In 2002, after snagging the ultimate romantic comedy catch (Hugh Grant) in Two Weeks Notice, Sandra Bullock decided it was time to kiss off an increasingly cliché-riddled genre.
In 2002, after snagging the ultimate romantic comedy catch (Hugh Grant) in Two Weeks Notice, Sandra Bullock decided it was time to kiss off an increasingly cliché-riddled genre.
"They're not funny, they're not romantic, they're not written well for women any more," she says, explaining her decision in typically no-bull fashion. "It was basically all crap. I did the last good one. I'm done."
It had been a passionate box office affair that began in earnest with the charms of 1995's While You Were Sleeping. It lasted through the supernatural high jinks of 1998's Practical Magic, the mild diversions of 1999's Forces of Nature and the good-natured goofiness of 2000's Miss Congeniality.
She suffered from career burnout in 2002, which led to a year-and-a-half break from movies.
Bullock, who turns 45 on July 26, made it clear she wanted a clean break from the laugh track and instead flirted with Oscar-worthy drama (2004's Crash) or wistful fantasy (2006's The Lake House). Even the 2005 sequel to Miss Congeniality ditched any romantic elements.
But then she received a proposal. Or rather, The Proposal. The role of Margaret Tate, a high-maintenance book editor from Canada who blackmails her put-upon assistant into marrying her to avoid deportation, proved to be an offer she couldn't refuse - but only after she turned it down more times than Doris Day rejected Rock Hudson's advances.
"Finally, someone said, Look, you can't say no if you haven't read it. Just read it, and then we can pass'," she says. "It piqued my interest."
For one thing, Margaret wasn't another girl next door. She's more an overbearing ogress in the corner office you secretly covet. Her cutting remarks, such as telling an immigration officer he has "a roomful of gardeners and delivery boys to tend to", have caused audiences to gasp.
As Bullock observes: "Being nice and adorable isn't funny. I enjoyed being a bitch. Everyone does. They are always better written and it's a relief."
Little by little, other pieces fell into place, and the actress realised she'd been seduced - not unlike how husband Jesse James, 39, her heavily tattooed Motorhead husband of nearly four years and one-time host of the Discovery Channel's Monster Garage, wore down her resistance to his rough outward appearance with a series of courtly emails.
She kept waiting for something to go awry, and it never did. First, friend Ryan Reynolds (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) was mentioned as the male lead.
"That's when you go, I don't want anyone else to do it'," she says. "Then I was sure that they would screw up the rest of the casting. And they didn't. Then they said, Here's this woman director we like, Anne Fletcher. Can she come and meet you?' I met her and within five minutes, she said the word vagina, and I'm like (her voice rising giddily), I love her'."
The feeling is mutual as Fletcher notes that Bullock - still adept at physical humour as her dockside descent down a rickety wooden ladder in nosebleed-high Louboutin heels in The Proposal proves - has yet to be replaced in Hollywood's pantheon of top funny ladies.
"She has charisma and likability that you can't buy or learn," says Fletcher. "The soul of who she is as a person comes out on screen. She doesn't mind looking like a fool if it's best for the movie."
Bullock's return to comedy has clearly brightened her mood. A happy energy fills the suite of the Four Seasons hotel, perhaps the result of early word of mouth that has been glowing.
Her outfit reflects her upbeat state of mind. The tomboy in her might enjoy hopping on a Honda off-road dirt bike now and then. But, today, she's a vision in girly-girl glam, with cascading tendrils of casually tossed hair, a sexy one-shoulder top, a flowery skirt that clings like a second skin and stiletto power shoes that swaddle her feet in chic grey suede.
Remark on her footwear's wow factor and her down to earthiness comes out: "I only buy shoes if they can go with more than one outfit, like jeans. Otherwise, never mind."
Her wardrobe might be flexible, but she remains stubbornly wary of labelling The Proposal as a romantic comedy. "It's a comedy that has romance in it," she insists. "When you say romantic comedy, everyone cringes."
Screwball comedy? That label is more to her liking, given that she and Reynolds spend much of the film engaged in the sort of rhythmic banter that was perfected by the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in the 1930s and 1940s.
"I've never had a dance partner like Sandra Bullock," says Reynolds, 32, who has done the romantic-comedy two-step before in Van Wilder, Just Friends and Definitely, Maybe.
"It is incredibly rare someone as gorgeous as Sandra is so capable of self-effacing humour. My theory is that she has no idea of how gorgeous she is. She has a full life outside of Hollywood. The audience taps into that."
Screwball or romantic, there is at least one sign of progress in The Proposal's depiction of a relationship. Save for a snide aside by Andrew's 90-year-old "gammy" (the irrepressible Betty White), little is made of Margaret being older than Andrew - a reality reflected in Bullock's own marriage to James, who is five years younger.
She often finds promoting her films to be a grind. "The worst thing is when the film stinks, you know it and they know it. But we pretend we don't know it."
But doing publicity for The Proposal has been a breeze. That's in spite of everyone asking about the same scene: Bullock, fresh from the shower, and Reynolds, stripped down after a workout, accidentally bump into each other naked, and she flops on top of him. It might be PG nudity with all their naughtiest bits coyly covered, but given that the actress generally shuns such exposure, it's memorable nonetheless.
Pro that she is, she has quips at the ready. "Do I know Ryan? I know him more now than I ever have. He does have a birthmark and it's oddly shaped.
"If you like a guy who looks like that and is nice and talented and all that. Fine. If that's your thing. It's so not my thing. So that is why I was able to distance myself from it.
"It didn't become sexually charged, you know."
The Proposal is in cinemas from July 24.
