The movie Sandra Bullock waited her entire life for: “Those kinds of roles weren’t available”
The playing field in Hollywood has famously never been even, with people from marginalised groups fighting for equal pay and opportunities within an industry that barely tolerates their presence.
Naturally, after springing up in the middle of a desert, Hollywood started as a cesspit of interpersonal connections and a blatant boys club, becoming the most exclusive place on earth that very few people could get into. While some people have pretended to care about the lack of diversity in the industry, very few have actively tried to make a difference, advocating for more stories that focus on niche experiences and become more universal through their specificity. Despite the fact that it has taken many years to see tangible progress in Hollywood, there came a time a few years ago when things felt like they were changing for the better, with more roles being offered to women and people of colour to amplify underseen stories.
However, it is important to remember that this still needs to be an active effort, and it is far from close to being a land of equal opportunity. This is something that Sandra Bullock has discussed when reflecting on her career, looking back on one role in particular that changed everything for her and restored her sense of hope about the roles available to women.
Sandra Bullock is one of the ultimate ‘it’ girls of Hollywood and a leading woman of the ’90s, starring in hit films like Miss Congeniality, The Proposal, Oceans 8 and Practical Magic. However, like many women who were working in the film industry during this time, many of her roles revolved around romantic narratives and work in romantic comedies, often playing the love interest or playing characters whose story arcs hinged on their appearance.
Interestingly enough, Bullock starred in two films that focus on women who are unaware of their own physical beauty and obsessed with their intense careers. However, the central arc of the film sees them fall in love as an unsuspecting man realises how beautiful she has truly been the whole time, something that is apparently diminished through her career success and intelligence.
Naturally, anyone would get sick of playing roles that rely on such dated and misogynistic stereotypes, with Bullock expressing her joy at being given a role that was akin to the roles given to her male counterparts, highlighting her gratitude for Alfonso Cuaron after casting her in his 2013 film Gravity.
When discussing this, Bullock said, “I was always longing to do, emotionally and physically, what my male counterparts always got to do. I just felt envious, every time I saw a movie that I was in awe of, and it was usually a male lead. And those kinds of roles weren’t available. They just weren’t being written. So in the last couple of years, whether it was by us searching for something and turning it into a female character, or developing it yourself, you weren’t seeing it. But in the last couple of years, things have shifted. And then, there’s the fact that Jonas and Alfonso wrote this specifically as a woman. It wasn’t an afterthought. I think it was the integral part of the story”.
This was generally quite rare at the time, with Bullock saying, “I don’t want to say that’s revolutionary, but it’s revolutionary. And the fact that a studio, on blind faith, would fund something as unknown as this is revolutionary. So, to be able to be the person to do it is beyond humbling. It makes you realize, ‘I have to step up and be the best version of myself, so that whatever is asked of me, I can produce’. So, every day, I’m so grateful”.
