April 17, 2026
WHEN: Today, Thursday, April 16, 2026
WHERE: CNBC Changemakers Summit
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with Academy-Award Winning Actress & Producer Sandra Bullock and Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Co-Chair & CEO Pam Abdy that took place today, Thursday, April 16, during the CNBC Changemakers Summit in New York City.
Photos:
Caption and Photo Credit: Academy Award-Winning Actress & Producer Sandra Bullock and Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Co-Chair & CEO Pam Abdy with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin during CNBC Changemakers Summit on April 16, 2026 (Photo Credit: Scott Gries / CNBC © 2026 VERSANT MEDIA. All Right reserved)
Mandatory credit: CNBC Changemakers Summit.
JULIA BOORSTIN: Thank you so much. I'm really excited. We have been telling you all for weeks now that we have a special guest. And now is the time. So we are going to close out today's Changemakers Summit with a panel truly worth waiting for. Joining me now are two women who are titans of the entertainment industry, Pam Abdy, a CNBC Changemaker who built her career on fierce advocacy for filmmakers. And she led Warner Bros. to a record box office and record Oscar wins. And our special guest, are you ready for it? She's one of the most well-known names in Hollywood. And she is starring in and producing some of the industry's biggest hits. Please welcome to the stage Oscar-winning actress and producer Sandra Bullock.
BOORSTIN: And with her, Warner Bros. co-chair and CEO Pam Abdy.
SANDRA BULLOCK: Hi.
BOORSTIN: Hi.
PAM ABDY: Hello.
BOORSTIN: So, thank you both for being here. This is really a thrill. And we really cut to the surprise. And as you may all know, Sandra and Pam, you are collaborating "Practical Magic 2," which is coming out in the fall.
ABDY: Yes.
BOORSTIN: A Warner Bros. film. And I'm just so thrilled to have you both here. And, Sandra, I know you are here for Pam because of your partnership.
BULLOCK: Yes.
BOORSTIN: So, because of that, we are going to start with Pam. You're running Warner Bros. And we featured you as a Changemaker because you're not just—
ABDY: Thank you.
BOORSTIN: We're thrilled to have you. You didn't just bring original ideas to the box office. You partnered with filmmakers in a way that could tell their stories on a much broader stage. And I think about Ryan Coogler's "Sinners," Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another." And with these relationships you have with filmmakers, you drove Warner Bros. to record box office, record award recognition. What is it about your leadership style that's enabled you to accomplish this?
ABDY: Well, I love what I do and I love movies. And I have always loved movies. And my partner, Mike, and I, we really approach our leadership style as to bet on filmmakers and bet on talent and let the talent and the filmmakers drive that storytelling. And our job is to give them the resources, to give them the best marketing and distribution team to get their stories out into the world and to provide collaboration with them. And we're here for them when they need us, but really give them the space to tell the best story that they can tell. It starts with the filmmakers.
BOORSTIN: You have a reputation for a lot of communication and a lot of transparency.
ABDY: Yes.
BOORSTIN: How do you do that?
BULLOCK: She's from Jersey.
ABDY: It's very true. I don't know how to be any other way. And I'm loud. I, listen, I have been in the business now for about just over 30 years. And I have had some great mentorship and I have had some great people. And I have also had some really bad leaders that I worked for. And I have developed a style for myself where I just feel like the only way to lead is to be honest, to be transparent, to give quick answers. If you have to tell -- I don't get to deliver good news all the time. In fact, most of the time, I'm delivering tough news. But I think the faster I can get with the talent, with our team, with the leaders of all of our different divisions and tell them, like, what is expected, what we need, how we need to accomplish something, and the more transparent I can be, the better. Because they can't do their best work if I'm not being honest.
BOORSTIN: Sandra, you're here because of Pam, because you wanted to support her. And we are very grateful for that. And it also speaks to your relationship and how much you respect her as a leader. But tell us, what brought you back to "Practical Magic"? The original movie came out in 1998.
BULLOCK: Yes, it did. I was a Warner Bros. girl. It came out at that time, which was -- let's not count the years. I was a Warner Bros. girl for a long time. I did it -- from "Miss Congeniality" and all that, that journey. It was a beautiful place to be. There was sort of a moment when it wasn't the right place for me anymore. And it was sad, but I went, it just doesn't feel like a place where you were -- I was welcome at the time. And then you reached out.
