Although she became a breakthrough star thanks to her chemistry with Keanu Reeves in the 1994 thriller Speed, Sandra Bullock’s new on-screen romance with her former co-star moves at a much more realistic pace in their latest collaboration The Lake House, a unique romance in which two people who occupy the same home two years apart fall in love through letters exchanged in a time-warping mailbox. Still, she picked right up where they left off. “I think that it helped that we’ve kept in contact over the years and we’ve liked each other,” says Reeves. “There’s that instant repartee. She hasn’t changed at all.” He’s right–she’s still as spunky and outspoken as ever, as her sit-down with Hollywood.com reveals.
Hollywood.com: The romance in The Lake House involves kind of a mind-bending, time travel-type theme. Did Keanu, with all his experience on films with complex suspensions of disbelief, provide any extra help in get your head around the premise?
Sandra Bullock: You can’t get your mind around life. That’s the biggest sci-fi thing there is. So I think that the less you think about it and just react the way that people normally react to a bizarre situation, the easier it is. If you start to over-think it, it gets a little trickier. He did [help], though. He did actually try and help me through some stuff. Like life [Laughs]. No. I mean, I’m a very logical person and he has a very good way of barreling right into it, whereas I like to dissect and circle around. He kind of dives into it more than I do.
HW: Back in the Speed era, you and Keanu got nominated for Best Kiss at the MTV Movie Awards–
SB: We did? And we didn’t win?!
HW: You share another one in this film. How do you think MTV will rate this one?
SB: Who cares about MTV? It was great by me. I don’t kiss for the masses. So that’s my statement for the day.
HW: Did your chemistry just click back into place, like the old days?
SB: It was easy in the good parts. There was a little nervousness there, and we’ve grown up in some areas, and not in other areas, and it’s never what you think it’s going to be. It was better than what I thought it would be. I imagined it, but I didn’t expect this. It was a lot different and more fulfilling in a lot of ways then I ever expected.
HW: Do you regret doing Speed 2 even after Keanu passed on the chance to reunite then?
SB: Yeah, Keanu… He was smart then [Laughs]. He had good people surrounding him at the time going, “Don’t do it. Don’t get on a boat going ten knots which looks like it’s pretty much standing still.” He never called to say, “Don’t do it.” He never called. Silence should be golden.
HW: Your characters communicate through the mail. Has letter writing become an antiquity in the modern age? Do you still write letters, rather than, say, e-mails?
SB: I do. Keanu and I have done that with each other, and plus, he refuses to use a computer so you can’t e-mail him. It’s historic. You have something in your hands that’s tangible. E-mails are kind of like letter writing, they say, but we edit ourselves so much more. You have to make the effort of writing it out, getting the address and sending it. You then have something to pull out and remember. You can always pull up an email out of the file, or print it out and fold it, but it’s not the same thing as a letter.
HW: Your characters fall in love before they’ve even met. In an age of Internet dating and the like, is that something you feel can really happen, a romance based simply on correspondence?
SB: If you’re being honest in the way that you’re expressing yourself. I think that there are a lot of harsh realities where people present themselves as one thing and then they see the person and meet the person and they are something completely different, but you don’t get to put in the inflection and meaning and all of that. I totally misread comments on emails. They came one way, but it’s something else with a totally different connotation to them. So we read what we want to read into emails a lot of times, and what we want it to mean and say and we read between the lines and all of that. So I think that does happen a lot. You can learn a lot about a person if you’re being honest, but I don’t think that I could fall in love with someone though, not me personally, because I’m too much of a cynic and a hard head. But you could get to know them and like qualities about them and go, “Wow, this is different than I thought.” I think that people are more open by email and letters, because we think that there’s nothing to lose because you’re not face to face and you won’t have the humiliation that way. They say that they don’t want to write you anymore, and you can write that it’s fine and no big deal, but you’re crying. So yes and no.
[PAGEBREAK]HW: Like your character, you know a little bit about taking your time waiting for the right romantic partner.
SB: Yeah. Society doesn’t support that. With women it’s like, “Why aren’t you marred at 22? Why aren’t you married at 25? Why don’t you have kids?” And you’re going, “Everything is fine right now.” I think that it’s a beautiful idea. I think that it’s awfully difficult for people to do given the pressures, unless you’ve been raised in a nice, bubbled environment that’s about something other than the end result of that. I think that it’s healthier for human beings to happy with themselves and to live with themselves and be satisfied with their life and not need an extra something to complete it. I think that’s a little more important, and then when something comes along that complements who you are that’s great. But I don’t think that society supports that at all, and I think that’s sad.
HW: Has being married altered your opinions about love and romance?
SB: It hasn’t changed me. I was so happy before I got married, and so satisfied and in the best place of my life. So the timing was such that I met someone that complemented me and gave me a nice net to feel more adventurous with, like in life. I was like, “Wow. I have someone watching my back even though I’m taking care of myself.” Now it’s just the idea that I have someone that I know who is supporting me and that gives you great – like any child with a parent who you see going, “You’re incredible. We’re here for you, but you go do it.’” That child always flowers. So I mean, that’s the same thing with my friendships and not just my marriage. The circle has gotten smaller, but the people in that circle are great supporters and it makes me want to be the best that I can, the best partner because I’ve stepped up to the plate.
HW: Do you laugh off the constant speculation in the Us Weeklys and In Touchs on the status of your marriage and if and when you might be pregnant?
SB: Yeah. They had us married before. We made a bet. We said in six months that they’re going to have us pregnant or having trouble. Literally, at the six month mark someone called and said, “Okay, you’re right. One says that you’re having trouble and the other says that you’re getting ready to make a baby.” It’s just selling. It has nothing to do with the truth. It’s just that everyone buys it and denies it and reads it.
HW: Do you and Jesse get pursued by the tabloids much in your daily life, you know, when you’re out getting coffee?
SB: No. No they don’t. When was the last time you saw me getting coffee? Only recently have they seen us and that was in New York. They pretty much leave us alone. We don’t live in a place that’s easy to get to and so they leave us alone. We’re not that interesting. We’re really not [Laughs].
HW: Are you doing anything special for your first anniversary?
SB: If I was I certainly wouldn’t share it with you! Every day is good. Another day like that would be perfect.
HW: Maybe curl up at home with a romantic movie? What’s your favorite?
SB: Oh, mine is a standard answer. My favorite movie is Cinema Paradiso in terms of love, because it’s not just about the kind of love with someone you’re attracted to. It’s love of family, love of life, love of people that are gone, love of film, love of memories. It just embodies so much love. By the end of that film, no matter how many times I see it, it reminds me why I fell in love with this business. I hate to say business. That’s why I fell in love with movies and artists and music and countryside and architecture and being a kid and bicycling. It’s the love of life.
