SIRENS OF THE SUPERNATURAL

A high-spirited adventure into the dark world of two witches

By Bob Thompson

(from the Toronto Sun)

HOLLYWOOD -- Sandra Bullock was determined to see her buddy Nicole Kidman in Kidman's London stage debut in The Blue Room. And that was that.

So Bullock, busy beyond belief, showed up in London recently despite her schedule, and was glad she did.

"Nicole was so good," says Bullock at a Century City hotel room recently. "I was so depressed."

She's kidding, of course.

Kidman and Bullock are friends after filming the witchcraft comedy, Practical Magic, together.

Based on the Alice Hoffman novel, the movie opens Friday after lots of toil and trouble.

For Bullock wasn't doing the $70-million-plus picture without Kidman.

Bullock says she was convinced that Kidman would be perfect in the movie about two witchy sisters who try to survive a love curse, and their supernatural existence with their aunts.

Spearheading the project from the start, Bullock had signed director Griffin Dunne, then she hired Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing to play the aunts. Aidan Quinn was aboard next as a cop investigating an odd disappearance.

But Bullock wasn't prepared to start with anybody but Kidman to play opposite her, even though Kidman was still shooting Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut with her husband Tom Cruise.

Bullock says she learned from the box-office disaster, Speed 2, that you have to protect yourself from starting a movie that isn't ready to start.

Without Kidman, Bullock saw another disaster in the making. And she held out for her.

It was the first time Bullock stood her ground, and she was proud of that fact.

"I had never met her before, but that ís who I wanted," Bullock recalls. "When I'd be asked why, I'd say, 'Just because.' "

Fortune smiled on Bullock.

Kubrick finished Eyes Wide Shut just in time for Kidman to join Bullock and the crew at the San Juan islands Practical Magic location off the coast of Washington state.

"I eventually found out Nicole and I have nothing in common, but we got along so beautifully," says Bullock.

"And the best thing was that we're not at all alike, but we enjoy each other for those very reasons.

"We love to sit down at a table with a bottle of wine, and have a great time, and talk about normal things, about boys, about kids, about clothes. It was very soothing."

Their friendship helped them through the rough times.

"What I loved about working with Nicole was that everything was equal," reports Bullock.

"Everything we had was equal -- the story line, our rehearsal time. It was rewarding to have that, and to have her opposite me, and to watch how she does things. It was a great education."

Practical Magic was a great movie challenge, too.

"In tone," says Bullock, "we knew it was going to be difficult to pull off.

"But that's what I loved the most about it.

"It was the first time I read a story where we have two women roughly the same age, who love each other, support each other, and who aren't stealing each other's husbands."

Having two women as the featured attractions is also a rarity in the movie industry.

"It's something that is never done," says Bullock.

"Have you noticed? They just don't pair women."

According to Dunne, having two female leads was hardly a problem. Blending "the funny, sad, romantic and scary" parts was.

"It was like doing a feminist mix of Rosemary's Baby and Bewitched," recalls Dunne, who admits the easy-going Bullock-Kidman collaboration made the task much easier.

Suggests Bullock: "I love the comedic aspects, the fantasy elements, the darkness.

"As American filmmakers, we are always accused of making films that are so soft, and I think this has such a dark edge -- which we curbed a lot, because people were disturbed by it."

So after playing a witch, does Bullock believe in them now?

"There are different levels of what they call witchcraft," she says. "I believe in karma. I believe in destiny.

"But I like the idea of not knowing. I like believing in something more magical.

"I think it gives hope. I mean, think about it. Why do you fall in love with someone? Why this person and not somebody else?

"What is it when you meet someone and you feel like you've known them all your life? And you get things that no one else gets."

Dunne is less a believer in witchcraft and more of a joker concerning it.

"Witches and magic don't do a lot for me," he says.

"I approached the magic in, yes, a practical way, a holistic way. I liked the earthy approach. I thought it was appropriate.

"Did anything odd happen on the set?

"I wish I could say, 'The face of Satan came out of a bowl, and it was Jack Nicholson.'

"But I can't."

Adds Bullock, "I can't either. But I can say Griffin Dunne is the right director for the movie because he's so weird."

"Weird?" says Dunne. "I don't know what's so weird about me, but then the weird ones never do."

THE PRACTICAL MAGIC FILE:

MUSIC: Stevie Nicks does two songs for the movie. Appropriate, perhaps, since the Fleetwood Mac singer has written about witchcraft before, and has more than a passing interest. In fact, one Nicks song featured in the film is If You Ever Did Believe. Says Dunne smiling: "She denied she was a witch to me." The other Nicks song is Crystal. Both are expected to get lots of airplay.