THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 20, 1995 TAG: 9504200041
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
IF SANDRA BULLOCK'S career accelerated with ``Speed,'' it's shifting into high gear now.
``While You Were Sleeping,'' a romantic-comedy opening Friday, finds her in a different driver's seat: She has star billing, the first time she's had to ``carry'' a picture. And she's taking home $2 million for doing it.
Before year's end, Bullock will star in four more movies. The industry has decreed: She's the discovery of 1995. There's talk about how she may be the next Julia Roberts.
Not bad for a former East Carolina University coed who, not long ago, was waiting tables at restaurants and bars around New York.
She's ready, too, but Bullock doesn't think her career is riding on being a first-time star.
``I'm very pessimistic,'' she said, sitting for an interview at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. ``I don't think anything I'm in will be a success, just because I'm in it. Oh, I think I'll always work, but I'm not so sure in what capacity.
``This script has been around for a while. I wanted it, even before `Speed.' I felt it had been written just for me, but I didn't think I had a chance of getting it. Then the bus came along.''
Bullock, who describes herself as ``28 going on 50,'' bubbles, brims and fairly bursts with energy. And she likes to talk. Fast. Her ability to be perky and aggressive, to come off as smart, yet appealing, has made her the most famous bus driver in movie history.
``Everyone told me not to do `Speed,' '' she recalled. ``I mean, it looked like I'd be just `the girl.' A bomb on a bus? Huh? And that title! I've learned to do things by instinct. I wanted to do it. After all, it's my career and I can do what I want.''
Smart decision.
The megahit topped off its box-office success by winning two Oscars. Bullock is the passenger who gets behind the wheel when the driver is injured. She has to keep the speed from dropping below 50 mph, or a bomb on the bus will go off. Keanu Reeves is the police officer in charge.
``I'm the only civilian in a union of 200 bus drivers to have my license,'' Bullock said proudly. ``I passed the first time I tried. You have to drive a test range. The one thing I learned was that there are no blind spots and that there are big mirrors. You can adjust your makeup at all times.
``I'm not a girly girl. On `Speed,' I felt I should look really a mess. I mean, this girl is driving the bus all day. I let myself go. Then, they said, `Look, Sandy. You've got to look fairly presentable. Fix yourself up.'
``Of course, I didn't REALLY drive the bus in the movie. Gosh, you knew that didn't you? Sure, people knew I wasn't really driving, but I wanted them to think that if I had to, I could.''
In ``While You Were Sleeping'' Bullock plays a Chicago Transit Authority token taker with no family or boyfriend, the one who usually gets stuck working holidays. She has a big crush on one ``drop-dead gorgeous'' guy (Peter Gallagher), but he ignores her.
When he's mugged, she saves his life, but he ends up in a coma. His family thinks they're engaged and readily takes her in. Eventually, she's attracted to his brother, played by Bill Pullman, and love blooms.
The producers are hoping the movie will bloom just like ``Sleepless in Seattle.''
Bullock is used to playing the working girl. She had the Melanie Griffith role in the short-lived TV version of ``Working Girl.'' ``While You Were Sleeping'' was first offered to Demi Moore, but she wanted too much money.
``I could always play girls working at the token counter,'' Bullock said. ``After all, she gets Bill Pullman. He's the sweetest man. I mean, I usually feel like a goon when I have to look like I'm in love.
``How does a person look when they're in love? Try it. Give me the look. It isn't easy. Bill smiles - and I get the look. He's married and a happy family man off camera, so I claim it's acting.''
She didn't have the same chemistry with Keanu Reeves.
``What chemistry? We had one kiss in the movie. Keanu isn't the usual action star. He doesn't talk a lot. He'd come over and rub my back. He'd force me to be quiet. Then, I would say, sometimes, `I really need someone to talk to me a few moments.' Sometimes, he'd come over and just say `It's OK.' ''
Born in Arlington, Va., Bullock grew up in Germany, traveling all over Europe with her mother, an opera singer, and father, a vocal coach. She moved back to Virginia as a teenager, but didn't become interested in acting until her sophomore year at ECU. In New York, she waited on tables and, briefly, tended bar.
``I didn't know how to mix any fancy drinks,'' she said. ``I thought everyone would only ask for rum and Coke. The customers helped me because they wanted their drinks. They'd tell me what to put in.''
After an off-Broadway play, she took her favorable review and went hunting for an agent. ``I think they said, `This imbecile is here holding her review' and, so, I got an agent because no one else was quite dumb enough to try that.''
In California, small, but steady, parts came her way. She discovered a magic elixir in ``Love Potion No. 9.'' She was Kiefer Sutherland's missing lover in ``The Vanishing.'' In Peter Bogdanovich's ``The Thing Called Love,'' she wrote and performed her own country song.
Since then, Bullock said, ``It's been mostly me and the boys.'' She co-starred with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes in ``Demolition Man'' and Robert Duvall and Richard Harris in ``Wrestling Ernest Hemingway.''
She met actor Tate Donovan while making ``Love Potion No. 9'' and, despite breaking up with him last summer, says ``he's the greatest love of my life, the greatest guy of my life.
``I'm a girl who can't believe that people are attracted to me until they come right out and tell me. I knew him for a good while before he just came over and told me. From that time onward, it was great for us, but there comes a time when you have to step back and let it go. It was a bad time when `Speed' hit. I wanted to share that. I couldn't share it, but I wanted to share it.''
She sighs and shakes her head. ``Now I can just be selfish and work - and not worry about being a good partner.''
Her next project is a thriller called ``The Net,'' followed by the comedy ``Two If by Sea.'' She's close to signing on to play a brainy law clerk in Joel Schumacher's ``A Time to Kill.'' After that, she'll produce and star in a low-budget film called ``Kate and Leopold.''
The most anticipated film, though, is a possible sequel to ``Speed.''
``I'd only do it if Keanu does it,'' Bullock said. ``There is no script yet, just a treatment. I have my own idea for the sequel. It would be called `Speedy Delivery' and, of course, I'd be the center of everything.
``Listen closely now. I'd be pregnant and they'd be rushing me to the hospital, and the ambulance couldn't go under 50. It would be set in Paris, because I'd like to go to Paris. Keanu would come rushing over to marry me in the ambulance - to legitimize the baby. Pretty good, huh? Think they'll buy it?''
As for fame, she isn't sure if it means anything at all. ``I never hear things until three months later because I'm working on a movie set, and you never hear anything on a movie set. When `Hard Copy' thinks they should do something on me, about the only scandalous thing they can find is to show me at an airport without any makeup on. I'm not too scandalous.''
All of which leaves her a little unsure of everything that is happening.
``I don't enjoy good things that happen to me because I figure they won't last,'' Bullock said. ``I have all this Catholic guilt, and I'm not even Catholic. I just hope I have enough energy to last this year.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
HOLLYWOOD PICTURES
Sandra Bullock falls for Bill Pullman in "While You Were Sleeping,"
which will open Friday.
20TH CENTURY FOX
Bullock in the driver's seat with Keanu Reeves in "Speed."
HOLLYWOOD PICTURES
The industry has decreed: Sandra Bullock is the discovery of 1995.
There's talk that she may be the next Julia Roberts.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB