In The Proposal, Sandra Bullock portrays Margaret, a cruel, take-no-prisoners publishing house boss who constantly terrorizes her underlings — especially her overworked, ambitious assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds). Although there are plans for her to score a hefty promotion, when it’s discovered the Canadian-born Margaret’s work visa is about to expire, she has to do some quick thinking of she’ll be back flipping burgers in the Canadian wilds. Even though she treats Andrew like crap, Margaret talks him into a marriage of convenience — he agrees in exchange for his own promotion. When a nosy immigration officer throws a wrench in the works, Margaret and Andrew demonstrate their “devotion” by heading to Alaska to celebrate the 90th birthday of Andrew’s grandmother (Betty White) and his screwball family. Check out our interview with both Reynolds and Bullock (plus: this week in home video) after the jump.
Sandra, since you’ve done several romantic comedies before, what attracted you to The Proposal?
BULLOCK: “Well, I had stopped doing them however many years ago — six or seven years ago. I just stopped. They’re terrible. They’re bad. They’re not funny and so they shouldn’t be a called romantic comedy because most of the time they’re not romantic. They shouldn’t be called romantic comedy. They should be called that other kind of film. I don’t call this a romantic comedy. It reminds me of the films from the ’30s and ’40s where there was a landscape and a story and drama was allowed to be in there. You can’t have good comedy without drama in it, and they don’t generally write well for women in romantic comedies. I love my comedy too much to bastardize it with bad romantic comedy. So I was like, ‘Okay. That’s done.’ I’m going to find another way to work and do it in a way that I love. So I’m not calling this a romantic comedy. That’s how I got by it.”
What are you calling it, then?
BULLOCK: “A motion picture.”
REYNOLDS: “Let’s just call it a talkie.”
After doing The Proposal, do you feel differently towards immigration now?
BULLOCK: “All of us are immigrants. Native American Indians are not immigrants. We’re all immigrants.”
REYNOLDS: “I actually am Canadian. Seriously, I can’t talk about green card issues right now. I have a deal with the INS going…”
Sandra, how many takes did you have to do of the sidewalk scene where you are wearing the pencil skirt and have the stilettos on? Was it tough getting back into an upright position?
BULLOCK: “We did the skirts on purpose. I told the costume designer, ‘Make everything as constricting as possible.’ That gives you some physical comedy.”
Which scenes was the most challenging: the nude scene, being felt up by Betty White or Oscar Nunez shaking his male toolbox?
BULLOCK: “Let me just say…you put it that way and I think, ‘God, we shot a soft porn.’ Let me just say that Betty White feeling me up was the best second base I’ve ever had. She was tender, but firm. She found them instantly which is not easy. She was cupping, gentle and loving. I felt satisfied afterwards. The hardest part with Oscar really was watching this amazing comedian, this actor. I would stop him in the middle of the scenes and go, ‘How did you make that character do that?’ When he would do his scenes I just had to sit there and take it. However close he wanted to give it I took it.”
Oscar said when you did the scene with him, that was the first day you met, too.
BULLOCK:” It was. But to his credit, when he was on the floor and had to do that part, I was looking in his eyes on the chair and I had to sit there. I saw his eyes go from, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so exposed’ to ‘I’m going to give you my gift. I’m going to give you my gift.’ It was hard for me not to laugh and to not feel pain because I couldn’t contribute in any way shape or form. I couldn’t help him. It was all him.”
REYNOLDS: “Oscar has this great ability to express unbelievable amounts of vulnerability in a single look that’s hysterical.”
BULLOCK: “Or a single gyration. It was so hard. Then of course doing it with Ryan, it could’ve been really weird. Had we dated in the past I’d have been like, ‘I’ve been there. Done that.’ But we didn’t and it was like he comes in and you go, ‘Now I’m going to see you.’ I just didn’t want him to laugh when he saw me like that.”
REYNOLDS: “You know you’ve made a bad move, because you don’t normally combine nudity with stunts. This isn’t like Cirque du Soliel porn. It’s a movie. You have these scenes where you slam into each other. You fall onto the ground and I would always know that something popped out wrong because the cameraman would go, ‘Oh!’ By hour four I had abandoned the fig leaf or whatever the hell they gave me and I was just throwing caution to the end and other things into the wind.”
BULLOCK: [Laughs] “Okay. God. That sounds so crazy.”
Although you knew each other before doing the film, what did you learn from each other while working together? Also, what was it like working with Betty White?
