Denton County Living Well Magazine March/April 2019 | Page 10

MARCH/APRIL 2019
SPOTLIGHT
SANDRA BULLOCK
T
The ageless a-lister talks motherhood, celebrity,
and living life outside the box
By Sondra Barr
wenty-five years ago, a star was born when Sandra Bullock earned
global recognition with the huge box-office hit Speed alongside Keanu
Reeves. The 1994 action thriller in which she played a passenger
on a bus packed with explosives was a sleeper hit and launched
the wide-eyed ingénue as a household name. Since then, Bullock
has transformed from the low-key girl next door to a seasoned superstar
who’s among the most celebrated and highest paid actresses ever.
Now the ageless a-lister can add another accom-
plishment to her impressive career–– Netflix sensa-
tion. According to the Associated Press, 45 million
Netflix subscriber accounts worldwide watched the
Sandra Bullock thriller Bird Box during its first sev-
en days on the service, the largest first-week success
of any movie made for the streaming service.
It’s a feat that’s not lost on Bullock, who recently talked
with Alexandra Pollard at the Independent about the
success of this post-apocalyptic horror movie. “…the
streaming world has elevated the bar for cinema. [Before],
if you were a superhero, you were able to get a movie
made; anything else was not getting made. Now, with
streaming, we have all kinds of work available, so we
can act again. This wonderful business is changing, and
providing so many more opportunities for women, and
people of color. There’s a great change happening.”
Born to a German opera singer mother and a voice
teacher father in Virginia, the 54-year-old Bullock is
no stranger to commercial big budget movies across
many genres. Her dozens of diverse films include A
Time to Kill, Miss Congeniality, Crash, Two Weeks’
Notice, The Proposal, and Ocean’s 8. Success has
also come in the form of industry recognition. Bullock
earned the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award,
Screen Actors Guild Award, and Critics’ Choice Mov-
ie Award for Best Actress in 2009’s The Blind Side,
which catapulted Bullock to even greater heights.
The following year would bring both highs and lows
for Bullock. She adopted her son Louis and dealt with
a very public divorce from Jesse James amid news of
his multiple affairs. Bullock credits adopting her son
with bringing her life into perspective and helping her
realize that her biggest and best role wouldn’t be on-
screen, but rather behind the scenes as a mother.
In a 2018 interview with the Today Show’s Hoda Kotb,
Bullock explained how fate led her to motherhood. In
her early forties,
Bullock had been
considering adop-
MY PRIORITIES ARE MY
tion for years, but
KIDS, MY KIDS, MY KIDS. ri-
it wasn’t until Hur-
MY FAMILY. MY FAMILY.
cane Katrina,
which caused
massive loss of
life and destruction in New Orleans in 2005, that
she was compelled to begin the adoption process.
THAT’S IT.
“Something told me that my child was there,” said Bullock,
who endured an extensive adoption paperwork process
before laying eyes on her son. “I looked at (Louis), and I
just said, ‘Oh, there you are.’ It’s like he had always been
there. It’s like he fit in the crook of my arm. He looked me
in the eyes, and he was just––he was wise. My child was
wise. The beautiful thing that I was constantly told was,
‘The perfect child will find you. You will find your child.’”
Continued, page 10
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DENTON COUNTY Living Well Magazine | MARCH/APRIL 2019