As Debbie Ocean in Ocean’s 8, which released last month, Sandra or Sandy Annette Bullock added weight to the strong star cast of women, comprising Hollywood big-timers like Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling and Awkwafina.
It was, perhaps, the Sandy effect that bonded the stars. Sandy has, since she first burst into the limelight, found ways to endear herself to her co-stars and her fans, which has earned her nicknames like ‘America’s Sweetheart’ and ‘The Girl Next Door’. She isn’t your classic Hollywood beauty – although she was People’s 2015 ‘World’s Most Beautiful Woman’ – and she is wary of women who try too hard to toe the beauty line. ‘I don’t understand women who try to be glamour queens,’ she’d said. And, obviously, her first reaction to the news about the decoration from People was, ‘That’s ridiculous…’ But on a more thoughtful line, she’d said, ‘Real beauty is quiet. Especially in this town, it’s just so hard not to say, ‘Oh, I need to look like that’.’
I think we all managed to connect on a level that we never, ever would have, because women don’t get to… But I feel really lucky because there are no more stones that I need to turn over, and in Ocean’s 8 I really feel that I came out with so much more than I ever imagined and I think that we all feel the same way.
In her own inimitable way, Sandy has endeared herself to her legion of fans with her laidback attitude and atypical outlook on life. It is probably her upbringing that has shaped her personality and given her the gumption to give life a big thumbs-up sign. She was born in Arlington, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Her mother, Helga Bullock was a German opera singer and her father, John W. Bullock, was an American voice teacher. She spent much of her childhood in Nuremberg, Germany, and often performed in the children’s chorus. The family later moved to Washington and she went on to New York to pursue an acting career, which saw her performing in television shows, before films beckoned.
1993 saw her performing in ‘Demolition Man’ and ‘Wrestling Ernest Hemingway’, but it was the box office hit ‘Speed’, a year later, that won her popularity on an international level. She has had a string of hits following that; in 2009 she was awarded an Oscar for her role in ‘The Blind Side’. Other hit movies to her credit are ‘The Proposal’, ‘The Heat’ and ‘Gravity’. She has even earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-paid actress in the world, with a whopping 56 million dollars. As an actor and a producer, she has proven her calibre as the most bankable star.
‘I’m a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it’s bad or good,’ is the dictum she has lived by. And now, as she gets set to celebrate her 54th birthday on July 26, her celebrated life, whether as the girl next door or ‘America’s Sweetheart’, stays inspirational.