REYNOLDS: “Mostly birthmarks is what I learned about Sandra that I wasn’t aware of — that little Italy one. No. Look, I always say that chemistry is something impossible to manufacture. It’s either there or it isn’t. The fact that you’re friends doesn’t necessarily equate to great chemistry. So we learned early on that we had it and I was so grateful for that. It’s like one of the few magical things about film that still exists. There’s no way to manipulate that. It’s either there magically or it’s not. We had it and it was amazing. To answer your question about Betty, I could see the movie without her.”
BULLOCK: “I tried to cut her out.”
REYNOLDS: “Yeah. I like attention and then suddenly Betty comes on set. Betty has the best exit line I’ve ever heard for a movie. I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing this. On her last day, I’ve never seen a crew give such an enormous standing ovation to somebody. Grown grips with ZZ Top beards crying because Betty is leaving. Betty turns around and says, ‘I want everyone to know that this is the most fun I’ve ever had on a film set.’”
BULLOCK: “And everyone is crying.”
REYNOLDS: “I was crying. And as she walked out the door she turned back and said, ‘Standing up.’”
BULLOCK: “I agree with Ryan, you don’t know…there have been people who have worked together in films who despised each other and had enormous chemistry. I think the one thing, I got away from comedy because it wasn’t being done in the way that I loved and the way that I could do it. It made me sad because I felt like it wasn’t appreciated and no one was writing it so, ‘I’ll abandon it. I’ll never be able to do it.’ It came back and not only did it come back to me, it came back with a man who wrote a role that Carol Burnett would’ve gotten. Anyone else back in the day would’ve gotten it. They don’t do this anymore. Then you read the other roles and you read who was cast and you went, ‘Oh, my God, the things that I’m going to learn. I get to have that moment of timing in comedy and making it convincing and working hard and making people laugh and telling a great story.’ Then they said that Ryan was going to do it and I said, ‘That’s the only person that I could do this with. That’s why I want to step back into it.’ I was a little worried that the familiarity would be a little weird, but I think for me everything is musical in my life. For me timing is a rhythm. Ryan and I can be doing a scene facing the camera and somehow our back and forth and our rhythm, we know when to stop and when to volley, when to make the sound. It’s like music. With Betty, her line about the Easter eggs, it’s so innocent. That’s to Anne’s credit. I mean, yeah, she was a choreographer, but she was born to be a director. You need to have the ability to figure out people’s rhythms. It all starts from the script. Those words and attitudes. I was so thankful that I got to go back and I felt bad that I had abandoned something that I guess I was naturally given and lucky to have an loved all of my life, but didn’t love it anymore because I didn’t get to do it the right way. I really am thankful that I got to do it the right way with people who taught me how to do it better. Do you know what I mean? I had to raise the bar and I was so thankful.”
REYNOLDS: “I just want to add, and I’m not one to mythologize other actors too much, but obviously Sandy is a gorgeous woman…”
BULLOCK: “Thank you, Ryan.”
REYNOLDS: “No. But I think the reason that people fall in love with her is that she doesn’t seem to know it in the same way. I think that’s the thing. She doesn’t seem to know it in a way that other gorgeous people maybe would. I think that’s what makes her so accessible. I think that people see that and that she has an ability to laugh at herself and you just don’t find that too often.”
BULLOCK: “I’m not sleeping with you. It’s not going to happen.”
Everyone says you’re such a likable character.
BULLOCK: “I’m a good actress. That’s why you know me as likable.”
How did you put that likable energy into such a bitchy character?
BULLOCK: “Because I am a bitch. I am a horrible, evil bitch but I’m a good actress and I can act like a really sweet person. Everyone has it in them. Ask Betty. It’s such a joy to be able to play someone who is angry. It’s a joy and a relief. Having to be nice all the time is exhausting and boring, but to play someone who just has that under layer of unhappiness, you know that it comes from someplace. There’s a crack in the veneer. I said for three months that I could be a bitch and people were like, ‘Why are being that way?’ I said, ‘It’s my character. I’m in character. I don’t have to apologize for being this way .’ I take it home with me. I’m a bitch because I’m working as a bitch.”
REYNOLDS: “It feels like resting.”
BULLOCK: “It was pure heaven. I love it. We all have it in us. It’s who I am. No. People who do comedy really are the nastiest people on the planet. Animal lover Betty White.”
Did anyone or any of the films from the ‘30s or ‘40s help to influence your character?
