Sandra Bullock gave Jay Leno a heartfelt goodbye on The Tonight Show on Wednesday night. The Gravity star was very emotional and clearly was holding back tears during her appearance on the show.
It was no doubt a nostalgic moment, not only for Jay Leno, but also for Sandra Bullock who first appeared on The Tonight Show 20 years ago when she was promoting her action movie Speed .
During the chat Jay Leno, in the typical Leno style we have all come to know and love, ribbed Bullock about everything from bad hair days to misdemeanors in her youth .
Bullock took it all in her stride as she responded: “You start off insulting me and I’m used to you insulting, and now you’re getting really sweet. I don’t know, it’s either going to make me cry, or you’re going to do something even meaner.”
Later on in the conversation the host, who is due to leave the show Thursday February 6, turned a little more serious as he spoke to his guest. He reminisced about when he first saw Bullock in Wrestling Earnest Hemingway :
“I looked at you the way I looked at my wife for the first time. You just popped, and I went, ‘Oh my God, this person’s got to be a big star. And it all came true.’”
Sandra Bullock returned Jay’s kind sentiments and even began to tear up as she said:
You’ve always been so kind, and that’s saying a lot in this business because we like to be mean. There has not been one time that you haven’t treated me like I had something to offer, even when the film was horrible and you knew it, you never let me see it in your eyes.
When I made crazy life decisions, you never questioned. You just were always so welcoming, and every single person on your crew was that way consistently. And I just felt special even when I felt very insecure, and everyone I think in this room and in this country has felt that way.
Jay Leno will host his last The Tonight Show Thursday, when he will sit with his first guest ever, Billy Crystal. Jimmy Fallon is set to replace him from February 17. The show is planned to move to New York after the Olympics.
