Sandra Bullock, the Academy Award-winning actress, said she endured harassment during early auditions, recalling that she was asked to drop her pants in front of casting figures she described as "perverts." She made the remarks in a conversation with fellow actress and close friend Jennifer Aniston, published by Interview magazine.
Bullock and Aniston discussed the arc of Bullock's career, her return to the big screen, and why the upcoming sequel to "Practical Magic" serves, in Bullock's words, as a love letter to her daughter. The two also talked about what it is like to live under constant public scrutiny.
Early Struggles in New York
Aniston asked Bullock whether there was ever a specific moment when she consciously decided the direction she wanted her career to take, or whether it unfolded more organically. Bullock pointed back to the period when she lived in New York City and worked as a waitress while trying to break into acting.
She said she went to auditions for every pervert who asked her to drop her pants, and that each time she told herself the role was not for her. She said she was trying to climb step by step, adding that every actor who is working believes they might never work again, so they take whatever they can get and try to make the most of it.
Stepping Away From Romantic Comedies
Bullock also described her decision to step back from romantic comedies, the genre that built much of her early fame. She said the only time she truly worked with a specific plan for her career was when she chose to move away from that kind of role.
She said she told herself she had to stop making romantic comedies because she was receiving a great deal of criticism for them, and that she then took a role in a film called "Crash."
From Crash to a Best Actress Oscar
"Crash," an ensemble drama that follows a group of Los Angeles residents whose lives intersect around issues of race and class, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2006. Four years later, Bullock won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in "The Blind Side," one of the best-known dramatic roles of her career.
A Love Letter Through Practical Magic
The original "Practical Magic" was released in 1998, based on the novel by Alice Hoffman, and starred Bullock alongside Nicole Kidman as sisters from a family line of witches. Bullock described the forthcoming sequel as a love letter to her daughter, though the Interview conversation did not go into further detail about the new film's plot or release plans.
Interview magazine, where the exchange with Aniston appeared, is known for its long-running format of pairing public figures to interview one another, giving readers an informal, first-person look at how they see their own careers.
