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SANDRA BULLOCK

LOS ANGELES — Sandra Bullock looks like a movie star as she lounges in a swanky hotel suite. She’s resplendent in her expensive chocolate designer dress and perfectly styled hair.

The actress’ facade might be resting comfortably in La-la Land, but her heart’s in her adopted hometown of Austin, Texas, where she lives with her husband Jesse James.

Bullock left the hairy Hollywood hype for the less pretentious Texan city almost seven years ago when she came to the conclusion that all the glitz was getting her glum.

As far as she’s concerned, L.A.’s a nice place to promote a movie, but she wouldn’t want to exist here anymore.

Those were the days, though. She had her Speed breakthrough, followed by another hit, While You Were Sleeping, and then there was the treadmill of movie upon movie.

Some were good, some not so good and some were in between — until 2000’s Miss Congeniality had Bullock showing up as producer and star.

Nothing improved for her, though. And along the way, she realized she was all about being a part of the movie business, not about being herself.

Now she’s the happily married owner of a downtown Austin bakery, but was in the city of angels to chat about her latest film, The Blind Side, which opens Nov. 20.

Based on a Michael Lewis non-fiction book, the John Lee Hancock movie version follows the teen years of pro football player, Michael Oher.

A homeless vagrant in Memphis, the picture tracks Oher, who’s allowed to enrol on a sports scholarship at Briarcrest Christian School, and is subsequently adopted by the school’s backers, the Tuohy family.

Bullock plays the feisty southern belle Leigh Anne Tuohy, who leads the charge to make the African-American Oher (Quinton Aaron) feel comfortable at the all-white Christian school and pushes him to excel at school and on the gridiron.

Country star Tim McGraw plays Leigh Anne’s husband, Sean. Real-life U.S. college coaches such as Nick Saban, Lou Holtz, Phil Fulmer and Tommy Tuberville have cameos.

Still, the driving force is Bullock. So it’s surprising to learn that Bullock initially turned down the role, which seems so right for her on screen.

“But I kept thinking it wasn’t going to work for me,” the 45-year-old says. “Politically, I am not like that person at all, and I don’t buy the Christians who use their banner like a shield.”

Writer-director Hancock, who spent time with the Tuohys to develop the film, persuaded Bullock to visit the family at their Memphis mansion.

The filmmaker says he knew Bullock would respond to the type-A personality. And she did.

Besides being exhausted from spending the day with Leigh Anne, Bullock admits she eventually became impressed with her, because “she walks the walk, and doesn’t just talk the talk.”

“And you don’t meet an energy like Leigh Anne’s, ever,” adds the actress. “So when I decided to do it, I felt a sense of fear in trying to tackle the portrayal, but also a sense of obligation.”

There was another reason she hesitated. Bullock doesn’t like to waste her time making a movie for the sake of it.

She did that too many times to count, during her “churning-them-out” phase, and she wasn’t always thrilled with the results, professionally, or with the after-effects, personally.

“Now, when I stare at a stack of scripts, I can’t bear to open them,” she admits. “I don’t want to step into that world. I want to enjoy where I am.”

That new Austin attitude seems to be working for her.

Pre-release buzz for Bullock’s Blind Side performance has been enthusiastic.

Last summer, she had a big hit with the romantic comedy, The Proposal, which earned an impressive $296 million US worldwide at the box office.

That’s thanks to Bullock, the lots-of-laughs script, and an oft-discussed scene when a nude Bullock slams into equally nude co-star Ryan Reynolds.

“Aside from all the right people and the right elements being in the right place,” jokes Bullock, “I think that the nudity in The Proposal had a great deal to do with it. Had I known, I would have done it a long time ago.”