It was arguably the biggest scandal to rock Hollywood in 2010 — just days after gushing about husband Jesse James during her Oscars acceptance speech, Sandra Bullock was blind sided (pardon the pun) by news of his infidelity.
In what should have amounted to a career boost, winning the Academy Award for best actress almost became the final crowning glory in Bullock’s career.
“I was perfectly content to be permanently broken,” she says of the time period following the fallout from her divorce. “Time-wise,” she clarifies.
So when director Stephen Daldry called Bullock about “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” the actress says, “I honestly didn’t think I was in a place where I wanted to work or wanted to step out of where I was.”
“I wasn’t prepared. But the opportunity was louder than my head,” she says.
In “Extremely Loud,” Bullock plays the mother of an 11-year-old boy whose father died in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
“Everywhere you turned there was great commitment to telling the story, and you don’t get that very often,” says Bullock, who was in New York on September 11. “The book resonated so profoundly.”
To prepare for the role she listened to phone calls and voice mail messages left for family members by those trapped in the World Trade Center.
“The last messages were so inspiring because somehow those who knew that their lives were going to end managed to leave hope and inspiration and kindness and calm for those that they were leaving the messages for,” says Bullock. “I didn’t understand it. I didn’t know how it could be done, but that last message would be something like, `You’ve been amazing. You’ve been a great husband or wife. I’ve never loved like that before. The kids are going to be amazing. It’s all going to be OK.’ The people who are dying were reassuring those who are going to be left behind.”
“What a great way to get back on the horse,” says Bullock. “It was hard, but it was what it’s supposed to be.”
“Painfully, you learn quickly in life that sometimes there are no answers,” she says, “and you learn to make peace with that, which is a lifelong struggle.”
Watch “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” movie trailer below.
photo: DJ/iPhone/WENN