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Lady of the lake

29 luglio 2006
Vicky Roach

Sandra Bullock was voted the girl "Most Likely to Brighten Your Day" when she graduated from high school.
In following decades she did exactly that, in films such as Miss Congeniality and Two Weeks' Notice.
As the actor talks about her latest role in The Lake House, a time-travelling romantic comedy that reunites her with Keanu Reeves for the first time since Speed, however, she gives every impression that at 42, she's increasingly inclined to challenge our expectations.
"I'm never bored by acting," she says in response to stories describing the film as a comeback after a period of indifference.
"If anything, I'm deeply frustrated by it -- it's like a love-hate relationship.
But when I feel like I'm running out of inspiration or creative fuel, I do need to go away and do other things. Or look at smaller films where I can do a little role that's as exciting as any lead character I could do, but where I'm only required for a couple of weeks."
Crash, which upset expectations by winning the Best Picture award at this year's Oscar ceremony, is one such example.
Bullock's performance in writer-director Paul Haggis's crime drama about a bunch of people whose lives intertwine during a 48-hour period in LA, has been described as the best of her career.
"It's certainly the first time a role like that came across my path," she says. "I hope there are more things written like that, but, as we know, they're few and far between.
People ask why we don't have more stories that are interesting -- because they don't make a lot of money, that's why."
There was a nice touch of synchronicity to Haggis's decision to cast Bullock as a middle-class housewife in his directorial debut.
Some years earlier, the actor/producer had tried to develop a film based on the story that eventually became Million Dollar Baby, for which Haggis wrote the screenplay.
After Two Weeks' Notice, the romantic comedy in which she co-starred with Hugh Grant, Bullock decided to take an 18-month break from acting in order to develop the TV series George Lopez.
Crash was the first project to which she committed herself on her return.
Infamous followed, in which Bullock played Harper Lee to English actor Toby Jones's Capote.
"They're vastly different," she says of her film and the one for which Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Actor Oscar this year.
"Ours, which is based on the book by George Plimpton, goes into his decay and decline from the point of view of his associates. There's an audience for both of them."
Next came The Lake House, about a blossoming relationship between the current owner of an unusual lakeside home and its former tenant.
Argentine director Alejandro Agresti's film, in which two people share such a deep connection that they actually manage to transcend time, is deeply romantic.
"I hope so,"Bullock says.
Reeves has said that a person is incredibly lucky to experience such a connection even once in their life.
Bullock, who considers herself blessed in that department, agrees.
"I'm very lucky that I have had some connections in my lifetime that have moulded me," she says.
"It doesn't necessarily mean they were romantic connections, either. Things often come to you in a shape you don't expect. People think: 'Because she's not married, she's been unlucky in love', but they're talking to the wrong person."
Bullock married motorcycle builder and Monster Garage TV host Jesse James last year.
One of the reasons Bullock chose to make The Lake House was the chance to work with Reeves once again.
"It's easy with him," she says. "We don't know why it works, it just does. This time, however, we were older, more travelled, more 'dinged'. And all the things that come with that, we brought to the table."
Because it is operating in parallel time frames, the relationship in The Lake House is conducted almost entirely by correspondence.
Bullock and Reeves, who have been friends since they met on the set of Speed, share a passion for the dying art of letter writing.
"He's a beautiful letter writer. He doesn't have a computer. He doesn't do emails," says Bullock, who does. "I love receiving letters and notes.
I love the art form. The minute I send an email, I've forgotten what I've said. But I know exactly what I've written in a letter."
Bullock, who has just completed working on German director Mennan Yapo's psychological thriller Premonition, says her next project will definitely be a comedy.
"I don't have to rush," she says. "It's a great luxury to have and, believe me, I'm very aware of how lucky I am to have it.
How many people deserve to be working and are struggling to find a way in... while I can sit back and be a surveyor of life and actually watch the day happen and work on being a good wife and taking care of the dogs and making sure the TV program is on schedule?"