Leisure ‘While You Were Sleeping’ turns 25
An oral history of the Sandra Bullock rom-com favourite
“WHEN Harry Met Sally.” “Pretty Woman.” “Sleepless in Seattle.” By the mid-’90s, romantic comedies had reached a zenith as meet-cute stories of would-be lovers reliably swept the nation’s cineplexes.
“I so wanted to be part of the cool group of kids who made excellent romantic comedies,” director Jon Turteltaub said. “Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks and Nora Ephron and Meg Ryan, they were the Mount Rushmore of romantic comedy at that time.”
Enter: “While You Were Sleeping.” Set in Christmasy Chicago and swaddling a fresh-faced Sandra Bullock in enormous sweaters, Turteltaub’s foray into the genre arrived as a soothing tour-de-force on April 21, 1995.
Its zany plot – a lonely woman (Bullock) convinces the family of a beautiful stranger ( Peter Gallagher) that she’s his fiancee after he falls into a coma, until she ultimately ends up with his brother (Bill Pullman) – could have easily slid into farce territory. Instead, it triumphed as a touching tale of loneliness and earned Bullock her first Golden Globe nomination.
In honor of the film’s 25th anniversary, The Washington Post spoke to the cast and creatives to find out how it became an unexpected classic.
Co-writers Daniel G. Sullivan and Fredric Lebow first pitched the idea of a man falling in love with an unconscious woman.
DANIEL G. SULLIVAN, cowriter: Nobody liked it. We went to Meg Ryan’s company and the development person there said, “Why would Meg Ryan want to do this movie? She’s unconscious the whole time.” So we decided to flip it, and once we made that switch, everything worked. When a guy is sitting next to a brain dead woman, it’s very predatory. But when you put a woman next to a guy, it’s sweet. We started calling it “Coma Guy,” but everyone still passed until we took it to a producer named Arthur Sarkissian.
ARTHUR SARKISSIAN, executive producer: I thought it was terrific, and I had known them to be good writers from another script we worked on together that never got made.
SULLIVAN: We were broke, so he paid us $10,000 for an option. That gave us the freedom to sit down and actually write the script.
In 1994, Disney’s Hollywood Pictures snapped up the finished script. Director Chris Columbus and stars Harrison Ford and Geena Davis were among those initially considered.
JON TURTELTAUB, director: I believe Columbus got iffy on the project, and Roger Birnbaum (then-head of Disney’s Caravan Pictures) called me and said, “You know how we’ve been waiting for a really good director? We’ve decided we don’t want a really good director. We want you.” After directing “3 Ninjas” and “Cool Runnings,” I was trying to get out of family movie jail. To get a romantic comedy was the dream.
ROGER BIRNBAUM, producer: I just went with my gut. I liked the script, and I liked Jon Turteltaub.
TURTELTAUB: What’s funny is the minute I got it, Harrison Ford backed out. Geena Davis backed out. This movie had taken a huge step backwards in budget and prestige when they hired me.
Still, they approached a long list of A-list actresses to play Lucy before Bullock, who had just filmed her breakout supporting role in “Speed.”
TURTELTAUB: I had a meeting with Demi Moore, and we came very close to Nicole Kidman. But in the back of my mind, I was thinking that they were way too pretty. It’s hard to de-beautify Nicole Kidman.
SARKISSIAN: There was Julia Roberts. There was Meg Ryan. There was Demi Moore. They were very big at the time, and I just couldn’t see any of those superstars being a person working in a toll booth. You just wouldn’t believe that.
SANDRA BULLOCK, who played Lucy: I was an auditioning actor. This was the one thing that came along that I wanted so badly, not as a desperate actor, but just because the story was so sweet.
CATHY SANDRICH, casting co-director: There are a few auditions in your life as a casting director that you really remember, and Sandy’s was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen. We were all crying. She did the monologue at Peter’s bedside where she first explains everything, and it was just so beautiful.
TURTELTAUB: Sandy has that overwhelming charm that makes her so irresistible. As soon as she left the room, (producer) Joe Roth stood up and said, “That’s our girl.”
BULLOCK: I believe it’s because Demi Moore couldn’t do it, I got it. So, I’m grateful to Demi Moore every single day.
Several actors were called back for the role of Jack and did chemistry reads with Bullock.
TURTELTAUB: There was no question Bill Pullman was the right guy for the part, but the other guys in the waiting room were James Spader, Dylan McDermott and a guy who was unbelievably charming and attractive: a brand-new Matthew McConaughey. But he had a Texas accent and none of us could rewrite this movie to take place in Texas or explain why he was in Chicago at that point.
SARKISSIAN: He did say he could change the accent, but I don’t think anybody believed him.
Pullman had co-starred in 1993’s “Sleepless in Seattle’’ as “the other man” who Meg Ryan leaves for Tom Hanks. This was his moment to shine.
SANDRICH: Bill had an innate sweetness and a nice workingclass feel. He had not been perceived as a romantic leading man before.
BILL PULLMAN, who played Jack: I didn’t really think of romantic comedies as my turf. At that point, I was embarrassed about the preciousness of it. But I read the script, and I was like, wow, this is a classic story.
TURTELTAUB: I know it mattered to Bill to finally not be the goofball tool, to actually