 | Friday, April 01, 2005, 10:50 PM EST.
Sandra Bullock Walks Down Runway Again
| | |
 | |
Audiences around the world enthusiastically embraced the 2000 hit comedy Miss Congeniality, starring Sandra Bullock as fashion-challenged FBI Agent Gracie Hart, who goes undercover as a contestant to investigate a plot against the Miss United States beauty pageant. Gracie not only learns how to walk in high heels for the first time in her life, but she saves the day in heroic style, disarms a bomb, places in the pageant and becomes an overnight media sensation and the FBI's most famous face.
Bullock, who produced the original film and produces again on Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, and Marc Lawrence, a writer and executive producer on the first film and now writer and producer for the story's current chapter, regard their earnest if somewhat unpolished and accident-prone heroine with genuine affection.
"The reason for a sequel," says Bullock, whose portrayal of the irrepressible agent earned a Golden Globe nomination and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award, "is that Marc and I found ourselves on numerous occasions imagining what Gracie would have gone on to do after her big triumph at the pageant and how all the media attention would have affected her. We've talked about how the close friendships she formed at the pageant might change her life, or at least her perspective. There were so many scenarios. I wanted to finish the story we had begun."
"The first movie was all about character," adds Lawrence, noting that, "essentially, the charm and humor of the film were in the indelible characters—not only Gracie but her pageant buddy Cheryl, who comes from nowhere to win the crown and Stan, the classic emcee, and the way they all sparked off one another. I believe a lot of people would be as interested as we were in seeing how Gracie has grown. What is she up to now?"
Bullock and Lawrence share an enviable creative rapport which began when screenwriter Lawrence met the high-wattage star of his 1999 romantic comedy Forces of Nature. They next worked together on Miss Congeniality and subsequently on the 2002 romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice, for which Lawrence also directed and Bullock produced. Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous marks their fourth collaboration. Typical of the vein of humor that keeps the two in sync, Lawrence, when recently asked about their relationship, quipped, "it's entirely based upon food. I bring it to the set and she eats it, because, regardless of whatever nutrition plan she's currently on, no matter how specific, she feels she's not violating it if she eats my food. And I always oblige. I think that's what she really likes about me.
"Actually," he continues, "we have a shorthand with each other. I know what makes her laugh and most things she does make me laugh. She's an extraordinarily natural physical comedienne. You either give Sandy some physical business or she'll make it up on her own, and that provides a balance to the dialogue. Plus she has the gift of being absolutely credible, which gives me license to take the material further out. She's a great barometer of what's real and what isn't, and she'll tell you if it doesn't feel right. We're truly opposites in many ways. She's an incredibly optimistic, energetic and positive person and I'm, well…not."
One thing the two agreed on was asking Emmy-nominated director John Pasquin to guide Gracie Hart's new adventure. Citing Pasquin's theatre background, as well as television credits that include some of the most acclaimed shows of a generation ("Growing Pains," "Roseanne," "Home Improvement"), Lawrence says, "he's sensitive to actors and motivation and the truth of a scene. You don't often find that in combination with someone who knows the camera so well and can give you a wonderful visual."
Pasquin's attraction to the project was threefold. Foremost, he says, was "the opportunity to work with Sandy Bullock," whom he met while producing and directing episodes of ABC's hit comedy "George Lopez," a series Bullock executive produces through her company, Fortis Films. "I find her fearless, which is a director's dream. There aren't many classic, world-class beautiful actresses who are unafraid to make a fool of themselves on screen. And she definitely does that here. Also, I would be collaborating again with Marc Lawrence, whom I have known almost 20 years, since "Family Ties," when he was a writer/producer and I was a director. He's a wonderful writer."
Most of all, it was the story that sold Pasquin. He was looking forward to "taking it into a new direction, a bit off center, that doesn't necessarily follow everything that was in the original but keeps its integrity and heart so people who loved it won't be disappointed."
Along those lines, and undeniably "off-center," is to throw Gracie not only a new life-or-death case but the equally volatile challenge of a bracing, hostile new partner (Regina King as Agent Sam Fuller) with palpable anger issues who is in some ways a lot like Gracie used to be. These two women have a lot to learn from each other, if only they were on speaking terms.
The Sam character was Bullock's idea. "In thinking about what I wanted to see in the new movie, one thing kept coming up for me: a partner—and specifically a female partner. Why should all the buddy movies be about guys? Why should they always get to do these great comedy pairings? We need to see women in these roles again. Plus, one of the themes is about friendship, and how friends can appear in the most unexpected and unlikely packages. They're not always the people who initially make a good first impression. Sometimes you want to kill them and they end up being your best friends."
Addressing the Gracie/Sam dynamic, Pasquin concurs, "This is partly a female buddy movie. In this case we're dealing with a combustible relationship not between opposites, as you so often see, but between two strong and highly competitive women who are very much alike. We were lucky to find Regina King, who really responded to Sandy, and their chemistry keeps the movie charged and the humor sharp. Their developing relationship is the heart of the story."
Like the first film, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous is about transformations, some positive and others doomed to backfire. The underlying message, says Bullock "is that it's always best to follow your own instincts in spite of what people tell you to be or do. When you get away from that is when you veer into trouble. Fortunately for us and the audience, getting through that trouble is where all the fun is."
For fans concerned that Gracie's emerging self-awareness will make her more calm, sweet-tempered and, well, soft, fear not.
Some things never change.
|
|
|
Search
Discuss in Studio Commissary
Print-Friendly Version
Forward to Friend
