Sandra Bullock: How Parenthood Shaped Her Political Views
Sandra Bullock has been around the block a few times. The 51-year-old first achieved movie stardom with the 1994 hit Speed, but as Biography notes, she’d appeared in productions since the age of five as a child in Germany. An actor with professional credentials and life experience would understandably have some political leanings; but as Bullock explained to People, it has been parenthood that has shaped her views.
Bullock made the statements as she promoted her new film, Our Brand Is Crisis. In it, Bullock plays a political operative. The film is based on a documentary of the same name and is produced by George Clooney. Given the film’s subject matter and the gearing-up of the presidential election campaign, political questions seemed almost inevitable.
“I just want what’s best for our country. I would like my rights represented and those of my son – very selfish views and I think everyone else has them. When this film came along, it came along at a time that I was having that internal discussion with myself about who in our country would step out of their comfort zone to help others for the greater good.”
Bullock was raised in a politically divided household, with one parent Republican and the other Democrat. Her mother was a German opera singer and her father a voice coach. Bullock studied acting at East Carolina University, but never finished her degree. She eventually moved to New York to launch her career.
Bullock adopted her son, Louis, in 2010. At the time, she was in the midst of a very public split from her ex-husband Jesse James. In a November, 2015, cover story for Glamour, Bullock confirmed she already knew who she was by the time she became a public person. Despite that maturity, she didn’t feel like an adult until she became a mother. Taking on that role led to positive changes in herself.
“I heard it all. And I had to step back and go, ‘I have the greatest gift in little Louis, and I’m gonna let him see the woman I want him to know.’ So a child forces you to get your s**t together. In the best way.”
Bullock’s role in Our Brand Is Crisis was originally written for a male actor. In fact, as Inquisitr previously reported, Clooney himself planned to play the role. After the project lingered in development for several years, it was revived. Bullock had been seeking roles and asked if there were any male parts that could become female, since she wasn’t being offered anything appealing written specifically for her gender. Clooney and his producing partner, Grant Heslov, agreed to tailor the main character in Our Brand Is Crisis for Bullock.
While promoting the film, she admitted she’s encountered gender bias in her career. She said she never envisioned her gender as a barrier until she realized there were unspoken limitations on what she could say.
“I grew up to be exactly who I was supposed to be and have the opinions I wanted to have and didn’t think there were limitations to that. So I thought, politically, I was pretty open-minded and could speak my mind and then I saw I wasn’t supposed to.”
Our Brand Is Crisis is billed as a comedy-drama and is set for release on October 30.
[Main image: Kevin Winter / Getty Images Entertainment]
