found)
  
• In this sense, the rape scene of the film is particularly trying.And in reality, it's even more terrifying. My sister, Gesine, just got her degree in law and her boyfriend is a D.A. (District Attorney). You can't imagine the pictures and the reports he brings home. Frightening!
  
• Aren't you afraid to see your sister get mixed in this system ? In the film, the house of the lawyer is set on fire.Not to this point, but enough in any case to have made my sister work for me! I was pressing her during four months. And it's true, because of selfishness and not wanting something to happen to her, I prefer to have her close to me. She is my lawyer from now on which is not to say that one day she won't detest this world of sharks that is showbiz, and will want to leave. Only then, it's me who will have the key to this door! (she chuckles)
  
• At the same time, your father became your manager!Yes, but for other reasons. With success and the constant attention I got, I ended up being lost in all this. My father decided then to help me. He gave up his passion, singing, to raise me a second time, in a way! He helped me make the right decisions. But after all isn't it natural ? In a family, one helps one another, don't they ?
  
• Has success changed you ?Honestly, I don't think so. I don't have the impression of having changed my way of life. I have the same habits as before, the same "raging hungers", the same interests (dancing especially), I'm just more solicited. But no, I don't think success has transformed or degraded me.
  
• Just after Speed, you said that you would be "for sale" another three years. The "expiry" is arriving rapidly...I surely meant five years (big laugh). But as I told you just now, I really mean to make myself marginal. And produce films where I don't appear. I've made enough money to allow this to myself, my old age is assured.
  
• To hear you, we should expect you only in small films in the future!The next one, in any case, is small. In Love and War is a veracious love story, happenning during World War I. It will be released in February, I think. We're far from a "Blockbuster" like Speed and closer to a Stolen Hearts.
  
• A film that didn't really work out..I'll tell you : so the better! Really. I did it for a friend and if I was disappointed at the end, I'm happy for this failure. Many people said : "This is it, she 's made her first wrong movie !" Well, I say : "Thanks". I was almost relieved : my name was finally not a trick for success, blind and automatic! What's more, it's thanks to it that I started directing a short production, Making Sandwiches, so as to understand the traps of filming and be able, later, to avoid them.
  
• For this short production, you "engaged" Matthew McConaughey, your partner in A Time To Kill. Pictures where we saw you really close were published...Those where we are hugging on a beach. But it was for the filming! It was filmed six months ago. They were two weeks of pure pleasure! Matthew is really extraordinary, full of charm and a rising future big actor! He has no ego and his feet are on the ground. However he's now trapped in a great adventure, just like myself after Speed. But he managed to keep calm. This also was good to see during filming : while we were all afraid he'd disconnect, crushed by the responsability of his role, we saw him evolve directly, shooting after shooting, scene after scene. We all knew it would be difficult for him. But he accepted it. The storm that's carrying him right now is thus a nice reward, even though he needs to get hold in order to keep his head clear. And believe me, I know what I'm talking about!

© 1996 by Télémoustique