Celebrity recollections #4
While most of the interviews I conducted over the years were one-on-ones in hotel rooms or over the phone, from time to time I would be part of a group interview comprising five or six journalists. My interview with Sandra Bullock was one of those.
It occurred in 2004, when she was promoting her new drama Crash and talking to us DVD types about her rom-com with Hugh Grant, Two Weeks Notice. She had just turned 40 at the time, which – sexist or not – is the evening of a rom-com actress’s career. Bullock took the inevitable age-related questions in her stride and was pragmatic about it all, outlining her plans to parlay her acting success into a production company that was friendlier to women.
Conversely, one of the journalists (if that’s the right word) was from a radio station and he sang her some cheeky questions while strumming a guitar, a shtick she happily played along with.
So Bullock was a strange mix: she was the fun and attractive girl next door, a quality on which she built her career, yet she was fiercely intelligent and exuded as much business acumen as any MBA-touting suit on Wall Street. I could readily imagine her being kind and supportive to a fledgling actress before going into a meeting and absolutely annihilating a boardroom full of studio executives.