Sandra Bullock: No more Miss Nice

Los Angeles, April 4 (Reuters): Sandra Bullock isn?t looking for a sure thing.

The 40-year-old actor, best known for her roles in big-budget movies like action thriller Speed and the romantic comedies Two Weeks Notice and While You Were Sleeping, has set her sights on riskier projects that could challenge her image as a box office darling. ?I don?t do anything anymore that feels safe,? Bullock said in an interview. ?If it doesn?t scare the crap out of you, then you?re not doing the right thing.?

After vowing not to make another romantic comedy ? the genre that catapulted her into superstardom in the mid-1990s ? Bullock took a two-year break from acting and channelled her efforts into producing projects like TV?s George Lopez show.

Now she is back, starring as the lovable undercover FBI agent Gracie Hart in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, which is a sequel to the 2000 hit comedy Miss Congeniality.

She also produced both movies.

Despite making a follow-up to the audience-pleasing Miss Congeniality, Bullock insists she is no longer chasing big box office smashes. Several of her upcoming roles, in fact, are in dramas that she said couldn?t be more different from the big-budget comedic work she is known for.

?Now I?m sort of looking at things overall and going: ?What?s the great story in here?? rather than it just being about my lines and my part,? she said. ?It?s not going to help you having a great role if the rest of the support of the film isn?t around it.? Later this year, Bullock will play To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee in Every Word is True, a film based on writer Truman Capote?s research for his breakthrough non-fiction novel In Cold Blood about the murder of a family in Kansas in 1959.

?It?s hard and completely different,? Bullock said of the role. A photo of the svelte actress sporting an uncharacteristically frumpy costume for the film made headlines. Lee, a childhood friend of Capote, helped him research In Cold Blood.

Later this year, Bullock will also begin filming a romance with her Speed co-star Keanu Reeves called Il Mare that she said has ?a more European feel to it?. The film is a remake of a Korean film. ?It?s unusual,? Bullock said of the film. ?A lot of factors have to fall in place for it to work, and that?s what?s exciting about it.? Also in the works for Bullock is a film based on the life of Peyton Place author Grace Metalious.

But reprising her well-loved role in Miss Congeniality 2 also carries risks, according to Bullock, because so few comedies feature women in starring roles without a romantic male lead.