BULLOCK: “I didn’t watch any films. This film had it all in the script. Once all the pieces, once I met Anne and I knew what she wanted and that we wanted the same things and once they said Ryan was onboard and once the casting came together, you saw what it wanted to be. We didn’t relate it to anything else.”
You didn’t want to emulate anything else?
BULLOCK: “Nothing, nothing at all. The beauty of it was that everything was a character. The setting of Alaska, which we’ve lost in filmmaking, especially in comedies - we don’t remember the setting. I love people in elements that they’re not used to. Typical fish out of water. But take this gorgeous setting of Alaska where we shot and like Rockport, Massachusetts. I didn’t know places like this existed. The costume designer designing clothes that helped the comedy, that sold the character. Each and every detail was so perfectly thought of, what wouldn’t be here. That’s a lost art. People order clothes out of a catalogue, put it on an actor and everything is generic. This was building something from the ground up. I give it to Pete [Chiarelli]. I just bow at his feet for writing this. Every single character, every single person in this film you could watch for two hours and make a whole other film on and that’s great writing, except for me. You get that and you just want more of that.”
REYNOLDS: “Pete and I actually worked together five years ago on The Amityville Horror. I think that’s when he began writing this script.”
BULLOCK: “I can’t see him as a studio executive.”
REYNOLDS: “Believe me, I have. That’s the reason he isn’t anymore.”
Ryan, any word on the X-Men Origins spin-off movie about your character Deadpool?
REYNOLDS: “Yeah, it’s in the works. That’s about all I can really say. It’s something that they’re actually hashing out.”
BULLOCK: “It’s very top secret, though.”
REYNOLDS: “It seems to be.”
Do you have any creative input into the “Deadpool” project?
REYNOLDS: “Yeah. I’m meeting with them all the time. We’re in constant contact and it’s just a matter of breaking the spine of the story and figuring out who it is and who’s the villain. Look, I’m into any role in which I get to kick Captain America in the nuts.”
Sandra, did doing The Proposal change the way you treat your assistants during the movie?
BULLOCK: “Katie! [her assistant in the room] Does that answer your question?”
REYNOLDS: “Katie, give me a kidney now!”
BULLOCK: “I hate the word ‘assistant.’ No one works for me. I work with everyone because I couldn’t do anything without the people that I work with. But there are so many people in our industry that we know well that you’re like, ‘That did not come out of your mouth.’”
REYNOLDS: “We’ve all had that moment where the agent thought he hit hold. You hear, it’s like Hamburger Hill in the background.”
Can you talk about your plans for the future?
BULLOCK: “I have no plans.”
Since you are not doing “romantic comedies” anymore, what else will you be doing?
BULLOCK: “I’m doing a motion picture now. I’m working on a motion picture.”
Another funny one with romance involved?
BULLOCK: “No. It’s based on a book.”
If there is a really good romantic comedy script you happen to read, would you do it if you liked it?
BULLOCK: “I haven’t the slightest idea. I’m like the queen of planning and scheduling and I’m trying very hard to stop it. I just want to finish what I’m doing and go home. I want to have a weekend. I want to have breakfast, a stack of pancakes. I don’t want to not enjoy where I am at this very moment. So, every time I plan something the exact opposite happens. I hope that I’m always satisfied and content like I am right at this very moment. But I have no idea.”
REYNOLDS: “You do it so well though. Every time I hangout with you I think I want to be you. I want to be married to [stunt performer] Jesse James.”
Betty talked about meeting Jesse and mentioned all his tattoos. She said that if you couldn’t sleep at night, you could always roll over and read him.
BULLOCK: “Every time he came around, it was like a flirt fest.”
REYNOLDS: “Are you talking about me?”
BULLOCK: “No. There’s a little something going on with her and Jesse. There was a little eyeing and touching.”
Is it unnerving watching a TV show where people are basically trying to kill your husband every week?
BULLOCK: “No one is trying to kill him. It’s him against himself. It’s him creating and pushing the envelope. Yeah, it is very hard.” [Laughs]
Sandra, your nude scene in The Proposal is very bold and look very realistic – many have called it fantastic.
BULLOCK: “Thank you for that.”
Can you talk about…
BULLOCK: “Ryan’s penis? I can. At length.” [Laughs]
REYNOLDS: “In great detail.”
On that note, thanks guys.
REYNOLDS: “No, thank you.”
