The Lost City's Sandra Bullock Details Her Key To Creating Comedy After Doing Drama - Exclusive
While film star Sandra Bullock has made countless audiences laugh over the course of her illustrious career with such comedy gems as "Miss Congeniality," "The Proposal," and "The Heat," people tend to forget that she's equally as impressive in several other movie genres. Since her film career kicked off in 1987, Bullock has done everything from action in "Speed" and sci-fi in "Gravity," to thrillers including "Bird Box" and dramas such as "The Blind Side" — the film that earned the esteemed performer her Best Actress Oscar in 2010.
Then, in 2021, Bullock took on one of her most emotionally grueling roles yet in the crime drama "The Unforgivable," playing an ex-convict who tries to right her past wrongs as she re-enters society. Tonally, it's the polar opposite of her new film "The Lost City," which finds Bullock back in the romantic comedy genre with some dramatic underpinnings.
Now in theaters, "The Lost City" stars Bullock as Loretta Sage, a successful romantic novelist who has lost all passion for her work as continues to mourn her late husband. Once a student of archeology, Loretta longed for a grand adventure with her husband, but instead, landed a career where she lived out her travel fantasies on the pages of her novels. Her fictional adventures become strangely real when a billionaire madman, Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), kidnaps Loretta and brings her to a remote jungle that hides an ancient city. It's there where Fairfax wants Loretta to decipher the clues to find the mythical "Crown of Fire," an invaluable artifact she wrote about in her new book, "The Lost City of D." It's a dangerous proposal, and only her Fabio-esque cover model, Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum), can save her.
While it seems like returning to comedy from drama would come easy to someone as seasoned in the genre as Bullock, the actor told Looper in an exclusive interview that there are a number of factors involved for the transition to truly work.
Bullock accidentally discovered her comedy style as a child
Bullock told Looper discovered her gift for comedy as a child by accident — quite literally: "I think something that has always come easily to me, since I was a child, was physical comedy ... My mother was German and had no sense of humor, but when I fell and injured myself, she would laugh," Bullock said, musingly. "So, I realized, 'Oh, falling down a set of stairs — safely — will make my mother laugh.' I took it for granted a lot. Also, I didn't see it written in films in a way that suited my comedic stylings."
While Bullock's brand of comedy makes the transition from drama back to the genre much easier, it doesn't mean that her comedy films will automatically work. It also requires chemistry with a comedic partner like Melissa McCarthy, for example, in "The Heat," or in the case of "The Lost City," someone who has sensibilities to hers like Tatum or Radcliffe.
"'The Heat' was so much fun because I played the straight man to someone who's a loose cannon, but that's a lot of physicality, as well, that I could play. It's such a relief to get back to comedy when you know you can do the style that is yours," Bullock said. "Everyone has different timing in comedy and [you want] to make sure it's compatible. Channing and I are very similar, and then you bring Daniel into the mix, and we go, 'Oh, our styles blend well.' It's a scary thing because you want to be able to do your shtick, but then what happens if it's not in sync with someone else's shtick?"
Produced by Bullock, and directed by Aaron and Adam Nee, "The Lost City" is now playing in theaters.