ABDY: I reached out.
BULLOCK: You, Pam and Mike had reached out, saying, look, we really want to make "Practical Magic." I said, "It's not the right time," blah, blah, blah. And then I called Denise Di Novi, our producing partner.
ABDY: Yes.
BULLOCK: We'd produce the first one together. And I said: "I have an idea about what I think 'Practical Magic 2" should be and what we can say." And when I told her everything, she goes: "That's already in the second book." And so that made me excited. And then I knew that Pam was hovering. And finally I was like, I will have -- I sit down with them because I want to make sure it's not how it used to be. And they gave, you guys give good apology.
ABDY: We give a good apology.
BULLOCK: But it was nothing for her to apologize for.
ABDY: No.
BULLOCK: But everything that you said about -- everything you said and everything that you responded to just now is who you are. She's honest. She's an Italian pit bull. She is -- there's no politicking with you. It is transparent, honest and clear so everyone can do their best job. If she says, we need to cut X-amount of dollars out, she's not being -- it's not superfluous. We go, she's telling us this because we need to cut it in order to remain on track. You know exactly where she's coming from. And honesty these days is very hard to come by. And they were honest in the room. And I felt creative and excited again. And I went, OK, this is -- it just felt like the right time. It was great.
ABDY: And we hadn't known each other before.
BULLOCK: No.
ABDY: We had not met over the years. And I have to say, it's become one of the most rewarding partnerships I have had in my career. So, thank you for that.
BULLOCK: We also have -- we call -- we have a different times of day when we communicate.
ABDY: Yes.
BULLOCK: There was the closet call...
ABDY: Yes.
BULLOCK: ... which was when we're both up between 6:00 and 7:30 getting our kids up, getting dressed in the closet, where the kids were away, where we had to deal with the drama from the night before. So we'd have the closet call. And then there was the after-school drop call as she's driving to work and I dump the kids and I had to go back home. And then the afternoon—
ABDY: The afternoon.
BULLOCK: Between 3:00 and 4:00, when everything had just unraveled. So -- but I could call her and I could say I need to speak with you. And she would pick up the phone and everything was expedited. It's what she said. Just get it as quickly back on track.
BOORSTIN: We have been talking a lot today about destigmatizing. And just to hear you talking about doing your work while managing the reality of having kids, which is something that I -- I know many women in this room have had to hide, and that like, oh, don't worry about that sound in the background of the conference call. It may or may not be a breast pump or a crying baby.
ABDY: It's so important. And my daughter's 13. I take her everywhere I can. If she wasn't in school, she would have been here with me today. She has been my -- she comes to movie premieres with me. I bring her to set when I'm on set. She -- when I was a producer when she was born, I have photos of us. She's in a BabyBjorn. I'm on set with her. I don't care. We have to be allowed to be working women, to be powerful working women and also be mothers. Both things can be true.
BOORSTIN: So, Sandra, you have worked with many Hollywood studio chiefs, but you had never worked with Pam before. What's it like to work with her and to have that kind of conversation where you're in the closet hiding before school?
BULLOCK: I think it's what you said. I can't -- I'm tired of hiding, because, as an actor, when you decide, I'm going to become a producer, everyone goes, oh, the actress wants to produce. OK. And you have to prove yourself over and over again every time I go to a new regime. I'm like, I show up. I'm there. I'm there from the beginning, the budgetary, everything. I love it. I thrive off of it more than I do being in front of the camera, I feel, because it's collaborative. You're in a room with many brilliant people. And somehow we need to come up with the same idea or the same pathway to an objective. And that's exciting to me. I don't want to be the one with the right answer. I want someone to have an amazing answer and we recognize it and you go. But I could say I made this film at this time because I knew my kids were out of school. I'm not going to sacrifice my children's -- my time with my kids. They'd be happy if I was gone. I would not. It's true. And I do not do my best work if my children are struggling or if they need something and I can't facilitate it. I'm raising my children, not anybody else. But I have the luxury of doing that in this business. So many people don't. And I understand that grief and that angst when you are at work going, I'm not where I need to be right now. I'm here being performative and doing my job, which -- but guess what? Women can do it. We can do 15 things at one time and get it done.
