Sandra Bullock talks uncomfortable contraptions and George Clooney’s tiki bar at the presser for Gravity

What we learned at today’s presser for space drama Gravity: simulating a zero-gravity disaster takes work. Director Alfonso Cuarón and star Sandra Bullock dished on all the intricate, experimental and downright alien apparatuses employed to mimic an extraterrestrial environment: hydraulic-rigged office chairs; an intricate system of strings and pulleys; and even a crew of puppeteers. “It was like being a part of Cirque de Soleil,” said Bullock, who spent much of the shoot suspended 10 feet above ground in a nine-by-nine-foot cube. “It was genius what they were able to come up with.” In response, Cuarón joked: “We had some advisors from Guantanamo.” Perhaps the most impressive on-set build, though, was the indoor garden and playground that producer David Heyman constructed for Bullock’s adopted toddler Louis (he even bumper-guarded all the trailers). Not one to be outdone, Bullock’s co-star George Clooney got his own playground: an on-set tiki bar.