Proof That Sandra Bullock's Style Has Always Been Practically Magic
Originally appeared on E! Online
Do you remember the moment Sandra Bullock first sped into your life?
While the Virginia native had amassed a collection of credits by the time she hopped on the Speed bus in 1994—including starring opposite then-boyfriend Tate Donovan in 1992's Love Potion No. 9 and taking on the Melanie Griffith role in a short-lived TV adaptation of Working Girl—it was undoubtedly her turn as bus passenger turned emergency driver Annie that helped her break right through the Hollywood train station and into La La Land.
“It was unexpected," she later told 50 MPH podcast host Kris Tapley of the blockbuster's $350 million box office earnings. "And the fact that it continues to, in an unexpected way, still strike up conversation amongst many different generations, makes you feel really good. Nostalgic in a very sort of bittersweet way. Because you don’t—lightning doesn’t strike like that twice, and it struck and no one expected it to strike like that, I don’t think.”
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Of course, Bullock's career has been something of a full-blown electrical storm, the East Carolina University grad leaping from the success of Speed right into While You Were Sleeping, The Net, A Time to Kill, Hope Floats, Practical Magic, Miss Congeniality, Two Weeks Notice and overall rom-com queen status.
"They give it to like six people, and we share the titles 'Girls Next Door' and 'America's Sweetheart,'" she joked to Cosmopolitan in 2003. "We literally have to call each other and see who wants it for that week. Like, 'I have to promote a film, so you have to give me the Sweetheart label or I'm not going to get any people in to see my movie. Julia [Roberts], come on, do something racy. I need the title this week!'"
Asked about her goals for the future, she told the mag, "If I'm still comfortable being in my skin in front of the camera in several years, great. But otherwise, there's producing."
And while she has continued to collect producing credits (most recently for 2022's The Lost City), the Oscar winner certainly hasn't called cut on her acting career.
Though she's understandably taken a bit of a break following the 2023 death of partner Bryan Randall, she's set to start mixing midnight margaritas with Nicole Kidman soon for the long-awaited Practical Magic sequel.
More than three decades into an insanely impressive career, the mom to 14-year-old Louis and 11-year-old Laila has mastered the art of being a very, very famous person that doesn't put all that much weight into the unimportant parts.
When it comes to red carpets, for instance, "I just come in and do my job," she told The Guardian in 2010, "and then go back home."
And sometimes her job involves gamely poking fun at herself, Bullock turning up to accept her Razzie for 2009's All About Steve the day before The Blind Side star scored big at the Academy Awards.
"You've gotta take both sides," she explained. "If you take either one too seriously, shame on you, and if you disregard the other because it's not all you want it to be, then shame on you too. You should be a good sport about it—we're not curing cancer here."
But we are celebrating Bullock's 60th birthday July 26 with a look back at her decades of non-cancer-curing, but still impactful service, including quotable gems like the wisdom she shared with People after being named their 2015 World’s Most Beautiful Woman.
"Real beauty is quiet," she reflected. "Be a good person, be a good mom, do a good job with the lunch, let someone cut in front of you who looks like they’re in a bigger hurry. The people I find most beautiful are the ones who aren’t trying.”
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