ABDY: And it's OK to say what you need. Like, it was very clear when we had our script in place and we wanted to make the movie, Sandy needed to make the movie in the summer months when her kids were not in school and we figured it out. And if we all work together and everyone can be honest about what their needs are, we can try to accommodate everyone's needs. You can't always do everything, but you can work together to figure it out. And I think that's partnership.
BOORSTIN: And, hopefully, it's increasingly OK to explain what those needs are and why for women, because, for a long time, I think it wasn't OK. But, Sandra, you explained why the timing was right for this. But what about the subject matter? You could be making any movie. There are rumors about "Speed 2." You could be doing anything. Why, why this movie now? Why this subject matter?
BULLOCK: Really great question. It was -- I'm a true believer in timing is there for a reason. And if you just lean into it a little bit, especially as the women that we are, we just happen to know instinctually and intuitively some things that we can't explain nor can science explain it right now. But it wasn't right. It wasn't right. It wasn't right. I had still had a bad taste in my mouth from an experience. And -- but it was just one day, I said, if we could say this, and the characters could be this, and it could have this, and it turns out that's what Alice Hoffman wrote. And I go, it's not an accident that that's what I was feeling at the time. And then, because of schedules, and it benefited the film, we shot in London, where the tax incentives were so great for the film. We could make the film emotionally and visually that we wanted to make for a price that Warner Bros. could afford.
ABDY: Yes. And it was important that we have Sandy, Nicole, Denise Di Novi, our female producers. Our filmmaker is a woman. I think the time was like -- they could have made this many times probably over the years. But I just feel like things are meant. Things are meant to happen when they're meant to happen and on the pace and the time that they need to happen. And I believe it was meant that we were to come into each other's lives at this time. I think this movie -- I love this movie. This movie is about sisterhood. This movie is about being there for the next generation. This is about truth. It's about when you sometimes tell lies to protect people, that may not be the right path and then you have to go set on the right path. The movie has so -- it's so thematically rich, and I think has never been more urgent than to tell this kind of story about community, about family and about sisterhood than the times we're living in.
BOORSTIN: You mentioned that the film has a female director, female producers. Do you find that -- and you have worked with this director before. Is the filmmaking process and the outcome different when you have a team really run by women?
BULLOCK: Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I mean, if there's differences and problems, there are human problems, and human differences are not female problems, or sometimes there are. But there are also male problems. But they're human problems. And we had the human problems on our journey. And it's how you get everyone on the same path. But it's nice when the team that is best suited for this particular journey happens to be female-dominated and we're all on the same path and we can disagree in a healthy way. You -- sometimes, you fight. Sometimes, the voices get loud, but you get back on track. I don't know -- I mean, during the pandemic, I said show me a film that didn't get shut down and I will show you that it has a predominant female -- they're the head.
BOORSTIN: Yes.
BULLOCK: And I said show me a woman who has children who can keep a production in line, and I will show you a production that's kept in line.
ABDY: Yes.
BULLOCK: It's -- you're dealing with a lot of emotion and human -- our frailties. We're all there. We all have ego, but how do you get everyone's ego on the same path? And it's like...
ABDY: Yes, you're managing a lot of people. I mean, a movie set has sometimes 200 people working. And everyone has to be rowing in the same direction. If you're not, that's where you start to fall behind or inefficiencies come in. And then I'm called to come in and help as the studio executive. So you just—
BULLOCK: She shows up when you call her. And that's -- again, this is about her today, because she is one of the most phenomenal leaders, especially when everything was against her and Mike at that time. And we were -- we were struggling. And I watched what she was navigating, but she just stayed the course. And she managed to take a studio to the number one position by not veering off the objective. Even though there were plenty of voices trying to knock her off, she stayed on it, while helping us and shepherding this film. This film wouldn't have gotten made if it wasn't for Pam. So, having her honored and people getting to see how multifaceted she is -- and she mentors and she shows up. She does the work. She walks the walk. It's not performative. It is -- there's not a lot of people like her, both in women and men, in the world in general, but she does it. She shows up. And it's not fake. It's a real -- and I'm grateful for it. It restored my faith in a lot of things, especially in this business, to have—
ABDY: Thank you.
