  Sandra Bullock at the New York Premiere of 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' held at The Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. (WENN.com) |
NEW YORK -- After winning the best actress Oscar for The Blind Side, despite a spike in her popularity, Sandra Bullock waited two years to accept a new role. She had another deep focus: Personal matters, divorce, renewal, motherhood.
But Bullock's need to grieve over 9/11 finally clinched the deal. She said yes to a role in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, a troubled young boy's drama set against the tragedy of the World Trade Centre in 2001.
"It was a no-brainer," Bullock tells a press conference for Stephen Daldry's challenging film, which has Oscar nomination potential. "I didn't necessarily want to work at that time, when I was approached. But once Stephen came to my home and wouldn't leave (she chuckles) ... He came to my home and we talked about the character and what she was and what she wasn't."
What Bullock's character in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close became was a glorious opportunity to do something substantial and share that experience with her son. After Bullock's marriage to the philandering loser Jesse James fell apart in the week after the joyous outburst of Oscar night, she went ahead with their earlier plans to adopt a child. The 47-year-old Bullock is now the proud single mother to Louis Bardot Bullock, whom the actress found in New Orleans.
But, in her two-year absence, Bullock had people wondering if she had given up acting.
"I wasn't thinking about any of that," the still-strikingly beautiful Bullock says. "I was just happy being a mom ... and I'm still happy being a mom. That just shifted and became my full priority. I was so good there (being a mom) and I still am so good there. And whatever the next opportunity I was given had to be an amazing opportunity for myself and for my son."
Shooting Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close on location in New York -- one of Bullock's favourite cities -- was the amazing opportunity she was seeking. Louis joined her. "So we had a great time. It's no longer 'selfish actress' in the moment. I wanted to have an amazing time with him and, fortunately, Mr. Daldry presented it. In every possible way, it was the best!"
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which is based on the acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, stars Tom Hanks and Bullock as a happily married couple in New York.
He runs a jewelry store. She works in an office that happens to overlook the twin towers in lower Manhattan. Their son -- played by the gifted California youngster Thomas Horn -- is the problem child. He has emotional issues, including a fear of machinery and strangers. In the time-shifting world of the story, he also has to deal with the tragedy of 9/11 because his father is in the World Trade Centre on that fateful day.
"I think," says screenwriter Eric Roth, who adapted the novel, "the greatest challenge was somehow to control the emotion of it because it is a personal story -- and then there is the horribleness of 9/11." Giving credit to Doer, Roth says this challenge was also "to reflect on everybody's sense of loss and the grief that they have to go through."
Bullock concurs. While most 9/11-themed films have done poorly, she sees the need. "People need to talk about it. They should be allowed to talk about it ... There will never be closure, I think, for me and for so many people. I was there and I saw it. I saw the second plane. I saw people helping people and I think, for me, that is what resonates about the city of New York. I saw within a second the entire city come together and help each other in a way that they hadn't the day before ... I have so many memories and emotions about it."
For Bullock, that theme is explored in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close -- and it is inspirational.
STUNNING SILENT PERFORMANCE
Max von Sydow, the 82-year-old Swede who has been talking brilliantly in cinema for 62 years, does not say a word in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
"The Renter," von Sydow says of his mysterious character, "communicates but he communicates in his own way. He 'speaks' but he doesn't talk."
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close takes place just before and after Sept. 11, 2001 in New York. Von Sydow's character chooses not to speak for personal reasons, although he does make life easier by having "Yes" and "No" written on his palms.
"It is a challenge in a way," von Sydow says. "But what do you do as an actor? You try to imagine what is going on in this person's mind and you react to what is going on around you. I didn't feel it was very much different."
He is right. As usual, von Sydow is brilliant in communicating what he needs to 'say' in the role.
bruce.kirkland@sunmedia.ca
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