Best Actress- Sandra Bullock

By Richard Corliss Monday, Mar. 08, 2010
Gary Hershorn / Reuters

At the beginning of the show, Steve Martin posed the rhetorical question, "Who doesn't love Sandra Bullock?" To which Alec Baldwin replied, "Well, tonight we may find out." We're guessing that, after her award-worthy acceptance speech for playing the determined woman in The Blind Side, no one, the Best Actress losers included, doesn't love Bullock. "Did I really earn this," the first-time nominee began, "or did I just wear y'all down?" She paid brisk tribute to each of her competitors: "Carey [Mulligan], your grace and your elegance and your beauty and your talent [pause] makes me sick." She thanked "everyone who's shown me kindness when it wasn't fashionable" and even "everyone who's been mean to me... like George Clooney, who threw me in a pool. I still hold a grudge." It was the 46th Clooney joke, on a night when he might have been feeling a little vulnerable: His movie Up in the Air, once the front-runner for Best Picture, went home awardless.

Turning serious, Bullock dedicated her award to "the moms that take care of the babies and the children, no matter where they come from." And in a verklempt moment, she thanked her mother, Helga Bullock, for pressing artistic discipline and social responsibility on her. "I thank you so much for this opportunity that I share with these extraordinary women and" — acknowledging a big kiss she got from her co-winner at the Critics Choice Awards — "my lover, Meryl Streep." Comedy, sentiment, an uplifting message and a little joke on the way out — an Oscar-worthy performance in a couple of minutes.

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Standing in front of an international audience clutching her Best Actress Oscar, Sandra Bullock was perhaps the only person in the Kodak Theatre willing to admit some level of surprise about her giddy ascension to the ranks of Meryl Streep and Dame Helen Mirren — two of the acting titans she sweetly steamrolled over for the acting honor.

"Did I really earn this?" she asked the assembled members of the academy who had feted her with a rousing standing ovation, "Or did I just wear you all down?"
(See fashion from the red carpet.)

The answer would be a yes to both, but perhaps she might have added "charmed" to the equation. With her often-outrageous sense of humor, self-deprecation and class throughout the long awards season, it has been very easy to root for Bullock in her role as the outspoken matriarch Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side. "It just was such odd circumstances and things came together in a way that I just didn't see coming," Bullock said backstage at the Oscars. "That no one saw coming. And I think that's what makes it so overwhelming and unexpected."

Actually a lot of people saw this sure-thing vote coming. At some point it simply became her time. Bullock has been the favorite for the best actress award in the weeks — even months — leading to the Oscars that it's almost hard to remember a time when it was unthinkable to see the 45-year-old actress at the podium.
(Watch a video about the year's great film performances.)

Before 2009, actually that would have been pretty easy. Though Bullock was part of the ensemble cast that of "Crash" which pulled in a best picture Oscar in 2006, even she seemed content to have a career marked as a box office champion, screen comedienne and shrewd producer of such hits as "Miss Congeniality" and "Two Weeks Notice."

"I was very happy working and this came out of left field," she said backstage. "I didn't aspire to this." Bullock had even said no to The Blind Side part, along with Julia Roberts, before Bullock eventually changed her mind. But even after coming on board she still struggled with the role, calling her first week on set "the worst I have ever had." But somehow the role crystallized and the family-friendly movie proved a major force in 2009's box office — and the first female-led film to hit the $200 million mark. (note yes per respected clips)

While the movie was not overly appreciated by the critics at the time, Bullock's road to Oscar might have truly been cemented when she tied — literally tied — for the Critic's Choice award for best actress with Meryl Streep. Onstage that night, Bullock showed the zany streak that endeared her to Oscar voters by mock-charging Streep onstage when accepting her half of the award and then planting an open-mouth kiss onto a surprised but game Streep. "To the critics, I bet you never saw this coming," Bullock said of her victory in her speech. She ended it with: "I don't know what to say, but Meryl is a great kisser."

There was never a need for an onstage kiss again, because the ties were over as Bullock ran away with it from there, always keeping her sense of humor and humility. The Screen Actors Guild victory showed her typical acceptance speech excellence, hitting every mark — including sincerity — and wrapping up with thanks to her seated husband Jesse James. The famous tattooed tough guy and chopper enthusiast visibly choked up in front of the cameras as she spoke. Bullock's personal acceptance of her two Razzie awards for the deplorable All About Steve the evening before the Oscars was just icing on the self-deprecation cake. Rather than view the Razzies, saluting the worst that Hollywood has to offer, as an embarrassment and praying people would ignore it, she embraced it. Instead of an obvious Oscar hindrance, her willingness to laugh about it pretty much sealed her deal.

Bullock pulled a wagon full of All About Steve dvds onto the Razzies stage for a money shot guaranteed to run around the world. "You know, nothing ever let's me get too full of myself," Bullock said last night clutching her Oscar. She promised to keep both her Razzie and Oscar trophies prominently displayed in her home. "They'll sit side by side in a nice little shelf somewhere," she said, "The Razzie maybe on a different shelf...lower."

Backstage Bullock happily went through her award season's greatest moments including kissing Meryl ("no one has ever taken the bull by the horns before, but I did") and hit another everywoman bulls-eye with her post-Oscar plans. There was no need for champagne or parties after her wild ride. "I just want a burger," she said. "I want to eat and not sweat it and not worry that the dress will bust open. That's all I can give you. And I'd like a nap."


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