January 13, 1996
Web posted at: 10:55 a.m. EST
From Correspondent Bill Tush
NEW YORK (CNN) -- It's been an incredible couple of years for actress Sandra Bullock. After hit films like "Speed" and "While You Were Sleeping," she has become one of the biggest stars in the film business. But when her good friend comedian Dennis Leary was putting his film "Two if by Sea" together, she wasn't his first choice as co-star.
In the movie said to be a romantic comedy. Leary is Frank, a small-time thief who's on the run with Roz, his longtime girlfriend, played by Bullock.
But even though Bullock and Leary are old friends, he didn't have her in mind when he began the movie, he says. "We hatched it with nobody in mind," he says, until it slowly dawned on him that Bullock could be Roz, and he asked her to play the role.
For box office results, he couldn't have made a better choice. Bullock has risen to super-stardom in a short time.
Her name was even a category on the game show "Jeopardy" recently. "That's what I heard," Bullock says with a laugh. Leary doesn't bother to conceal his amazement. "You really were a category? A whole category?" he asks her.
Apparently, the category included questions about her films, including "Speed" and "While You Were Sleeping."
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