The film that made Sandra Bullock “scream inside”
The career of Sandra Bullock arguably peaked when she portrayed Leigh Anne Tuohy in the 2009 biographical drama The Blind Side and won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’, but the Virginia-born actor has also starred in several other notable films, including Speed, A Time to Kill, Miss Congeniality and Bird Box, amongst many others.
The second time Bullock was nominated for the ‘Best Actress’ Academy Award was in 2013 for the science fiction drama Gravity, the Alfonso Cuaron-directed film starring George Clooney, which tells of two astronauts who get stranded in space after their spacecraft gets destroyed.
Bullock once discussed the production of Gravity and admitted that the technical constraints and demands of the film left her “screaming inside” but also noted that the effect it had on her meant that she was able to more closely relate to her character and therefore portray her with more accuracy.
The actor told Digital Spy that throughout the filming of Gravity, she was “uncomfortable, in pain and [alone]” for pretty much the majority of the period. However, while the production of the movie did indeed seem a rather torturous affair, Bullock claimed that both Cuaron and Clooney helped her get through it.
“Physically, I knew that I could get there, but I had no idea how I was going to execute what I wanted to give to Alfonso – who’s someone I had always dreamed about working with,” the actor said. “I just didn’t know I was going to be able to step up and give him what he needed because the whole environment was new.”
“I didn’t have my crutches and tools in people, other actors,” she added before noting how it was her co-star that really provided the strength she needed to come to terms with filming such a lonely role: “When George Clooney was there it was like the sunshine was there, and life walked into the room.”
“When he left, it was like the tomb had shut again,” Bullock continued. “On a daily basis, I was hoping I was giving Alfonso what he needed and deserved. He’s such a professional, and he knows exactly what to bring, and he brings more – he actually wrote a scene for us that we were struggling with. We couldn’t find words that didn’t sound melodramatic; we couldn’t find words that sounded organic and fit.”
Of Clooney’s magnetism, Bullock noted, “He’s on set all the time even when he’s done, and the crew love him, you just want him to be around because he brings the fun. He’s so electric, the minute he’s on screen, just even his voice, it’s so comforting.“
Check out the trailer for Gravity below.
