Bullock 'Armed' for 'Miss Congeniality 2'

ByABC News
March 24, 2005, 5:19 PM

March 25, 2005 — -- In Hollywood, sequels are a way of life. And so, inevitably, Sandra Bullock had to think of an aftermath for her tomboy FBI agent-turned-glam queen. But for a goofy comedy, it wasn't that easy.

The first "Miss Congeniality" came along four years ago with a very simple, if not farfetched, premise: "She's got a killer to catch right after the swimsuit competition," as the movie poster put it. Bullock, as Special Agent Gracie Hart, made the glorious transformation from dowdy investigator to Miss New Jersey, thanks to Michael Caine, playing her coach in an amusing riff on "My Fair Lady."

A domestic box office gross of more than $106 million justified calls for a sequel. But what do you do with Gracie now that she's glamorous? The question left Bullock, one of the film's producers, scratching her head.

Now, finally, they've come up with an answer -- Gracie's career is all but destroyed by her 15 minutes of fame. She can't go undercover, because bystanders are always hounding her for autographs. Besides, she has come to enjoy life as a fashion icon. So the FBI turns her into a mascot. They keep her dolled up as the beautiful new face of crime-fighting. She's even hit the talk-show circuit with a ghostwritten memoir.

"Anyone who's caught on television or by the media doing anything somewhat heroic is going to be called on TV shows," said Bullock. "So we said, 'What would happen to someone whose job it is to be an undercover FBI agent?'"

In a strategy to kick the film off with a No. 1 showing at the weekend box office, Warner Bros. Pictures took the unusual step of opening "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous" on Thursday, a day ahead of the typical Friday movie release.

The comedy faces off this weekend against one other new release, "Guess Who," starring Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher.

This time around, Bullock will have to make it without Caine as a mentor and without Benjamin Bratt, who played her FBI colleague and love interest. Her new partner in crime-fighting is Regina King, who got rave reviews last year in "Ray" as music legend Ray Charles' backup singer and long-suffering mistress.

"She and I didn't even audition together," Bullock said. "First, we sat down and had tea and by the end of that 45-minute conversation, we realized we had so much in common and I thought, 'My God, I love being around this woman, a cool chick who isn't actressy.'"