BOORSTIN: Pam, when I think about what you said about the message, I hear about the sisterhood between you two and the way you're supporting each other, and how this movie is really about that, women supporting women, and why you thought it was the time right now. The original movie was not a huge hit when it first came out, but it really took on a life of its own on streaming, social media. What were all of these metrics that you were looking at that made it make sense to do the sequel?
ABDY: Well, I love the first film. And, yes, it -- the film was ahead of its time when it came out. It was -- it almost was -- like, again, sometimes movies come out and they're misunderstood or not received in the way they were intended, whether -- but you're only looking at one metric. You're only looking at the box office at that time. You have to look at movies last for generations, and this particular film has grown over the years. It's generational, mothers and daughters. We started to see there's trends. Because of social media and because of the way people can start to find different kinds of stories, people start trading ideas about "Practical Magic." There's midnight margarita parties. People are doing their bridal showers dressed as the Owens sisters. People are getting dressed up every Halloween. It's one of our number one films that goes to the top of the list every Halloween on HBO Max, on our service, where our movies have another life after theatrical. So there were so many different elements. And this idea of bringing back Sandy and Nicole at this point in their lives, the journeys that both of them have been on as artists, and just bringing back the Owens sisters and then allowing us to see what happens when you pass down that magic to the next generation? What are we telling our daughters? How are we allowing our daughters to flourish and lead? And that's what's so important about the film. And I think I relate to it as a mother raising a young girl, looking at where the world's at today. How am I as a mom and as a business leader going to leave this world behind for her? So I just think this story meant that much to me. And you can't just look at one metric. You have to look at the lasting impression that this film made.
BOORSTIN: Looking at those crazy streaming numbers and this film taking on a life of its own, how do you think about something like a streaming life when you're making green-light decisions? Because, in general, you're not just green lighting for the box office returns, but for how this film is going to live on.
ABDY: You know, we have a really rigorous process the way we look at our films. We find the scripts. Mike and I find the scripts we want to make. We look at -- we share it with all of our territories around the world. We share it with marketing and distribution. We look at all the -- if it's an original story, it has a different kind of metric you're looking at. Who's the filmmaker? What's the concept of the movie? Is there a dedicated audience, like a film like "Sinners"? We knew -- and "Sinners" is a prime example. It's one of -- it's wildly successful box office-wise, but I can guarantee you, when Mike and I first said we were going to make "Sinners," everyone was like, who's going to go see a period movie about the Jim Crow era where there's vampires? No one's going to go see that. And we said, this is the most commercial movie right off the bat. It's got Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler. You have to look at—
BOORSTIN: Two Michael B. Jordans.
ABDY: Two Michael B. Jordans. You get to look at that combination and what that story was saying and every word that was on that script. That was the easiest decision to make. So you just have to look at it. And I think what's really important is, is there a dedicated audience for that film? Like, do you know who you're marketing to? Who do we know is going to be your first adopters and show up to that film? That's the biggest challenge with streaming versus theatrical. For us on the studio side -- and we only make theatrical movies. We don't make streaming movies at Warner Bros. We have to know, who are we selling the movie to, who are we targeting into, and how are we creatively delivering to that audience? And then how do you go from that audience and broaden that out? And I think we did that over -- you have seen over our slate we did that with starting back with "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," into "Wonka," into "Barbie," into "One Battle After Another," into "Minecraft," "Sinners" on and on. And we know who our dedicated audience is for "Practical Magic." So it's an easy decision. Now it's just about getting everybody there, because this movie is a movie for everyone.
BOORSTIN: You have been very good at social media. Warner Bros. has really had -- been very strategic. I'm not even talking about "Practical Magic," but in general, Warner Bros. has really used social media to drive results at the box office and I'm sure also in terms of the long tail, social media. Sandra, you just joined Instagram. In less than 24 hours -- I believe in 24 hours, 4.3 million followers. Now I think you're at 6.5 million.
BULLOCK: Well, most of it is family. Mostly family.
BOORSTIN: But so I think about the complex social media strategy Warner Bros. has deployed, and then I see you pop onto Instagram. What's happening here?