The Proposal - Bonus Features: Blu-ray, Single & 2-Disc DVD – Audio commentary with director Anne Fletcher, bloopers, deleted scenes with optional commnetary, outtake and a hilarious alternate ending with optional commentary. 2-Disc DVD & Blu-ray - a Digital Copy of The Proposal.
The Mighty Boosh: The Special Edition
With episodes taken from all three seasons of the BAFTA-nominated, British, BBC comedy series, this seven-disc DVD box set takes fans on a laugh-filled trip through time and space to the enchanted, peculiar and exciting world of The Mighty Boosh. Chronicling the adventures of fanatical zookeepers Howard Moon (Julian Barratt, Nathan Barley) and Vince Noir (Noel Fielding, of The IT Crowd) they, along with Naboo the Shaman and hi Gorilla familiar Bollo, embark on weird and outlandish exploits — featuring every last shred of the surreal comedy. Bonus Features: Six featurettes, Pilot Episode deleted scene & outtakes, Live Night links, Cinema Trailer, art cards, a booklet and a sticker sheet, Bob Fossil audio and Paramount Zookeeper sketches.
Legend Of The Seeker: The Complete First Season
Taken from Terry Goodkind’s popular books series The Sword of Truth (25 million sold worldwide and translated into more than 20 languages), the first season edition of Legend Of The Seeker contains all 22 one-hour episodes on five-discs. Using state-of-the-art visual effects against the exotic and rugged New Zealand landscape, Legend of the Seeker: The Complete First Season chronicles the metamorphosis of woodsman Richard Cypher (Craig Horner) into The Seeker, a magical leader who joins with a striking and mystifying woman, Kahlan Amnell (Bridget Regan), on an epic voyage to stop the bloodthirsty, menacing tyrant Darken Rahl (Craig Parker) from conquering all mankind. Bonus Features: “Forging the Sword: Crafting a Legend” and “Words of Truth: A Conversation with Terry Goodkind” featurettes, deleted scenes and audio commentaries.
Flashpoint: The First Season
Set and filmed in Toronto and inspired by actual events, Flashpoint (starring Enrico Colantoni, Hugh Dillon and Amy Jo Johnson) captures the expertise, drama and intensity of an elite tactical team — known as the Strategic Response Unit (SRU). Each member of the Strategic Response Unit team uses intuition and judgment to resolve extreme situations that regular offices can not handle. Bonus Features: Audio commentary from director David Frazee on the pilot episode “Scorpio” and the two featurettes “Flashpoint: Behind The Scenes Season One” and “The Human Cost Of Heroism.”
Marvel Animation: 6 Film Set
The first compilation of the mightiest super heroes in the Marvel Universe are combined in collection. Ultimate Avengers: The Movie – The fiery story of six very independent heroes, who like it or not, must fight to save the world. BF: Two featurettes, DVD-ROM game, Avengers Trivia Track. Ultimate Avengers 2 – To save mankind the heroes join up with Black Panther. BF: Featurette, gag reel, DVD-ROM game. Doctor Strange – Dr. Stephen Strange test his powers against the most evil entity mankind has known. BF: Three featurettes. The Invincible Iron Man – Tony Stark must put on his armored suit to become Iron Man to battle the 3,000-year-old Emperor Mandarin. BF: Alternate Opening Seqeunce, 3 featurettes. Next Avengers: Heroes Of Tomorrow – The teen children of the Avengers join Hulk to battle Ultron. BF: Two featurettes. Hulk Vs. – Hulk clashes with Wolverine and Thor in two films. BF: Two featurettes and two audio commentaries for both films.
The Killing Room
An all-star ensemble including Academy Award-winner Timothy Hutton, Chloe Sevigny, Clea Duvall, Peter Stormare, Nick Cannon and Shea Whigham portray four individuals who volunteer for a seemingly-innocent research study to earn some extra cash, only to be told once they arrive at the clinic’s testing room that only one person will make it out of the room alive. This suspenseful psychological thriller — directed by Jonathan Liebesman (Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) — became an instant critical hit at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival premiere. Horrifying, highly-charged and unpredictable, The Killing Room is a tale of science gone very wrong.
