Don’t bother asking Sandra Bullock or Nicole Kidman about their first day making “Practical Magic” nearly 30 years ago, or what it was like meeting each other. They both draw a blank.
“We don't remember it. Not at all,” Bullock confesses. “That is so bad, isn't it?” Kidman quips.
No trip in the wayback machine, powered by midnight margaritas? That’s OK. The two Oscar winners remember the important stuff: how much they've grown and how much they've remained the same since starring as witchy sisters in the 1998 romantic fantasy. Now they're reuniting for the sequel “Practical Magic 2” (in theaters Sept. 10).
Bullock, who plays the grounded Sally Owens, is “incredibly resilient, open and strong” and “brilliant at sort of speaking her mind and advocating
for herself,” says Kidman, 59. “But that was at the beginning, too."
Since Kidman first played free spirit Gillian Owens, “she's always been that person that I see now, the person who just, without a thought, just goes for things,” Bullock, 62, gushes. “She's fearless in her art, in her life, in her choices, and that's very opposite of (me). She is in full ownership of her person and her spirit and why she's here on this planet ... and doesn't give a s--- what anybody else thinks.
“She came out of the womb this extraordinary artist, period. Her soul has grown into the vehicle.”
“Practical Magic 2” not only brings Bullock and Kidman back together but also their characters, who start out a bit estranged as Sally has forsaken the family magic and focused on raising her daughters, Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams). When the Owens love curse strikes again and Kylie heads down a dangerous path to save her boyfriend, Gillian is key to Sally getting her groove back and helping her daughter.
Bullock loves how Sally and Gillian “have the most emotionally heart-wrenching moments with or against each other, and yet the thing that never breaks is that they love each other the most,” she says. “I don't think we see that enough in cinema with women. You're supposed to fight. You're supposed to disagree. We're not all made of the same thing. Even sisters and twins have different DNA.
“Sometimes you separate, but, boy, when you come back together, there's nothing sweeter than that.”
Nicole Kidman says she needed something 'light and fun' in her life
“Practical Magic 2” came into Kidman’s life when “I needed something light and fun,” she says. “A lot of times, I am the dramatic anchor of the film, so to be able to be the one that isn't and to let Sandy take that lane was fun for me.”
It was also the right time for Bullock after having stepped back from the spotlight to care for her longtime partner, photographer Bryan Randall, who died in 2023 after a three-year battle with ALS. The sequel opens with Sally grieving alongside her children after the death of her second husband.
“Had this come across our paths five years ago, there'd be a different Sally,” Bullock says. “By the nature of what we do, you get to exercise and use and talk about journeys in our own personal life that come out. Wherever we go, there we are – even though we're playing a character, your essence is still arriving on screen, and hopefully that's felt.
“I thought, I might as well use what I know. As we were writing the script, I said, ‘Use whatever I've said, whatever I do, whatever isms I say, just take it because I don't know what I'm doing, but if you've noticed something, run with it.’ ”
What Sandra Bullock hopes she never passes on to her kids
One of the main themes that “Practical Magic 2” explores is the power parents pass on to their children, though Bullock notes there are also things you shouldn’t pass on.
“A lot of my fears are not theirs,” she says of her two kids, son Louis, 16, and daugher Laila, 13. “I did, unfortunately, pass on a fear of flying to my son. He was fine until he watched me panic.
“I hope I have grown up enough to allow these extraordinary human beings to grow up to be exactly who they are born to be. And that's not an easy thing as a parent, because we have expectations and wants, but they've already exceeded them. They teach me more now than I could ever teach them.”
Kidman says her children – including daughters Sunday, 18, and Faith, 15, who she shares with ex-husband Keith Urban – are “so their own beings” and she’s “let them unfurl and discover and blossom, basically.” Bullock adds that her costar is “really good” with her daughters, “because you see who they are. They’re bursting at the seams, and confidently so.”
The A-listers also adore their on-screen kids as well. “They're going to take a huge bite out of this world,” Kidman says of King and Williams, with Bullock adding that both have “such a respect for the material” and the “Practical Magic” franchise “needs to continue for them.”
They’ve already got a third movie in mind with the youngsters, since in Alice Hoffman’s book series, there’s a storyline for Maisie's character that is “so beautiful and complex and delicious and dark and wonderful that has to happen,” Bullock says. “We just didn't have an eight-hour film that the studio was willing to make. But we'll will it into fruition for them so that they can carry on.”
Will it be another 28 years until the next one? “Oh, God. No one wants to see us on scooters and a walker,” Bullock says with a laugh. “It would be the slowest film in cinematic history.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman already have a 'Practical Magic' threequel idea
