Flashback: Unmarried Sandra Bullock Talks Love
On this day in 1999, Sandra Bullock was a well-established actress who was a few films away from one of her most iconic works, Miss Congeniality. However, at 34, there was something more appealing on her mind than the world of film.
As she is interviewed about her then-upcoming romantic-comedy Forces of Nature, in which she starred alongside Ben Affleck, Bullock is asked about her personal stances on love and marriage.
"I've learned more in the past two years about...what the word 'love' is and what [it] means to love somebody," says Bullock, who had dated a handful of fellow celebrities. "I think I have a better view on marriage now. I was definitely afraid of it."
The film centers on a man and a woman who sit next to one another on a plane and aren't fond of each other at first. When their trip is halted because of an engine flameout, the two eventually decide to travel together by their own transport.
Bullock admits, through an assessment of her character, that lasting love is not only difficult to discover but also daunting to harbor.
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"If you've never been around somebody that gives you that feeling of 'Maybe this could be the one' or enlivens you that way, I think you get a little scared. I don't think [my character's] ever...been across someone that she respected and admired enough to say, 'You are worth battling it out with for a lifetime.'"
As for her personal preference for a future mate, Bullock reveals that she's not interested in materialistic details but rather the genuine persona of her potential suitor.
"I think we spend too much time looking for things that are more things that society wants us to look for," she says. "...Who cares how much somebody makes for a living? In the end we're all going to be old and wrinkled.
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"You'd like to know that that person could...make you laugh and think, can really stimulate you and excite you when you're gone...somebody you can admire and be proud of and sit back and go, 'This is my man.' Whether or not he's a millionaire or if he's a painter, a musician, or somebody who just shucks clams, I think it's that respect level that we forget to look for."
Six years later, after she released the sequel to Miss Congeniality and produced another iconic role in Crash, Bullock was married to motorcycle builder Jesse James.