In Practical Magic, sadness rarely gets the last word.
Someone is grieving, but there is usually a sister nearby. There might be an argument, a joke or, in one of the 1998 film’s most memorable scenes, four women dancing around a kitchen.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, women born into a family of witches and a generations-old curse: Any man an Owens woman falls in love with is doomed to die.
The movie, which was adapted from Alice Hoffman’s novel Practical Magic, wasn’t exactly a blockbuster when it came out. But over the next 28 years it found a devoted audience on streaming platforms. The film also benefited from a surge of interest every Halloween.
“The gratitude goes to streaming, truly, because around this time every year, the film just found its people,” Bullock told NPR’s Leila Fadel.
Now Bullock and Kidman have gotten the coven back together.
Practical Magic 2 finds Sally’s two daughters grown up and Sally once again grieving someone she loved. Hoping to protect her children from the Owens family curse, she has erased their memories of magic and hidden part of their family history from them.
Sally thinks she is keeping them safe. But Bullock said the choice gets at something families do even without magic.
“You think that by not talking about something, children won’t experience it. But they will live it out whether you talk about it or not,” she said. “Secrets never, never, never remain secrets.”
Bullock described the curse as a metaphor for passing on generational trauma.
“If you don’t talk about it, if you don’t address it, if you don’t share it, it’s going to keep living on generation after generation,” she said.
Bullock was not yet a mother when she made the first Practical Magic. She also had not experienced the loss of a life partner. Her longtime partner, Bryan Randall, died in 2023 after living with ALS.
Hoffman had written Sally’s story before Bullock lived through some of those experiences herself.
“To read it and just think, wow, it’s parallel,” Bullock said. “No matter where I go, I’m bringing whatever I am at that moment.”
While working on the new script, Bullock told the writers they could draw from what she had lived through.
“Whatever you want to use, use it. Ask me any question,” she said.
But Bullock also told the writers not to lose humor as a coping mechanism for grief?
“It’s that delicate balance of sharing grief, but also sharing life, which is very inconvenient,” Bullock said. “You’re having your meltdown, but then something really funny happens.”
For Bullock, grief does not move in a straight line, or follow any rules at all.
“No one knows how to grieve properly, I don’t think, because we don’t allow people to do it their way,” she said.
It can include, she said, “laughter and education and tears and sharing and family and more laughing and then anger.”
And the women in Practical Magic 2 are not, as Bullock put it, “grieving the whole time.”
“They’re just living life with a changed perspective,” Bullock said.
The safety of a sister
Sally is not alone as she navigates her changed perspective on life. Her relationship with Gillian remains at the center of Practical Magic 2‘s story. The sisters fight — sometimes gracefully, sometimes not. In the sequel, Bullock said, there is even a serious betrayal.
But none of that makes their relationship less secure.
“There’s the safety of knowing she will always be there for Sally. Sally will always be there for Gillian,” Bullock said. “There is no question. They are two halves of a whole.”
That safety gives them room, Bullock said, to show “all the colors” of the relationship.
She is also careful in considering how sisterhood is portrayed onscreen. Male relationships, she said, have always involved fights, rescues and expressions of loyalty. Women have more often been “pitted up against each other.”
“But the sisterhood that I know is vast,” Bullock said.
For her, that sisterhood extends beyond biology. These days, she said, she finds herself wanting to be around the people she feels safest with.
And safety does not mean never inconveniencing one another.
“It’s hard for me to ask for help,” Bullock said. “But every time I have called and it’s been an inconvenience to the person on the other end of the line, they’ve shown up. And I want to be that person to the people I love.”
It is an idea that fits the Owens women particularly well.
They grieve. They fight. They keep things from one another.
And still, the porch light stays on to light their way back to each other.
Practical Magic 2 opened in theaters Thursday.
Editor’s note: Some of the material in this story was not included on the radio version that aired on Morning Edition. To listen to the interview, click on the blue button above.
