How Sandra Bullock’s admirable plan backfired spectacularly: “I’m not going to allow myself to be mediocre”
No actor wants to become associated with constant mediocrity, so Sandra Bullock was hardly making a revelatory proclamation when she outlined her desire to banish anything average from her filmography for as long as possible. Unfortunately, she made that sweeping judgement at the worst possible moment in her professional life, which instantly caused her words to age like milk. Of course, Bullock has been in plenty of terrible films, but she’s always taken those hits squarely on the chin before moving on.
The best example came when she reached the pinnacle and the nadir of the industry within 24 hours of each other after Bullock showed up in person to collect her ‘Worst Actress’ gong at the Golden Raspberry Awards for the risible rom-com All About Steve, embracing the ignominy that it brought her. The very next day, though, Bullock strolled onto the stage at the Academy Awards after she was named ‘Best Actress’ for The Blind Side. It was the duality of Hollywood superstardom in microcosm and proof that even the biggest names can make plenty of missteps without losing any of their shine.
Bullock experienced similar peaks and valleys in the 1990s, where the balance between quantity and quality was often skewed. She appeared in six movies in 1993 alone, before her one and only theatrical release of the following year was the action classic Speed. Inconsistency tended to follow wherever she went, and she’d decided enough was enough.
“I look back on certain choices that I made, and I wonder if I did it out of the working actor’s desperation to just take anything that comes along,” she mused to Rolling Stone. “I allowed myself, several times, to be mediocre. I’m very well aware of that, and those are good reminders to look back and say, ‘Don’t do that.'”
Commendable words, especially when Bullock was adamant that “I’m not going to allow myself to be mediocre or anything that I am involved with to be mediocre.” There was one small drawback to her declaration, though, with the star promising that in June 1997 when she was on the promotional trail for Speed 2: Cruise Control.
Yep, Bullock made a vow to rid herself of any cinematic mediocrity when she was hitting the publicity trail in support of a disastrous blockbuster sequel that was savaged by critics, tanked at the box office, landed her on the Razzies shortlist for ‘Worst Actress’, and was dubbed by no less of an authority than Sandra Bullock as being the single biggest mistake of her entire career.
Rarely has a pledge turned out to be worth less than the paper it was written on so rapidly, and while she had her own best intentions at heart, denigrating anything mediocre while also trying to convince the world Speed 2 wasn’t a steaming turd saw her plan backfire instantaneously.
