Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock reunite to talk surviving 'Speed,' 30 years later
LOS ANGELES ― For one night only, the "Speed" bus rolled again.
More than 30 years after the release of the classic 1994 action thriller, stars Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock and director Jan de Bont reunited for a raucous "Speed" screening and the first-ever group discussion on Tuesday. Hundreds of fans waited in vain to get into the sold-out Beyond Fest at the American Cinematheque event, which featured boisterous cheers during every "Speed" action moment.
"We knew we were doing something wacky," Reeves, 60, said of making the movie in which he portrays a police officer trying to prevent a bomb from exploding on a city bus ― driven by a passenger named Annie (Bullock) ― by keeping the speed above 50 miles per hour.
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Bullock, 60, who had a break-out performance in "Speed," said she was too inexperienced to know that actually driving the movie's bus (she received a Santa Monica bus driver's license) and smashing into cars was not a normal filmmaking experience ("Speed" went through 14 buses).
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"I was at the wheel of projectile. So I was just happy to be alive," said Bullock. "I was new to the whole game, so I wasn't aware of what was happening or what felt right. We were just in it. It was real. When we were smashing into things (onscreen), we were really smashing into those things."
Bullock said she fought hard for the role she loved.
"But other people turned (the role) down, there were other people ahead of me," Bullock said as the director protested.
"When I saw you, I knew it was going to be you," de Bont, 80, said.
"But you saw me after one, two, and three couldn't do it," Bullock said, laughing.
During a discussion about the realistic "Speed" stunts, Bullock had a casting epiphany.
"It just dawned on me why you wanted me in the role," said Bullock. "If you killed me, I wasn't a big actor at the time. It would have been 'Actor dies in stunt making Keanu Reeves movie.'"
"Point Break" Reeves was already an enigmatic Hollywood star leading "Speed" who had his first film meetings with long hair. Reeves then reappeared for the "Speed" shoot with a close-shaved "sniper" haircut without advance notice. This was a big deal for the leading man that sent shockwaves through the set.
"I heard these whispers, 'He's cut his hair. Why did he cut his hair? His hair is too short!' I just felt this pervading feeling. It was like, 'It's too late, man!'" Reeves recalled.
De Bont said he came to love the haircut after he got over the surprise.
"Actually, once you had the short haircut, you actually became the character. And that was so fantastic," he said to Reeves. "I didn't want you to grow the hair; you would look too relaxed. I wanted you more tense."
Reeves performed most of the intense practical stunts in "Speed," including the famous scene in which his character lies in a cart attached to a cable and is rolled under the moving bus to defuse the bomb.
"When I was under the bus with that little cart thing with the little wheels, and you're going 25 to 30 miles per hour, that gets a little sketchy," said Reeves. "Then they were like, 'Let's put another wire on it.' It became a thing.Then they were like, 'Maybe we don't put Keanu in that anymore."
Will there be a 'Speed 3'?
Naturally, the discussion turned to a new film. Reeves sat out of the critically derided 1997 sequel "Speed 2: Cruise Control" which featured Jason Patrick, Bullock and de Bont directing.
Would the trio consider "Speed 3" three decades later?
"The geriatric version," Bullock said comically. "It won't be fast."
"Speed 3: Retirement," Reeves added.
"It would be a different movie for sure," said de Bont. "But it would be great to work with them both. That's absolutely true."