Sandra Bullock made her first-ever appearance at Comic-Con on Tuesday where she, along with director Alfonso Cuarón, discussed "Gravity," a sci-fi drama that also stars George Clooney.
In this sci-fi thriller, Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is on her first Space Shuttle mission and is accompanied by veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (Clooney), who is in command of the shuttle because it's his last flight.
During a routine spacewalk, debris crash into the space shuttle, leaving it almost destroyed. The two astronauts are left stranded alone in space with limited breathable oxygen. They have no communication from Earth thus forcing them to cooperate by themselves.
"There was no improvising. The physical part was so scary," explained Bullock of her role.
"The challenge was that we didn't want to create a new world," explained Cuarón. "The goal was for the film to feel like one of those IMAX documentaries, like a Discovery Channel documentary that went absolutely wrong. We used current technology. We didn't invent anything."
According to Alfonso Cuarón, it was an "intense experience" for Bullock, especially because she filmed her scenes locked inside a 9-by-9-foot cube before a mechanical camera controlled by Cuarón with a remote. "The cube was designed to continually capture her point of view while floating alone in space," the director said.
"What was even scarier than that," Bullock weighed in, "was the technology that was being created on the spot." She added that Cuarón "was like the evil puppeteer. If that robot did decide to continue through my face, I couldn't have gotten out of the way," she said, referring to the camera that was being used while she was doing her "cube" scenes.
"We went through pains to try to honor reality as much as we could. In terms of the sign of what you see and pretty much what it is up there ... it's a work of fiction, so we don't pretend to say that everything is perfect. In frame of that fiction we try to be as accurate as possible to reality," explained the director.
It didn't hurt either that he cast two of Hollywood's most versatile actors, with a known friendship since before they both made it big and a few Oscars to decorate their homes. Although George Clooney couldn't make it to Comic-Con, Sandra and Alfonso mentioned the wonders of working with him.
"You're always grateful when you're working with George because he wants everyone else to look better," said Sandra. "He always wants everyone else to have their moment. It's never the narcissistic actor/director/writer/producer who's like 'I need to make myself as good as possible.' He's always looking out for everyone," she continued.
"George noticed that Sandy and I were struggling with a couple of scenes. We were all the time discussing the scenes and doing rewrites in terms of the dialogue and how to best convey the emotions that we wanted to convey. Suddenly, out of the blue, he offered to help. Actually, one of the scenes, one of my favorite scenes, he rewrote," Alfonso added.
"Gravity" is expected to premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 28, and a worldwide release on October 4.
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