‘It was the smartest thing I ever did. It's an ensemble piece but I don't always feel I need to be in the lead. All the best parts aren't always in the leads so if it means taking smaller parts to get the best work I'll do it.' In her $6 million role as law student Ellen Roark in ‘A Time to Kill' she had to elevate herself from girl-next-door, the mistress of the one-liners rather than the bedroom, the funny, dumpy gal pal, to a sexually brash character. ‘It was hard work for she wasn't me -- well, she wasn't the public me. I found it uncomfortable but by the time I got to the set I was ready to work. Lots of music and concentration in my trailer before I was ‘'on''. ‘ She is no fuddy-duddy although she's not sure about her father seeing her in sex scenes. To ease the tension during filming in Mississippi she made elaborate arrangements to celebrate Schumacher's birthday. The carpenters on the set built her a large, tiered white cake ( they would, wouldn't they?) and she got into it wearing a fluorescent pink bikini strung with multi-coloured balloons. As the party roared on she burst out of the cake as her bikini balloons popped and glitter dust covered everyone. Then, the dramatic moment as she ‘mooned' Schumacher with her buttocks which had his age printed on them.
She was, she says with a sly smile, just showing she was just one of the guys. There was the possibility of a nude scene in ‘A Time to Kill' but it was vetoed:' Why interrupt the flow of the story to all of a sudden have a naked body where everybody's inspecting my body. And laughing! ‘You know, it would have been a distraction. I am sooo built.....' Bullock rolls around in hysterics but it is, in part, a way of deflecting her undercover -- in every sense -- arrangement with McConaughey. She has a book he gave her by her bedside. He visited her in London while she was filming ‘In Love and War' the true story of Ernest Hemingway's affair with nurse Agnes von Kurowsky. Chris O'Donnell ( director Schumacher's Robin in ‘Batman Forever') plays Papa and she is the woman who inspires him to write ‘ A Farewell to Arms' and haunted him most of his life. It was McConaughey who inspired his co-star to rave endlessly about him. ‘He's a great spirit. Somebody asked him if he felt like Sandra Bullock in a man's body and he said we are exactly the same in how we live our lives and enjoy our work. He's one of the best things that have come across my path. We are looking for another project years down the line because we really want it to be great. ‘He gave me a lot of strength. I learned more from Matthew than he did from me. He's an exceptional human being and he is so gifted and talented and raw -- he just doesn't make excuses. He doesn't try and play into anything that you might want him to be. He's who he is -- your heart just thanks him for it. He's great -- he's become a really powerful force in my life. We have absolutely fabulous chemistry together. ‘Are we lovers? No. ‘Why am I blushing?' She then recommends McConaughey for everything from President to...well, the tape recorder ran out before she got to Sainthood. Her coyness about their relationship may be because of her affair with actor Tate Donovan who she worked with in her first significant role in 1992's ‘Love Potion No. 9'. Rumour said he couldn't handle her success. She says they split up before ‘the big bang of my career'. She was involved with film technician Don Padilla who she met filming ‘The Net' but they separated last year.
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