A twisted comedy (Bullock says it's not a rom-com) about a woman who thinks she needs to change to make herself fit in, All About Steve was produced by Bullock, written by Kim Barker, and directed by Phil Traill.
Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Thomas Haden Church and Ken Jeong Press Conference:
Sandra, did you have a lot of input into your character’s look, with her clothing, hair and boots? What kind of voice did you have in that?Sandra Bullock: "A loud one. It’s an amalgamation of our writer, Kimberly Barker, and a 3 ½-year-old little girl that I spend a lot of time with. There was the shag hair-cut. We’d try things on and they wouldn’t work, but oddly, that worked. There was the evolution of the red boot. The boot was written as a red boot, but there are so many different ways to go with a red boot, as we women know. But, that was the right way to go, and that was $14.95, off of Shoe.com. It was genius. I had an idea of what her body felt like and what she was going to look like, but that’s how it came together."
Why did you choose blonde hair?
Sandra Bullock: "Why not? I saw Mary that way. Kim Barker looks very much like that. I don’t think she would wear the red boots, but she has that shaggy blonde hair. And the 3 ½-year-old that I love so much is very much like that. When I read it, I didn’t see me. You read something and you go, 'If I were me in it, it wouldn’t have the same lightness and sweetness.' I didn’t think you could suspend your belief as easily, unless I went, 'Okay, wipe out everything you know of me, as much as you can, and here’s this sweet person, based on several people that I think are pretty amazing and special.' It’s just what comes to you."
How did you relate to your character? Did you have anything in common?
Sandra Bullock: "Yeah, very much so. It’s that part of us that we’re told to lose once we become an adult. It’s that freedom of expression, joy, excitement and innocence. I had a lisp that I had to get rid of, and I had to have speech therapy. I just go, 'Why? Why did I need to get rid of a lisp?' It’s that whole, 'What is normal?' thing. Why can’t we embrace adults like her? We’re very excited to embrace children like that, but we don’t trust adults who are naive, kind and happy. We want that jaded, cynical and street wise. Why is that?"
Ken Jeong: "In a similar way, my character was a parallel because he was brand new to the job of producer. He was very intimidated by Steve and Hartman Hughes, so there was a little bit of an arc where I felt like, towards the end, he’s coming out of his shell too. I was consciously trying to do that. And, it was great because it wasn’t unlike actually working with them. They’re all so great. It was the second movie I had ever done, and I was so nervous, being around them. I was naturally intimidated, in a good way. I was like, 'Instead of fighting that, just embrace that and use that for the character.'"
Sandra, your character is the Queen of Trivia. What was that like to play?
Sandra Bullock: "My head is filled with so much crap, or facts that I find important, but that some others don’t. Kim Barker’s train of thought is brilliant, in the knowledge of things that she has. She’s brilliant. All the knowledge that I have doesn’t necessarily make me brilliant, but I love acquiring knowledge and then sharing it with everybody else. I love trivia. I love the knowledge of stuff, and I get very excited about it, very much like Mary Horowitz."
What kind of preparation did you do to play members of the media?
Bradley Cooper: "I shadowed an NBC field cameraman, and I actually learned a lot of little tidbits and terms that they used. It was very beneficial."
Sandra Bullock: "He was good at it. A lot of the on-camera stuff that he shot with Hartman Hughes, we used."
Thomas Haden Church: "I learned Spanish."
Bradley Cooper: "Which I always thought was odd."
Thomas Haden Church: "When I was supposed to be learning my dialogue, I chose Spanish instead. It really had very little to do with the movie. It was just one of those things. I’ve always wanted to be able to speak Spanish."
Ken Jeong: "It helped with the Vasquez line."
Thomas Haden Church: "Yeah! I was able to nail that. There was an authenticity there. If I had tried to say Vasquez when I was Spider-Man 3, it would have come out very different."
Ken Jeong: "It would have turned into sand."
Thomas Haden Church: "Yeah, exactly!"
Sandra, your character is at peace with all of her flaws by the end of the film. Do you have any flaws that you’re at peace with now?
Sandra Bullock: "We think we have all these flaws, but Mary Horowitz didn’t think she was flawed. Society made her feel flawed and question how she lived her life. She questioned it and made everything all about Steve, thinking, 'I must go on this path because that’s what society says,' and she realized it wasn’t right for her. But, she met others like her that validated that they aren’t flaws. They are unique traits that make special human beings. Why is it that young boys and men are unique and eccentric and are mavericks when they’re different, but women are odd when we are eccentric or different? What would I wish someone would have said to me at 12, or 8 when I had my speech impediment? What do I want to say to little girls that I know? I keep saying, 'Don’t change. Be who you are,' but society is really strong in their opinions. So, I’ve made peace with the fact that the things that I thought were weaknesses or flaws were just me, and I like them. But, it took me awhile to figure it out."
