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Sandra Bullock
The non glamour, glamour girl
The title of Sandra Bullock's latest film could hardly be more apt.
The star of Miss Congeniality has spent the bulk of her film career playing mousey girl-next-door types. The fresh-faced cutesy who finds herself disappointed in life and love.
When fellow actors talk about her they usually use descriptions like fun-loving, strong and generous - a description the 36-year-old American actress is more than happy to receive.
But there is more to Bullock than the all-American image she has created on-screen. Her latest role in the beauty pageant action-comedy Miss Congeniality gave her the chance to show both sides - the down-to-earth tomboy and the glamour puss.
The actress admits she is not naturally drawn to glamorous roles and has no plans to become a high maintenance screen diva.
"I don't understand women who try to be glamour queens," muses the actress, who exudes understated chic in leather pants and a black jersey.
"I understand women who treat it as dress up but who are also comfortable in the schleppy stuff. Competing with other women wastes a lot of time and I'm just not very good at it," she smiles.
Which is just as well because at the beginning of Miss Congeniality, Bullock plays a FBI agent who prides herself on being one of the boys.
Unfortunately she is made to face up to her feminine side when she's sent undercover as a contestant in a major beauty pageant to foil a terrorist plot.
Enter image consultant, played by Michael Caine, who has to teach her to walk and talk like a lady - with hilarious consequences.
Bullock sees the film as a throwback to the old screwball comedies of the past and was so keen to star in the caper comedy that she threw her weight behind the project as a producer.
"They don't have many roles like this for women in Hollywood," she sighs. "They had them in the 30s and 40s and then Lucille Ball sort of left with it. This is sort of my Dumb And Dumber phase."
While she's better known for films like Speed and While You Were Sleeping, Bullock says she loves the chance to do humour.
"Comedy is wonderful when you really nail it and you hear people laughing, but it's not always that easy."
The actress admits she had been looking for a while to find a comedy that suited her and was delighted when writer Marc Lawrence wrote the Miss Congeniality with her in mind.
"We developed the script for a long, long time. It's a luxury you can really get addicted to. I'm lucky to have met Marc, knowing there's someone out there who can write comedy for me," she smiles.
Combining the world of undercover agents and beauty pageants provided rich pickings for developing a comic caper, she says.
"You kind of sympathize with these misfits because it stems from something real rather than a really outlandish situation. FBI agents exist, beauty pageants exist and both of them are ripe for jokes."
Creating the homebody look wasn't much of a stretch, she says. "That look was basically based on my junior high school photo. I loved who this character was because she was natural, she loved where she was in her life, there wasn't anything missing. She wasn't lonely, she was one of the guys."
However, Bullock admits adopting getting dolled up in order to enter the pageant as an imposter from New Jersey took more effort.
"This character is someone who didn't realise there was another side to her until she went to the beauty pageant. It took only about 30 minutes to get me ready for the FBI role. It took about two hours to do the other make-up, that's the truth," she giggles.
She doesn't show it, but quite a lot is riding on the success of this project as her most recent offerings, including the much maligned Speed 2, have been box office duds.
The lack of critical acclaim for her recent work has been a valuable lesson, she concedes.
"You have difficult experiences where you swear you'll never do it again, but then you realise these things happen to teach you things along the way."
"There have been times when I've gone against my grain and I've paid heavily for it. Now I just know what feels good. Even if it doesn't have mass appeal, I want to do what feels good."
Bullock's resolve to only take on projects she cares about may also have something to do with recent developments in her personal life.
Last April her opera singer mother died, and just before Christmas the actress was involved in an accident when her private jet missed the runway at Wyoming's Jackson Hole Airport and ploughed into a snowbank. Although Bullock and her boyfriend, Bob Schneider, emerged unhurt, they were shaken by the experience.
Although Bullock is currently happily dating Schneider, following her split from actor Matthew McConaughey, and has recently bought a 1.5 million dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills, she has no plans to settle down and have a family just yet.
"I always said if it gets to a point where I really want a child, I would
adopt, kids are amazing, so I'm getting the selfish stuff out of my system, so
when I have them I can say, 'Go, run. I have plenty of money, go play'," she
says, before adding, "I'm sure my time will come."
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