The radio interview was produced by Phil Harrell. The digital version was edited by Treye Green.
Transcript:
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “PRACTICAL MAGIC”)
SANDRA BULLOCK: (As Sally Owens) Midnight margaritas.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
This is my favorite scene from the 1998 movie “Practical Magic.” Two sisters and their two aunts dancing around the kitchen, finding joy in the midst of grief.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COCONUT”)
HARRY NILSSON: (Singing) Put the lime in the coconut. She called the doctor, woke him up.
FADEL: But they’re a little different. They’re witches, and they came from generations of women who’ve lived under a curse. Anyone they fall in love with will die. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman played those sisters, and at the time, it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster. But it’s developed a dedicated fanbase over the last 28 years, something Sandra Bullock told me she’s grateful for.
BULLOCK: I think back on the times when a film lived and died on the weekend of its release, and then never to be seen again. So the gratitude goes to streaming, truly, because, you know, around this time, every year, the film just found its people.
FADEL: Thanks to that new audience, Bullock and Kidman got the coven back together.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “PRACTICAL MAGIC 2”)
LEE PACE: (As Ian Wright) You’re the Owens sisters.
BULLOCK: (As Sally Owens) Yeah. Everyone we love dies.
NICOLE KIDMAN: (As Gillian Owens) It’s just – it’s not great for the Tinder bio.
BULLOCK: (As Sally Owens) No.
FADEL: “Practical Magic 2” is out today.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “PRACTICAL MAGIC 2”)
KIDMAN: (As Gillian Owens) Kylie said she’s going to go and fix the curse.
DIANNE WIEST: (As Jet) This will lead her into the dark path. If you want to find her, you have to work together.
FADEL: At the beginning of this sequel, Sandra Bullock’s character is grieving the death of yet another man she loved. Her two daughters are young women now. And she’s chosen to wipe from their memories the fact that they can do magic or that a curse follows them.
BULLOCK: I think many parents will understand it. Sally’s decision at this time is, she’s cursed. She put her children in emotional harm’s way. She’s not going to have them bear the brunt of this darkness. And if she has the power to erase their memories so that they could be free and, air quote, “normal,” that’s the greatest gift she can give them at the time. That’s her thinking. Often, when you think you’re doing the right thing and protecting, because you’re scared, you’re taking away your kid’s journey. What is their purpose here in life? You think that by not talking about something, children won’t experience it.
FADEL: Yeah.
BULLOCK: But they will live it out whether you talk about it or not. Secrets never, never, never remain secrets. And it’s an interesting metaphor for, you know, passing on the generational trauma. If you don’t talk about it, it’s going to keep living on generation after generation, as we see in this Owens family.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “PRACTICAL MAGIC 2”)
JOEY KING: (As Kylie) So it’s true what everyone says, that we’re witches?
BULLOCK: (As Sally Owens) It’s true, it’s true. We’re witches, and the curse is real.
FADEL: When you made the first “Practical Magic,” you weren’t a mother yet, right? And you hadn’t felt the grief of losing a love, a life partner. And you have gone through both of those things now. You’re a mom. But you also recently lost someone you shared love and a life with. How did that change the way you approached this character that you have so much more in common with now?
BULLOCK: When we were working on the script with our writers, I was like, whatever you want to use, use it. Ask me any question, you know?
FADEL: Yeah.
BULLOCK: But also, don’t negate the coping mechanisms of humor. It’s that delicate balance of sharing grief, but also sharing life, which is very inconvenient (laughter) when you’re having your meltdown.
FADEL: (Laughter).
BULLOCK: But then something really funny happens, you’re like, OK, this wasn’t the plan. Can I just have a good cry? I’ll get to that over here, but I should like to have the snot cry right now. OK, I can’t have that? I’ll do it later.
FADEL: And I think that’s also what’s so beautiful about these films, is the light and heft of them at the same time, the grief and the funniness of the sisterhood between Nicole Kidman and you, where it’s like, you’re crying one minute, she’s pantsing you (laughter) in another moment.
