From her upbringing in a foreign nation to her various overly-obsessed fans, these are
some facts you need to know about Sandra Bullock… but, try not to freak out!
17. Spricht Deutsch
Sandra Bullock is as interesting as they come and is one of the world’s most talented
actresses. Although you probably haven’t seen her in any foreign films, Bullock is
bilingual. She was born in Arlington, Virginia. However, she spent twelve years of her childhood
in Nuremberg, Germany and speaks German as a result.
16. Childhood
As we previously mentioned, Sandra spent many of her childhood years in Germany. The reason
for that was because her father, John W. Bullock, was employed in the United States Army. He
was stationed in Nuremberg and managed the Army’s Military Postal Service in Europe.
During his time there, he met Sandra’s mother, Helga Mathilde Meyer. Her mom was an opera
singer who also taught voice lessons, and Sandra generally stayed with her aunt and
cousin while Helga was touring. She studied the vocal arts as well as ballet and even
took small parts in her mom’s opera performances. Bullock also sang in an operatic children’s
choir. Later on, when they moved back to Virginia, she went to Washington-Lee High School. Sandra
was involved in school activities, including cheerleading and theater. She received her
diploma in 1982 and went to college at East Carolina University in North Carolina. Sandra
graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drama. During her time at university, she
took part in several plays, including Three Sisters and Peter Pan. After getting her degree,
she moved to New York City and worked as a cocktail waitress, bartender, and coat checker
to support herself while auditioning for various roles.
15. Executive Producer
Since their careers are so different, you might not have known that Sandra Bullock and
George Lopez are actually very close. During an interview with Howard Stern, Lopez talked
about how Bullock played a large part in his career. He said that the actress drove an
hour and a half outside of Los Angeles to watch him perform at an improv show. Bullock
discovered him in a way, and after seeing his act, she was interested in developing
a sitcom. Lopez stated that she met him during the right time in his life. They discussed
his comedy show, and ultimately, the George Lopez series was born. The network didn’t
want to produce it originally, but Lopez said that Bullock wouldn’t “take no for an
answer.” Sandra Bullock was an executive producer on the show for five years.
14. Car Crash
When Sandra Bullock was married to Jesse James in 2008, the two got in a car accident while
they were riding in a car in Massachusetts. As they were heading home at almost ten o’clock
at night, a Subaru station wagon hopped a couple of lanes and rammed into the front
end of their vehicle. Luckily for everyone involved, Sandra and her then-husband weren’t
injured and walked away from the crash with no problems. The driver that hit them was
Lucille P. Gatchell, who was sixty-four at the time. After the police officers gave her
a sobriety test, they had her blow into a breathalyzer. Gatchell was twice the legal
alcohol limit and was arrested. Despite the consequence she faced for driving drunk, she
was reportedly “giddy” that she’d run into Sandra Bullock.
13. Maddening Musicals
You might believe that Sandra Bullock would love musicals considering her acting career,
education in drama and theater, and her and her mother’s background in opera. However,
Bullock stated around 2009 that she “hates” musicals. She has no problem starring in romantic
comedies… but, she won’t take the jump from being silly on-screen to be silly and
singing on screen. Bullock reportedly told ContactMusic that she doesn’t enjoy watching
actors dance and sing on stage or in movies. She also noted that she wouldn’t “tackle
a musical” because she doesn’t sing and believes people wouldn’t be interested in
watching her do so.
12. First Films
When Sandra Bullock first started taking Sanford Meisner’s acting classes, she performed
in various student movies. She got a role in a small play titled No Time Flat, and Alan
J. Levi, a director, took notice of her. He offered Sandra a part in the TV feature Bionic
Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. Her role in the film earned
her some recognition, and she acted in some independent movies. In 1990, Bullock was cast
in the leading role in Working Girl, an NBC television adaption of the original feature.
After that, Sandra got parts in The Thing Called Love, Fire on the Amazon, Potion No.
9, and Demolition Man.
11. Stalkers
Like many well-loved celebrities, Sandra Bullock has had to face her fair share of over-the-top
fans, aka stalkers. The first one was Thomas James Weldon; as of 2010, the man had reportedly
been stalking Bullock for seven years. She got a temporary restraining order that year
because Weldon had been in trouble several times concerning his obsession with Sandra.
The first time she got an order against him was in 2003, but it was only valid until 2009.
Weldon’s obsession with her is due to his struggles with a mental illness as he believed
he had been telepathically communicating with Sandra. However, the star’s stalkers don’t
end with Weldon. Bullock was also stalked by a woman named Marcia Diana Valentine. But,
things were more violent than they had been with the previous one. In 2007, she showed
up at Sandra and then-husband Jesse James’ home. When Bullock asked Valentine to leave,
she jumped in her car and tried to reverse over Jesse. Police reported that she tried
to run him over three to four times. Luckily, she didn’t succeed. In 2014, Bullock dealt
with another obsessed fan named Joshua James Corbett. He was put on probation that year
for stalking her. The Los Angeles Police Department attempted to give him a warrant, but he barricaded
himself in his home. Since he’d missed his court date the month before, the LAPD was
going to arrest him. However, after having a stand-off from seven in the morning to one
o’clock in the afternoon, the cops managed to get into his house and found that he’d
taken his own life.
10. Oscar Winner
Sandra Bullock is much more than just a pretty face; she is a talented actress with the awards
to prove it. It takes a lot to win an Oscar, but Bullock did just that in 2010. She had
the starring role of Leigh Anne Tuohy in the film The Blind Side in 2009. The movie is
based on the real-life story of a homeless boy named Michael Oher that made it into the
National Football League with help from “a caring woman and her family.” The drama
came out at the number two spot in theaters, falling just behind New Moon, which millions
of teenage girls flocked to the movie theaters to see. The Blind Side made more than three
hundred nine million dollars and became Bullock’s highest-grossing film in the United States.
