Hollywood blockbusters are not usually born in movie theatres in Dallas, Birmingham or Nashville. But that's exactly where The Blind Side has taken off — a phenomenon driven by audiences in the US South and Midwest storming to a movie about Christian charity and football that stars Sandra Bullock.
Writer-director John Lee Hancock's true-story movie about Baltimore Ravens lineman Michael Oher — who as a homeless black teen was taken in and nurtured by a well-off, churchgoing white couple — nearly toppled the smash sequel The Twilight Saga: New Moon at multiplexes in both films' second weekend of release.
Runaway hits usually generate their highest grosses in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Francisco, but The Blind Side is performing exceptionally well miles from those urban hubs: The film's five highest-grossing theatres were in Sacramento, Dallas, Birmingham, Alaska, and Nashville, Tennessee. It opens in the UAE next month.
Bullock talks about her motivation to do the film, her character and going blonde.
You are playing a person that is real but not famous, so the audience wouldn't know them. When you go about that are you trying to capture the spirit?
I do think that I tried to get as close as I could. You don't meet an energy like Leigh Anne's ever. She might not be famous here, but she's known in other places. I think I felt a great sense of fear in trying to tackle that person that she is, but also a great sense of obligation to be true to this wonderful [person]... There is such a dynamic that exists between those people and their children. You wanted to pay homage to them.
You had another huge hit with Proposal. Why do you think that movie clicked so well?
Aside from all the right people and the right elements being in the right place, I think that nudity had a great deal to do with it. Had I known that, I would have done it a long time ago.
Picking roles. My way of choosing is vastly different now than it was a long time ago. I can only be that way now because of what I learned from the past. I'm choosing now, not to choose any work.
I feel really full in a good way. I don't need to rush out and find something, I don't want to.
What was it about the character that appealed to you as an actress?
Initially when I was approached with the film — it's a beautifully written story —you could see it play out, but I didn't know how to play Leigh Anne. I didn't know how to approach it or what I could bring to it. I kept thinking, "You know, this is not going to work for me."
John said, "Why don't you come meet Leigh Anne?" So I met Leigh Anne, for the whole day, and I left there completely exhausted because of the energy she had. I fell in love with this human being and who she is at this time on the planet.
And as a producer?
To me the producing falls into the same as acting. It requires so much time out of your life. I take it really personally. So, if I do something it just has to be something that I love and I don't want anyone else to do. When I open projects I think, "Maybe something will appeal to me."
I am so happy where I am right now that I don't want to be tempted to move from this place that I am. I would like to just be happy where I am, and I'm producing right now.
What resonated with you the most?
First of all, it was a beautifully executed book. Especially for someone who has been around football players her whole life, and still knew nothing, or cared nothing about the game.
By the end of the game, I was in such awe of what it takes to be an athlete, and what the coaches contribute to these children's lives, and how they support, and push, and inspire. I had a real sense of jealousy that they got to experience that and I never did.
Even though I didn't think I could make this movie, the inspiring part of the movie is that here is this family that does this. They didn't do it because someone was writing an article, book, or making a movie.
Everyone came and questioned them, of course — we don't trust anyone who does anything nice. That's just the sad way of the world. They didn't care and they kept going. It makes you feel like you need to step up [to] their game. Whatever wonderful actress was going to play Leigh Anne Tuohy, it was going to be an inspiration, and true life story, that we are capable of so much more than we think we are.
We don't really live in a world that supports the good that we can do. We all want to do something bad so that it sells to papers or news reporters.
There was a line in the film where someone asked why Leigh Anne had done it. Do you now, months later, think "I should do that because that's what Leigh Anne would do"?
That's what I would say on set. "What would Leigh Anne do?"
Leigh Anne says she calls you "We"?
We are the same person now.
The nice thing is that we get play these people and get to experience lives that we normally would never be in contact with. The beauty of Leigh Anne was that one of my biggest questions was how people use their faith, and religion, as a banner, then they don't do the right thing.
I told Leigh Anne — this isn't a lie — in the interview we had, "One of my largest concerns in stepping into this was that whole banner holding." I said it scared me because I had experiences that haven't been great. I don't buy a lot of people who use that as their shield.
She was so open and honest and forthright. I said, "Wow, I've finally met someone who practices but doesn't preach."
We are so quick to tell people how to lead their lives, and I'm so lucky that I've been able to stay on my path, even though it deviated sometimes. I've never felt like I was okay by it, one hundred per cent — it didn't matter. But then you meet someone who blazes trails, and they do it as a family, and you feel validated for taking your trip rather than someone else's.
What about that knock out wardrobe?
How about that wardrobe? Hello? Everything I wore was what Leigh Anne wears. Every make-up was from her palette, her watch was her watch, and her nightgown was her nightgown.
I remember getting John and [telling] him, "You gotta e-mail Leigh Anne and ask what night gown she wears." He knew what the reply was going to be. All he gets back from Leigh Anne was, "Y'all need to get a life."
So, I got the blessing of having my, not a restored faith, but I now have faith in those who say they represent a faith. Before I was like, "Do not give me lecture on how to live my life when I know I'm a pretty decent human being."
I might not go to church every day, but I know I do the right thing, or try to. "You are going to church and you're still sleeping around on your wife and spending all everyone's money. How are you better than I am?"
So I finally met people that walk the walk. It made me happy. Really happy.
Are you going back to being blonde? How did that feel?
I like blonde highlights. I needed to have the whole thing. I would have to change my whole wardrobe. There is a very important person in my life who just didn't want me being blonde, thank God. Thank God! There was not an appreciation. There was a little person who thought I looked like an angel. Then there is a big person who said, "I don't like the blonde on you, take it off."
You want him to say that. You do.
