She got a quick start in last year's public-transportation thriller, Speed, and even more attention in the recent romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping. But those who really know Sandra Bullock's oeuvre fell for her beguiling smile and personality long ago in her debut film, Love Potion #9. Since then, the 29-year-old has appeared as the dead girlfriend in The Vanishing, as a waitress who befriends Robert Duvall in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, as a country-singing wanna-be in The Thing Called Love and as Sylvester Stallone's future-cop sidekick in Demolition Man. No doubt being the daughter of a German opera singer and an Alabama-bred vocal coach prepared her to take on diverse roles. Next, she plays an agoraphobic computer geek in The Net and will star opposite Denis Leary in Two If By Sea. Contributing Editor David Rensin met with Bullock at her Los Angeles home, a fixer-upper she's proud to have fixed up herself. "We talked in her breakfast nook for two hours," says Rensin. "The whole time I kept wondering why, with all her talent--as an actress and as a general contractor--wrapped up in such a fabulous and approachable package, this woman was single."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: What is unsafe at any speed?

Sandra Bullock: Falling in love--as it should be. Yet you should go with it regardless of whether or not you get into a horrible accident. Even if your heart gets smashed, you'll be a better person once you're over the pain.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: In British slang, "bullocks" means balls. Does that describe you?

Sandra Bullock: Most of the time, yes. It's either balls or it's stupidity. I'm like a bull in a china shop. I barrel into things because if I give myself too long to think about them, I'll be too scared to do them. I'm ballsy on first instinct. In retrospect I'm a "Why did you do that?" type of person. So I sit around and second-guess myself all the time--but I never go back and correct the situation. My first instinct is always right. Some people have buyer's remorse; I have action remorse, dress remorse, comment remorse. I always go, "That was stupid. Why did I say that?" On the other hand, I say what I think. I should be glad.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Are you a gals' gal or are you a guys' gal?

Sandra Bullock: I can be either, depending on the company I keep. Mostly I'm a nice balance of both. These days there's not so much of a difference as there was 20 years ago, when one type of woman hung with the guys at the truck stop and the other was a homemaker. I love that I have a lot of male friends and I can talk to them about what guys like from girls. And my girlfriends are really strong, feminine women--yet we can all be girls together. Some days we just have to go out and shop, get a massage, get loofahed and pampered. The next day we want to conquer the world and start our own company.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Explain the loofah to the unwashed.

Sandra Bullock: It's an exfoliant. It looks like a sponge made of shredded wheat. I got loofahed yesterday. You go to this place in Chinatown and they put you in a hot alkaline bath. Then a lovely Asian woman comes in, throws you onto a table--you're naked--takes a loofah glove and rubs it all over your body. It completely tears off the first three layers of skin so that you feel like you were just born. Then they give you a shiatsu, dip you and flip you around, toss you about the room. You walk out feeling like you've just taken off that week's ugly layer. You're all shiny and pink and you can go off into the next millennium.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: While we're close to the skin, tell us what men should know about women's underwear. How soon is too soon to buy some for you?

Sandra Bullock: No one has ever bought me underwear, and I'm a little bummed about that. Maybe it's not such a big deal anymore to buy a woman underwear. Women have Victoria's Secret. We're in there every day, buying the greatest stuff, so men probably think, I can't buy her that sexy piece because she probably already has it. I've bought myself the gamut. I like a certain type of...how can I say it delicately? It doesn't produce pantie lines. I like camisoles. I love men's Calvin Kleins. Women think pulling on a pair of men's underwear is very sexy.

Buying me underwear by the second week of dating is a little forward. Maybe after the three-month getting-to-know-you period is over, when you know if you want to continue the relationship. Then, I would prefer him to buy what he wanted to see me in. I want to be surprised, like, "Try this on." As long as there are no sharp things sticking out of it.