BEVERLY HILLS – It’s been a much different awards season for Sandra Bullock than when she won her first Oscar a little less than four years ago. She became the frontrunner after that year’s Golden Globes and you could sort of tell the pressure got to her toward the end (not that she wasn’t her always down-to-earth, affable self). This year, Cate Blanchett has been in the driver’s seat for most of the season and if Bullock won it would be something of an upset. Still, the blockbuster star shows no signs of abandoning ship. There is a joy in how she lovingly and energetically discusses director Alfonso Cuarón and “Gravity,” unarguably the best film she’s ever starred in.
On Monday, she joined many of her fellow nominees at the annual Oscar luncheon. She didn’t have to make a quick trip to the press room, but discussing “Gravity” has clearly never been a chore for Bullock. At one point she was asked about whether it was difficult to trust Cuarón on such a risky endeavor. Her response speaks volumes.
“I had watched him for so many years and had longed to work with him,” Bullock said. “I honestly never thought in a million years I would be able to work with him. It was always a joke in our office every time we had a project – ‘Do you think we should send it to Alfonso Cuarón?’ – when we knew very well he only did his own material. I trusted him 100%, because you had the body of his work as proof. We didn’t know what we were making, really. It was unknown territory, but we kept looking back at the work he’s done so far, thematically, visually and emotionally. And it wasn’t supposed to be a big blockbuster film. It was sort of an avant-garde, esoteric film about loss and adversity in space. So, being on that journey that you knew you could trust 1,000% is what made it so easy to go into the day. Not having any idea whether it was going to work, whether you were physically hurt, but you knew you had Alfonso there. So, you knew you were in a great place. Whether the film worked or not I don’t think it crossed anyone’s mind. It didn’t cross mine. I trusted him explicitly.”
Bullock also discussed the wonderfully kind crew in the United Kingdom, watching the film for the first time at the Venice Film Festival and how it touches moviegoers. You can watch all of her remarks in the video embedded at the top of this post.
“Gravity” is still playing nationwide, available on digital download today and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on Feb. 25.