Futurama: The Complete Collection 1999-2009
If you thought you had all The Fry, Leela, Professor Farnsworth and Bender that you could handle, get ready for more, because you’re about to get as much of the Planet Express as you can take in this essential 19-Disc compilation — Futurama: The Complete Collection — with all 72 episodes housed in a limited edition collectible Bender Head package that includes a detachable rubber antenna (with only 25,000 copies being produced one time, ever). From The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Futurama debuted in 1999 and immediately gained a faithful cult following. Cancelled after four seasons, an outcry from the fans and the show’s success on DVD helped revive Futurama for four all-new adventures that debuted on DVD in 2007-2009. Recently, the series has been resurrected again for its sixth season set to air on Comedy Central in 2010. Bonus Features: A letter from Matt Groening and producer David X. Cohen, commentary from various cast members, numerous deleted scenes, an interactive still gallery, blooper reels and more.
Girlfriends: The Seventh Season
Produced by Kelsey Grammer and created by Mara Brock Akil, in the seventh season of the well-regarded sitcom Girlfriends, the friends continue to discover, often the hard way, that the more that things appear to change, the more they really remain the same. Bonus Features: Mara Brock Akil comments on selected episodes.
Jim Jeffries: I Swear To God
If you’re looking for some standing comedy with a twist (and a little antipodean-meets-the-limeys accent), then check out I Swear To God, from Australian-born comic Jim Jeffries. Taped before a live audience at the Skirball Center at New York University, the concert showcases Jefferies’ unique, shocking style, as he tackles such subjects as death, national health standards, religion, studs and sluts, panda bears, sex toys, “hurtful” words, and orgasms as we age. Brushing up his comic skills in England — where he has been called “Britain’s most offensive stand-up” — Jeffries toured the U.S. comedy-club circuit with the likes of Denis Leary and Jim Norton, before making his HBO debut last year on the stand-up series Down and Dirty with Jim Norton.
NOW ON BLU-RAY:
Drag Me To Hell: Unrated Director’s Cut
Putting away his Spider-man superhero toys, director Sam Raimi has returned to the type of filmmaking he does the best — terror/horror movies with a dose of wonderfully witty black humor. In Drag Me To Hell, Alsion Lohman plays Christine Brown, an ambitious bank loan officer, who’s idyllic life with her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) begins to go to hell when Christine denies a strange, desperate old lady an extension on her home loan. Angered that she can become homeless, the old lady puts the “Curse of Lamia” on Christine, which condemns her to Hell. In an effort to keep the demons away and to save her very soul, Christine goes to a psychic to save her soul. But Hell isn’t about to let go of her soul that easy. Like Evil Dead and Army Of Darkness, Drag Me To Hell is classic Raimi at his devilish best. (Also on DVD) Bonus Features: “Production Video Diaries” featurette, a Digital Copy and BD-LIVE!
American Violet
An uncompromising account of a real life struggle, in our time, against an unjust legal system, American Violet (based on a true story) recounts how a innocent young woman faces seemingly unbeatable odds when she tries to clear her name of a crime. Dee Roberts (played by Nicole Beharie) takes on a battle that will change her life and the Texas justice system forever. Written and produced by Bill Haney and directed and produced by Tim Disney, American Violet also stars Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton, Xzibit, Charles S. Dutton, Michael O’Keefe and Alfre Woodard. (Also on DVD). Bonus Features: Director’s audio commentary, Telluride Film Festival interviews and theatrical trailer.
Land Of The Lost
Will Ferrell plays Dr. Rick Marshall, a quantum paleontologist considered a has-been and quack by his scientific peers, for his belief in time travel. But, with the help of his ambitious assistant (Anna Friel) and his redneck, fireworks salesman buddy (Danny McBride) he builds a machine that indeed takes them all back into time — all the way back to the time, in an alternate universe, where dinosaurs roam the Earth. The only way the Doctor and his friends can find their way home (after losing the time machine) is with the help of the ape-like Chaka (Jorma Taccone). (Also on DVD). Bonus Features: Audio commentary with director Brad Silberling and five featurette. BD-LIVE!
Adoration
The latest film from iconic Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan (the Academy Award-nominated director for The Sweet Hereafter) is a compelling and heartwarming story of a young boy who uses the internet to dig into his past and reveal the surprising truth about his family. He must question everything he knows in order to learn who he is and who his father was. Adoration presents a world where there is no such thing as us-versus-them and the truth is never as simple as right and wrong. Adoration is a riveting thriller that speaks to our connections — with each other, our family, and technology. Starring Scott Speedman, Rachel Blanchard, Devon Bostick and Arsinée Khanjian. (Also on DVD). Bonus Features: Deleted scenes, Interview with Atom Egoyan and four featurettes. BD exclusive featurette “The Fabulous Picture Show.”