BULLOCK: Yes, it didn't feel like it would ever be my thing. I do have two kids, and I was like, I need to figure this out. So I'd been on social media, but quietly, just to learn and shop. And it just -- it was presented very early on, is this something that you would do? And I was very reticent. And then this one, like...
ABDY: I feel like I asked you, right?
BULLOCK: This was like -- you're like a gnat. She just like -- she gets so excited, and you're like, well, if she feels comfortable, I said, let me -- I never jump on anything. I'm not spontaneous. I need a plan. I need to think about it, how does that affect, what can I contribute, how badly can I fuck it up? Which that will come, and I'm just going to lean into that. And it was just a really smart conversation we continued to have, and then found a great company of women that had helped several girlfriends of mine, and I love what they're doing. And I went, OK, talk to me, tell me what you see, because if I need to be able to make myself look like an idiot and have fun, I will not be doing selfies or makeup tutorials. Or, as my sister says, she goes, if you do a makeup tutorial, don't lean out of the filter. I'm like, what about me says that I'm going to wake up and make -- no one -- I didn't do this when I came.
BOORSTIN: Yes.
BULLOCK: Three other people outside to this. This is not how I do school drop-off. There's an ugly bun on my head and some leftovers up here. But once I realized how creative I could be with them, and I said this doesn't feel right, but if we do this, make it organic, make it just about the film, honoring the film, honoring the moments in the film, honoring those who are the reason the film is here. Again, we had a rough road getting -- it was really easy at the beginning, but then the world and climate and the fiscal side of things changed dramatically while we were trying to pull it together. You cut the budget. You find the way to do it. You get creative.
ABDY: Yes.
BULLOCK: Everyone gets on board. You cut your fee. You do -- but if that's the way that journey was, I was like, let me toe-dip and let me be honest about who I am. She's honest when you get in a room.
ABDY: Yes.
BULLOCK: I'm not a pit bull, but I'm like a little terrier.
ABDY: You can be a gnat too.
BULLOCK: I can be a what?
ABDY: A gnat too.
BULLOCK: No, I know that, yes. But it's much smaller than what you are. You're like pit bull and a gnat. So it's like -- a gnat's not really dangerous. It's just annoying. Like, you're -- she's dangerous.
BOORSTIN: That's great. That's great.
BULLOCK: So I'm excited to see how I can contribute. And if it works after the film is over, maybe I will do a makeup line. So not happening. And I want to know what it's about creatively and be a part of the voice to help support something so many people work very hard on. So, just for that reason, it's made sense and I had good help.
ABDY: Yes, it's fun. I mean, we -- social media, yes, is very important to getting our films out into the world. But what we have seen is it's really the UGC that really drives...
BOORSTIN: What's UGC?
ABDY: User-generated content. So it's when they are taking our assets and making them their own. Again, "Sinners" was a prime example. Over the weekend, we saw as people were starting to recreate the vampires coming to the door and there was people getting dressed. And you saw it with "Barbie," the "Barbie" phenomenon too, is people getting dressed up to go to the theater. Mike and I like to coin it participatory theater. We love when the audience feels like they have ownership of a film. They participate. And whatever way that it ignites creativity in them, whether it's talking about it online and sharing with their friends, getting dressed up and going to the theater, recreating a scene from the film, that is so exciting when that happens. It's like -- it's just magical.
BOORSTIN: One of the things that's crazy about the user generated content around "Practical Magic" is now there are all these A.I. tools. If you search for a trailer for the movie, all you will find is A.I.-generated trailers with A.I.-generated versions of you and Nicole Kidman.
ABDY: We heard that yesterday.
BOORSTIN: Have you seen them?
ABDY: No, I haven't -- I didn't look at it. We were with one of my colleagues yesterday who's on the corporate side. And he went to see that the trailer -- because we haven't dropped the teaser yet that we showed at CinemaCon this week.
BOORSTIN: There are a lot of fan-generated ones.
ABDY: Well, that's exciting. I know it's not great, but it's also exciting, because that means that there's a desire for it and that means that people want to come and play with the movie. And that's exciting.
BOORSTIN: They definitely want to play, but for you as an actor, Sandra, is it weird that people are using A.I. to create big trailers with your image?
