Twenty-eight years later, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman still feel completely at home together.
With Practical Magic 2 now in theaters, the actresses have reunited for a pair of new videos that offer something better than another trailer: a chance to spend time with Sally and Gillian Owens off-screen — and step inside the iconic house that helped make the original film such an enduring cult favorite.
First up, Vogue puts Bullock and Kidman through its rapid-fire Off the Cuff questions, and the biggest takeaway is simply how naturally the two still bounce off each other. Between deliberately ridiculous questions, career memories and plenty of teasing, it feels less like a traditional press interview and more like catching up with two old friends who happen to be Oscar winners. Bullock talks about learning not to worry so much about what other people think, Kidman reveals she still owns Satine’s top hat from Moulin Rouge!, and both happily wander off-script whenever the conversation gives them the chance.
The second video is where the nostalgia really kicks in.
Architectural Digest joins Bullock and Kidman inside the Owens family home from Practical Magic 2, accompanied by production designer Tom Burton. Rather than simply rebuilding a few familiar rooms on a soundstage, the production recreated much of the house from the ground up at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in England, using original plans, stills from the 1998 film and painstaking frame-by-frame research.
The kitchen was particularly emotional. Bullock and Kidman explain that several people who worked on the original film became visibly moved when they walked back into it, and it isn’t difficult to understand why. The tiles were recreated by hand when matching versions couldn’t be found, the enormous AGA cooker was brought back, and even the mixer from the famous midnight margaritas scene appears again.
Then there’s the solarium — Kidman’s favorite room — now filled with even more real greenery to make it feel as though the Owens house has continued growing and changing for decades. Burton’s team recreated lamps, wallpaper, aged glass, apothecary details and architectural features from the original while subtly updating the house for the new generation of the family. Some trees used around the exterior were so large they reportedly required police escorts just to transport them to the studio.
Perhaps the smartest thing about the rebuilt house is that it isn’t simply a museum piece. The filmmakers wanted it to feel lived in — familiar enough that fans immediately recognise it, but changed enough to suggest almost three decades of Owens family history have passed inside those walls.
That idea runs through Practical Magic 2 itself.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as Sally and Gillian Owens alongside Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest, while Joey King and Maisie Williams represent the next generation of the family. Susanne Bier directs the sequel, which is based on Alice Hoffman’s The Book of Magic and once again revolves around the curse threatening the Owens women and the people they love.
But after watching these two videos, one thing becomes obvious: the real magic isn’t just the spells, the house or even the midnight margaritas.
It’s seeing Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman walk through that kitchen together again like they never really left.
Practical Magic 2 is now playing in theaters worldwide.
