Page 2
Harper Lee continued to write but never published another novel after To Kill a Mockingbird. “She wrote some beautiful short stories and articles that when you read them are just as moving as To Kill A Mockingbird," said Bullock. "These beautiful pieces of life… But like Doug said so well in the speech that he wrote for her: ‘People are always asking what’s next? Why can they not be supportive and okay with only one?’
Why does she need to write anything else? You might not be able to top that. I hate to draw analogies, but musicians who have created the ultimate album of themselves and of passion and of love and they did it under their own umbrella and they weren’t influenced by anyone else and they put it out and it reaches everyone – what does everyone say? ‘Oh, sophomore second is going to be a flop.’ That’s when the studios and other people say, ‘You need to do this. You need to do that.’ It’s almost like, and I’m speculating, her entire lifetime lived up to this book. You’d probably have to live some more lifetime, that same amount that’s so powerful. That’s her life. Her father is represented in that book. What kind of man must he have been to raise his daughters like he did? Her sister is an attorney, still practicing, and she’s older than Nelle. Blind and deaf and still practicing. These women are so strong and alive and smart and evolved.”
Sandra Bullock never had any intention of trying to meet Harper Lee. “I never would have crossed that boundary. She doesn’t want to be met. She pulled herself out of the limelight. Just because I’m an actress playing her doesn’t give me the right to go knock on her door and go, ‘I need to understand!’ I admire her enough and have enough respect for her to give her her privacy. I never would have done it, never would have crossed it, because I wouldn’t want anyone to cross that boundary with me. And again, maybe she doesn’t want her life told. She doesn’t support the productions of To Kill A Mockingbird in her own town, you know? So, for me to go ring her doorbell, ‘Nell! How you doing?’ She probably has no idea who I am, which is fine with me. I was portraying the essence of what Doug wrote with the bits and pieces that were my job to find out. But, my job did not entitle me to go hunt her down and disrupt her life, which she is very clear in establishing to be away from this circus.”
As an Actress, Bullock has Faced the Pressure of ‘What’s Next?’: “Sure, but it doesn’t affect me any more. It used to. I used to react by just jumping on another project and not being 100%. There were things about it that were wonderful, but not 100%. And I’ll always make that. You go, ‘Well, let’s try it and I’m lucky to be working.’ But I don’t react that way any more. I react by my own clock, not by the demands of someone else’s schedule and let me tell you, it’s a great relief.
I’m lucky because I’ve gotten to that place in life where I have interests outside the acting business that are just as exciting to me, that allow me the luxury of going, ‘I’m going to go here for a while, until something comes along that gets me scared.’ I’ve decided to just do things that scare you. And then you go, ‘Omigod, I love this. I can’t do it.’ And then when you sign on to do it then you start panicking. ‘How am I going to do this?’ And it forces you to cross another bridge in that territory. You could screw it up or it could be something incredible.”
Asked if Infamous scared her, Bullock replied, “Oh, yeah. I kept asking Doug, ‘Why do you want me to do this? Do you need funding for this film? Is that what it is?’ People keep asking me, ‘What did he say?’ I don’t recall, but he had such a clear answer, obviously. I thought, ‘If this man has spent four years of his life writing this story, I don’t think he’s going to screw it up by asking someone to be in the role that will take the story down.’ I don’t want to be the one piece of this film that doesn’t make it work and I don’t think I am.
Actors want to branch out and do all kinds of work. All actors want to work in all kinds of fields, but whether or not you are allowed to or asked to or given the job is the tricky part. You can want all you want, but if you don’t get hired? It’s a really tricky situation.”
Page 3: Sandra Bullock on Catherine Keener, Toby Jones, and Premonition