BULLOCK: Yeah. (Laughter) Yeah, pantsing is very important. No one knows how to grieve…
FADEL: Yeah.
BULLOCK: …Properly, I don’t think, because we don’t allow people to do it their way. And it includes laughter and education and tears and sharing and family and more laughing and then anger. Like, it just is all the waves.
FADEL: I was going to ask if your kids have seen the first and now second film. But I read they actually make a cameo in the film, which I completely missed because I wasn’t looking for them (laughter).
BULLOCK: Well, it’s because they’re not physically in it.
FADEL: Oh, OK.
BULLOCK: It’s their voices.
FADEL: Oh, it’s their voices.
BULLOCK: It’s their voices. There’s a scene where something happens with Sally and this professor, this seeker, helps her reconnect.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “PRACTICAL MAGIC 2”)
PACE: (As Ian Wright) You’re scared.
KIDMAN: (As Gillian Owens) She’s scared.
PACE: (As Ian Wright) You’re afraid of your power.
BULLOCK: (As Sally Owens) Well, I’ve seen what my power can do.
PACE: (As Ian Wright) You ignore your heritage at your peril.
BULLOCK: (As Sally Owens) Oh, my God, can we please not do the peril speech? It’s just…
PACE: (As Ian Wright) You’re blocked.
KIDMAN: (As Gillian Owens) Yeah, she’s very blocked.
BULLOCK: (As Sally Owens) You know what? I’m not a drain. I’m a human being.
KIDMAN: (As Gillian Owens) Highly repressed human being.
BULLOCK: And once he unblocks her – I don’t want to give anything away.
FADEL: Right.
BULLOCK: Sally was always able to sense her children. But the minute she cut off the magic of them knowing, she stopped being able to sense them. So the gift that this seeker gives her is she’s unblocked. And the first voices that she hears are her babies. And I have all these recordings of my kids, to their annoyance.
FADEL: That’s amazing.
BULLOCK: Yeah, so that’s where they are (laughter).
FADEL: That’s incredible. What did they think about that?
BULLOCK: Well, my daughter rolled her eyes.
FADEL: (Laughter).
BULLOCK: But I could tell secretly, she was like, oh, my God, am I singing? And I was like, you are (laughter).
FADEL: Aw.
BULLOCK: I said, you are. And then Louis was at the other end of the aisle with his friends, didn’t register it. I said, did you hear yourself? He’s like, no, where? And I was like, in the scene, you know, the laughing. And then he goes, oh. Like, he immediately recognized something that I always play for him. Like, if there’s ever, like, a lull, you know, in the day or, like, something, I’ll always play this one thing where he is a baby just laughing like crazy. And we all just start crying laughing. And I was like, I said, that was it. And he recognized. He was like, OK.
FADEL: Aw.
BULLOCK: I remember. Yeah. I mean, they’re kids. You know, remember, I’m just the mom who goes to work.
FADEL: But you’re Sandra Bullock. Do they get it? Like, you got on Instagram and got 6 million followers, like, overnight (laughter).
BULLOCK: That was – the only person that that registered to was my daughter. And she’s not allowed on social media, so she hears it from her friends, and she feels slighted. And I go, that’s what it is, girl. Sorry.
FADEL: (Laughter).
BULLOCK: The mom that you’re annoyed with every day, sorry, that’s…
FADEL: I’m cool.
BULLOCK: That’s the same mom that’s on Instagram.
(LAUGHTER)
FADEL: Sandra Bullock. Her new film is “Practical Magic 2.” Thank you so much. What a pleasure.
BULLOCK: Oh, my gosh, thank you so much. And you have the smoothest voice…
FADEL: Thank you very much.
BULLOCK: …That is just the most soothing instrument. Oh, my God.
FADEL: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COCONUT”)
NILSSON: (Singing) You put the lime in the coconut, you drink them both up. Put the lime in the coconut, you drink them both up.
