The hit movie that made Sandra Bullock revaluate her career: “I was going through the motions”
Most actors wouldn’t use a movie that made over $100million as the impetus to distance themselves from the kind of movies that had made them stars, but Sandra Bullock was nonetheless convinced that the films people were constantly paying to see her in were leading her down the wrong path in the long term.
Nobody would accuse her of being a bad actor, but the fact remained that as talented as she was, Bullock was more well-known for genre fare than hard-hitting dramatic projects that allowed her to spread her wings and show what she could really do with some weighty material and subject matter.
Her affable, engaging persona shone brightly in films like Demolition Man, Speed, Practical Magic, Miss Congeniality, and Two Weeks Notice, but there’s more to an acting career than putting butts in seats. Plenty of performers have fallen victim to their own success, and unless something drastic changed, Bullock would become one of them.
It’s a decidedly Hollywood problem to have and one that smacks of superficial self-pity: ‘Oh no, I’m too big of a star, and my movies make so much money, it’s a crying shame that people don’t take me seriously’. That said, Bullock took it upon herself to alter her trajectory after realising the commercial benefits didn’t match the creative rewards.
What film led Bullock to her eye-opening realisation, which eventually paid off handsomely when she won an Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’ in The Blind Side? Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, of course. Even if the lightbulb hadn’t gone off, the writing was on the wall anyway after the follow-up earned less than half as much at the box office than its predecessor and was eviscerated by critics.
As the lead and co-producer, Bullock was handed a hefty $17.5million paycheque to reprise the role of undercover FBI agent and beauty queen Gracie Hart, but money isn’t everything. “I was going through the motions,” she admitted to The Telegraph. “It was time to step back. I was tired, and I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
Then again, Bullock didn’t exactly make a complete pivot. She did shy away from comedy for several years but made a mixed return when The Proposal took off, and All About Steve won her a Razzie in 2009. In between, she re-teamed with Keanu Reeves for fantasy romance The Lake House, played Harper Lee in Truman Capote biopic Infamous, and headlined the awful psychological thriller Premonition.
It wasn’t an overnight overhaul, but Bullock’s Oscar win vindicated her decision to step back from the froth. There aren’t many kind words anybody has to say about the Miss Congeniality sequel, although it was at least the first domino to topple in the star’s road towards the pinnacle of acting excellence.