BULLOCK: Well, there could be worse with my image. I haven't seen it, but I have seen the A.I., me and my kids. And we're laughing so hard. I'm so sorry because I have hidden their faces for so long, but just what they have chosen. I'm like, I'm so sorry. Sorry. But it's here. We have to observe it. We have to understand it. We have to lean into it. We have to use it in a really constructive and creative way, make it our friend rather than -- I mean, we have to be incredibly cautious and aware of it because there are people who will use it for evil and not good.
BOORSTIN: Right.
BULLOCK: But I do feel that there's a place for it. I wish mine were better. I wish there was just like -- I see mine, I'm like, that's good, but I think so. But it's here. We have to just be friends in some dark way.
ABDY: Acknowledge it and understand it.
BULLOCK: Yes.
BOORSTIN: Pam, what's Warner Bros.' strategy around A.I., especially when you see things like this, like the fandom?
ABDY: I mean, it's -- like Sandra said, it's here. We have to acknowledge it, we have to understand it, and we have to look at it -- I think we have to look at it as a tool and on the production side as a tool. How is it going to be used to help us make movies better for the filmmakers? For the people who, the storytellers, it has to be a tool for the storytellers. That's -- but we're all evolving. It's evolving every single day. It's moving very rapidly. And I just think we as a community have to, again, like Sandra said, acknowledge it, understand it, learn about it, and move forward.
BOORSTIN: I also want to acknowledge what's been going on at Warner Bros., because since the last time we sat down, Warner Bros. is now being acquired by Paramount. Big change, big change in Hollywood, really. I'm curious how you think your leadership and your ability to do these kinds of movies is going to be impacted.
BULLOCK: Well, let me just say Warner Bros. did increase its value once this team stepped in. So I feel that they are responsible for such a large transaction that may or may not occur. So I think the value is there because of the content.
ABDY: Thank you.
BOORSTIN: Certainly very valuable.
ABDY: Thank you. As a leader, I have a job to do every day. I have people that show up passionate and have a lot of work to do. And in the movie business we're planning things two years in advance. So it's not just like, hey, I wake up tomorrow, I decided I want to have a script and it's going to be ready. So our whole entire '26 slate is about to come out. We're finishing up there, getting all the marketing campaigns ready. We have our entire '27 slate that's already locked and loaded, shooting, and we're planning now. Mike and I are green lighting movies for '28 and '29 right now. So I -- like everything, we will have to see what happens. It's in the regulatory process. I don't know -- there's nothing to do today other than do our job. And my job and Mike's job, we are responsible for showing up, keeping everybody motivated, excited, passionate to help build slates, make sure they have all -- they have all the resources they need to market these films and to make these films. And that's what I do every day.
BOORSTIN: You have mentioned your partner at Warner Bros., Mike De Luca, and you have used the word partnership a lot in this conversation. Having a co-CEO, how do you think about what makes a good partnership?
ABDY: I think a good partnership is -- we weren't forced together. So Mike and I have been friends since I -- I met Mike when I was an assistant, when I was 22. I'm now 52. He was running New Line at the time. He's slightly older than me. I won't reveal his age because he's not here. But I got to meet him when I was a producer at a production company, Jersey Films, and we became friends first. And we had a shared love of films. We love filmmakers. We had a shared love of the same kinds of movies. We had the same ambition to tell stories on a global level and to be great producers and great studio executives. So when we actually came together as partners back at MGM, before we became co-CEOs at Warner Bros., there was just a natural ease between us because we trusted each other and because we're friends. We were at each other's weddings. We are -- his son, his youngest child is a day younger than my daughter. We were in the hospital at the same time. I mean, we're like real -- we're family. So I think it's hard when you force partnerships together, right? Because you have the same agenda. You have to have the same ambition, you know? And something that was interesting that I was told early when we joined partnerships by the great Bob Daly, who was in a very successful partnership at Warner Bros. for 20 years with Terry Semel, Bob said to me and Mike when we had lunch with him: "Listen, he's going to want to make movies that you absolutely don't want to make. And she's going to want to make movies that you don't want to make. "And it's your job to, once you guys make the decision, you walk hand in hand on that film, even if you don't like it and you show up and you be there for the teams and you support the teams, no matter what your feelings is. You don't ever make -- and if the movie doesn't work, you don't make your partner feel like they're a failure because that movie didn't work, because that's our job to take swings, and they're not all going to work."
