Best Actress Oscar winner Sandra Bullock (Rick Salyer / ©A.M.P.A.S.)
Sandra Bullock's chat with entertainment reporters can be seen below following her Academy Award win on March 7. Bullock discussed the unexpected success of The Blind Side, her "surprising" Oscar win, and Meryl Streep's fun-loving character, but refused to give details about George Clooney being mean to her or to tell a questioner what husband Jesse James whispered in her ear when she was named the year's Best Actress.
The transcript below (in two parts; follow the link at the bottom) is from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
A. It's like an auction in here with the numbers.
Q. Hi, Sandra. As a fellow southern woman and big Allman (sic) fan, I just wanted to say you're making Delta women and strong mothers everywhere very, very proud.
A. I'm glad I could represent.
Q. I was wondering if you had any advice for students out there, acting students or just people who want to be in the entertainment industry who want to be in your shoes tonight?
A. Well, don't aspire to be in these shoes. You know, walk in your own. I mean everyone's really good at telling everyone else how to live your life or how to be or how to do it. Just don't listen. My mother beat it into our heads to be original, and I didn't understand that until later on and just everyone's unique and that's what makes people exciting to watch, I think, so just savour what you are and not what everyone else wants you to be.
Q. So last time I asked you a question at the SAG Awards I suggested you were the favorite for the Oscars and you shushed me.
A. I'm going to shush you again.
Q. What does this mean to you and did you sort of think you were the favorite?
A. Are you joking? No. It's as I said up on that stage, you know, I questioned did I win it or did I just wear everyone down? It's if you hang in there the longest, it's, you know you know, I didn't aspire to this. I was in awe of it. I admired it. I got to watch it like everyone else did or present, but it wasn't something that I said, One day when I get the Oscar.
I didn't think it was something that was the opportunity would ever present itself for me to rise to that occasion. And I was okay with that and I was very happy working and this came out of left field, every pun intended. Sorry. I think everything's going to be a metaphor tonight and I apologize. This is the film I said "no" to. If I thought this was going to be my, you know, golden ticket. It just was such odd circumstances and things came together in a way that I just didn't see coming. No one saw coming. And I think that's what makes it so overwhelming and unexpected. I look at the company I keep in this category and you can't pick. There's not one that rises above the others, and I love these women that I got to spend this time with so much for who they are. So I feel like I share it equally in five parts because we ladies need to stick together.
Q. Here we go. She speaks fluently German. Fluently. This speech was about family. Of course your mother passed away like 2000, I think, it was. Your family's right now watching the film in Germany. So many relatives of her, what would you say to them in German. [In German.]
A. Okay. [In German.]
Q. Picking up away from the camera, you've done a lot of work for Warren Easton High School.
A. That's right. Hey.
Q. And then congratulations by the way.
A. Thank you.
Q. And then this picture as well there's a tie in there. I just want you to talk a little bit about what draws you to these projects that are youth oriented that are to do with [...]
A. It's not that I consciously draw I'm drawn to them. You know, we're presented with the opportunities we're presented with in this business, and you're able to make some of your own opportunities. I didn't it's not conscious, but I think it makes a great inspirational story when you can see it work, when you see what someone can rise to the occasion and do. And you know, I've seen it happen day after day in New Orleans and that's why I love that town so much, and it's the people and the perseverance and the love of each other that makes that work. And I think that's what works so well in stories like that. I love stories about passion and love. Love of country, love of people. Love of sport. It's just it makes a good film. But I don't think I've ever consciously been drawn to it. I just I just end up, I guess, maybe loving it the most.
Q. Hey, Sandra. Congratulations. I want to ask you about the power of the same sex kiss, which you mentioned a couple of times.
A. Yes, yes, yes.
Q. So why is it you can do, for instance, a really hot love scene naked with someone like Ryan Reynolds, yet all the headlines are about kissing Meryl Streep?
A. Well, first of all, if you saw me in the scene with Ryan, no one noticed me because Ryan was in the scene naked as well.
Q. You were naked in it, too.
A. I know. I looked fine but Ryan, who is my friend, is a freak of nature and it's disgusting the way he looks and all I see is him, naked. When I see him naked on the film. You know, but I think because no one expects Meryl to, you know, roll with the flow like that, I think no one realizes how much fun Meryl Streep is. I mean, she I'm not going to tell you half of what she'd do or what she's done. But she just is everything that Stanley Tucci said is right and then some. I don't think anyone expects her to do it. That's why it makes the headline. She's an awesome broad, and I think she's an extraordinary actor but she's also a really free, fun human being, so I think it's because it was Meryl. I kissed Meryl. No one's ever taken the bull by the horns like that before, but I did.
Classy picture.
Sandra looks very elegant. Like an Indian Princess.