Actor of the Week: Sandra Bullock
It’s Actor of the Week time again, they seem to come around so fast. This week was an easy choice, the extremely diverse Sandra Bullock. Bullock has starred in every type of film possible, from action to comedy, she’s a really talented actress, and one we are proud to write about here at Life of Films.
The first film in which Sandra Bullock really stood out for me was in 1993’s Demolition Man, also starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. A film set in a peaceful future where crime is pretty much non-existent, until Snipe’s character ‘Phoenix’, escapes from a future prison. Bullock plays a cop called Lenina Huxley, who is pretty bored in her job, with the lack of crime, until she get’s caught up in Stallone’s chase for Phoenix. I am a huge Stallone fan, and this is certainly one of his classics, which is why Bullock’s role stood out so much for me.
With Sandra now firmly securing a job in Hollywood, she went on to star alongside Keanu Reeves in one of the most iconic action films of all time - Speed. With a bus being pulled into a terrorist's game of placing a bomb on the transportation that will detonate if the bus falls below 50mph, it is up to police officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) to get all the passengers off the bus whilst it maintained its speed. Sandra Bullock plays one of these passengers named Annie, who ends up being the one having to drive the bus, and quickly becomes the love interest of the film for Reeve’s character. She also went on to star in Speed 2, where a similar thing happens to a Cruise Ship. The ship may have not been bombed, but the film certainly did, making Keanu Reeves’ no show a good choice.
With Bullock now having multiple action films under her belt, she moved into the romance genre starring in romantic classics such as Whilst You Were Sleeping, 28 Days and Forces of Nature, where she starred alongside Ben Affleck. Bullock is a big hit when it comes to romance, with this being a genre she has maintained through most of her career.
These films all led her to one of her most iconic roles, and a comedy that I have to say is a bit of a guilty pleasure for myself - Miss Congeniality. Bullock plays a somewhat tomboy FBI agent named Gracie Hart, who is pulled into a case that involves beauty pageant winners being murdered, therefore leading Hart to go undercover as a pageant contestant. This creates a brilliant dynamic for the character with her being so far from beauty pageant material, leaving it to Michael Caine’s character Victor Melling to show her the ropes. Caine is hilarious in this film, and it is a very unique role for our british actor, as he plays someone firmly in-touch with his feminine side. Bullock is also extremely funny in this movie, and it is without a doubt a classic of hers. With this film being such a success it wasn’t a shock they did a 2nd one, which was also really fun.
As I said, Bullock is a very diverse character with us just speaking about her roles in action, romance and comedy but it doesn’t stop there. Bullock’s locker holds a few more genre’s which she has succeeded in, another being drama. This is shown in incredible true story, The Blind Side, where Bullock managed to win an Oscar for Best Leading Actress. The Blind Side is a beautiful film about a typical white suburban family taking in a traumatized African-American boy, with a very upsetting history, named Michael Oher, and giving him a home. Sandra plays the mum of this family, called Leigh Anne Tuohy, who ends up caring a lot for Michael, and makes him her 2nd son. Tuohy is given so much grief about this choice from stuck-up families as it is out of the normal. She also has to deal with the racism African-Americans have to deal with in america, which Tuohy has never experienced with her being white. This is a very heartwarming story as we end up finding out Oher is incredible at Football, and see him progress to becoming a professional, and ultimately shutting up a lot of people who criticised him and Tuohy.
Funnily enough, in the same year Bullock won her Oscar, she also won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in the film All About Steve, starring Bradley Cooper. She actually is one of the few people in history to actually go and accept the award, which was the night before she won her Oscar! This really shows us how down to earth Bullock is, and that she enjoys a good laugh. You rarely see anything bad written about the actress, and this is one of the main reasons I like her.
Bullock continued to show us her talents, as she was once again nominated for Best Leading Actress in the gripping film Gravity, where she appeared alongside George Clooney, with both of them playing astronauts stranded in space, waiting to be saved.
As you can tell Sandra has quite the catalogue of films, which I would love to write about, but you get the idea. Bullock is one of the most talented actresses of my time, and will, without a doubt, go down as one of the greatest actresses ever due to her extreme diversity. It was an absolute pleasure writing about such a great actress, thanks Sandra!