BOORSTIN: Sandra, I'm going to ask you how you think about partnerships, seeing you with Nicole Kidman doing press for this movie, seeing you here with Pam. What is the secret to a successful creative partnership?
BULLOCK: Again, so we were at a concert. Nic and I were. We were in London. And the woman I was talking to, she goes: "How does that work? You guys are so different."
I said, we are, but we're like two planes that both need to land and want to land on the same runway. And one might be going faster than the other. And whoever is fastest out of the gate, the other one has to put on the brakes. And you just have to stagger. And there's -- if you can put ego aside and you can understand that for the film, what is the best thing for storytelling and for every -- it's not just us, Nic and I. It is an entire crew of craftsmen who rebuilt the House on the cliff with the orchard and the apple trees and the -- it's not just us. It's the hardworking people that are still there after we have gone home, that we knew how to stagger our approaches. And I think she and I are very different, but, boy, do we need each other to tell this story. And, boy, are we good at making a mess when we do press. And that's entertaining. No one wants to hear how we cut the budget.
BOORSTIN: Yes.
BULLOCK: And with—
ABDY: They were fantastic. The two of them were fantastic together. We just -- we're in CinemaCon, which is this big conference in Las Vegas. And I can't tell you -- I was in the audience watching when Sandy and Nicole walked out. And it just was like a big warm, fun, no, hug for the audience. It was a good mess. But it was a warm hug for the audience.
BOORSTIN: Before I let you go, I have to bring up something that we talked about backstage, which is this idea of women and witchiness. And "Practical Magic" is all about women using their magic to help each other and as a source for good. But my friends and I talk about how we're a little witchy. I think women can be a little witchy. But you were saying you want to reclaim that term.
BULLOCK: I do. I mean, my daughter asked me, she goes -- she's -- I mean, she's fire. She's so -- she's going to run some country at some point. She says, why is it that men are warlocks and women are witches? And I went, I don't know. And then I went, yes, I do know. Let me take you back to the history of why women had covens, why we had to protect each other. I said, you know how everyone makes fun of women, oh, they go to the bathroom in packs? I go, do you know why that is? I said, because, back in the day, women had no bathrooms. Men wanted to kill them the minute they were by themselves. They went out in packs to protect each other. So, the witchy word was a negative connotation on something that science wasn't able to explain yet. And I go, but I feel like it's coming very close. And Alice Hoffman's book, the second one, she's so steeped in everything from theology to quantum physics to everything going—
BOORSTIN: Yes.
BULLOCK: It's being explained as best as possible, but women are born with this freak flag that we need to be able to feel safe and free enough to fly no matter what comes our way. And it's not easy, because danger comes our way a lot. And I'm one of the ones, I'm like, oh, I just don't like the W-word. I just -- because when people say it, they say it with a look on their face. Not like, wow, you are witchy and I want more of that. It's always like with a -- you're a little witchy, aren't you? And I'm like -- I knew you were going to lie and steal that thing, so, yes, maybe I am. But I would love to reclaim what Gillian, Nicole's character, has in our film, which is, Gillian has always flown her flag fearlessly and said, this might be our curse, but I'm going to live the most of my life and I love my magic, and even if it's limited, I'm going to practice and I'm going to share it.
ABDY: Yes.
BULLOCK: And that's really the story of our film. The Owens women have always opened their doors to everyone to share and to help, even when judged, even when unsafe.
ABDY: Yes.
BULLOCK: And that's what to me being witchy is, is, you have a gift, you share it. Even if someone can't thank you later for it...
ABDY: Yes.
BULLOCK: ... your job is to pay it forward and to give that gift and to share the knowledge and to sacrifice for the next generation so they can fly the freak flag and be free and safe. And that's -- I would like to get to the place where I'm not going to go, I have had a witchy moment today.
BOORSTIN: I think of witchy as an energy that women use to help each other. So, Sandra and Pam, thank you so much.
ABDY: Thank you so much for having us.
BULLOCK: Thank you so much.
ABDY: Thank you.
BOORSTIN: That was incredible. I cannot wait to see that movie.
For more information contact:
Stephanie Hirlemann
CNBC