She won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award, MTV Generation Award, Screen
Actors Guild Award, and Teen Choice Award for her portrayal.
9. Best & Worst Actress
It seems that everything in life is equaled out by something else, whether it be positive
or negative. I mean, according to Newton’s Third Law, “For every action, there is an
equal and opposite reaction.” So, although Sandra won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2010,
she got a kick in the pants for her part as Mary Horowitz in the romantic comedy All About
Steve, in which she starred alongside Bradley Cooper. Bullock was nominated for a Razzie
in 2010 and attended the Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony that year. She pulled a red
wagon filled with DVD copies of All About Steve and gladly accepted her trophy for Worst
Actress. Sandra and Cooper also won the Razzie for Worst Movie Couple.
8. Love Life
Like many famous people, Sandra’s romantic life has been a bit all over the place since
finding love in the limelight can prove difficult. While filming the 1992 flick Love Potion No.
9, she met and eventually got engaged to Tate Donovan. They were together for three years.
Bullock also dated Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Gosling for awhile. As we previously
mentioned, Sandra tied the knot with Jesse James in 2005. However, in 2010, news of James’
various affairs came to light. He gave Bullock a public apology and asked for forgiveness,
but they were officially divorced a few months later. Since 2015, the actress has been in
a relationship with Bryan Randall, a photographer and former model.
7. Breakthrough
Bullock’s breakthrough in film came in the mid-1990s when she starred alongside Keanu
Reeves in the movie Speed. The movie made around three hundred fifty million dollars
internationally, proving a great success. After that, she was in the 1995 rom-com While
You Were Sleeping and a thriller titled The Net during the same year. A year later, Sandra
played in A Time to Kill with Matthew McConaughey, Kevin Spacey, and Samuel L. Jackson. Her other
films around that time include Practical Magic, The Prince of Egypt, in which she voiced Miriam,
and Forces of Nature with Ben Affleck.
6. Christmas Makeover
One thing Sandra Bullock loves, like millions of others, is Christmas. After filming Bird
Box, Bullock interviewed with Hoda Kotb on TODAY. She said that she and her family always
go overboard with Christmas stuff, like decorations, presents, so on and so forth. She said that
she always overdoes it, panics, overdoes it even more, and then everyone has done too
much at that point. So, Sandra decided to stop. She noted that the reason she wanted
to tone down Christmas in her house is because so many people in the world don’t have anything.
Sandra told her kids that they should make the holiday about other people instead of
themselves. Her children were completely onboard with the idea, and now she only gives “three
small gifts” during Christmas.
5. Anti-Instagram
For years, Sandra Bullock has stayed away from social media. Like many people who try
to avoid drama and technological obsession, she thought it would be best to abstain from
the applications completely. She even said during an interview that she might go on “wine-fueled
rants,” and nobody wants that… or do we? But, she also claimed that the main reason
she didn’t have social media accounts was because she’s “lazy.” However, she ensured
everyone that she’s still in touch despite her lack of internet identities.
4. More Movies
From 2009 to the present, Bullock has worked on several more films that have gained her
even more recognition in the industry. In 2011, she starred with Tom Hanks in Extremely
Loud & Incredibly Close, which was nominated for several awards. A couple of years later,
she acted alongside Melissa McCarthy in The Heat, a comedy in which she plays an FBI Special
Agent. That same year, Sandra played Ryan Stone in Gravity with George Clooney as Matt
Kowalski. The film was a great success and received a standing ovation during the 70th
Venice Film Festival, where it premiered.
3. Crash Landing
Sandra has faced a few interesting obstacles throughout her life, and she’s been very
lucky considering the severity of what could’ve happened. Back in 2000, the star was flying
to Jackson Hole, Wyoming with her then-boyfriend, Bob Schneider. When the aircraft tried to
land, the nose wheel broke off, and they crashed into a snowbank. Sandra, Schneider, and the
crew members refused to get medical attention at the crash site, and Bullock went on with
her ski trip like nothing happened.
2. Bess Bistro
Sandra Bullock is an actress and a producer, but did you know that she was also in the
restaurant biz? Back in 2006, she opened a dining establishment called Bess Bistro in
Austin, Texas. The restaurant originally served French food, but there were several chef changes
during the time it was open. Bess Bistro remained open until September 2015.
1. Organ-ic Facial
There’s no denying that celebrities embrace strange trends more often than the rest of
us. When Sandra Bullock went on The Ellen Show in 2018, she told the hostess that she
and Cate Blanchett get really interesting facials together. The facials require the
use of stem cells. But, how does one come across stem cells nowadays? Well, this is
where it gets weird. They are harvested from discarded bits of skin that are taken from
newborn male babies in Korea… do you get where we’re going with this? But, despite
its strange and somewhat gross origin, the facial is supposed to work wonders. It helps
improve skin tone and texture and rejuvenates the epidermis. The serum made with stem cells
is said to generate elastin and collagen, making celebs look younger. However, don’t
freak out too much yet. The serum doesn’t contain cells taken directly from the discarded
skin. First, they clone it to make brand new cells, keeping Bullock and Blanchett looking
as smooth as a baby’s bottom.
Today’s featured comment comes from Doretha on out “Jussie Smollett & The Empire Cast’s
Secrets” video! Thanks for your comment, Doretha! Don’t forget to leave your comments
below and we might feature you in a future video!