Sandra Bullock Reveals She Is Stepping Away From Acting, But For A Good Reason
Sandra Bullock is stepping away from acting, but the actress has a very good reason for doing so. In this context, it makes total sense.
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Sandra Bullock, 57, is usually a head-turner wherever she goes, but at the SXSW Film Festival this week, she gave a few hundred people whiplash when she announced that she is leaving Tinseltown for Soccer Mom City. She attended SXSW to promote her new film with Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe and Channing “Magic Mike” Tatum called The Lost City. (Oh yeah, some up-and-comer named Brad Pitt is in it as well.) But by the time she had left, she had laid out a new path for her life and career.
The Austin, Texas-based event has national appeal, but for Sandra Bullock, it’s also home. That may be why she felt comfortable sharing the news that she will take a sabbatical from acting to focus on being a mother to her 11-year-old son Louis and her eight-year-old daughter Lalia. Both of her children are adopted, but she spends her time with them and her long-time boyfriend, L.A. fashion photographer Bryan Randall, whom she has been since 2015.
“I love stories that show the imperfection of love within families and communities. I would love to [continue doing that] when I’m done being a mom,” said Bullock to the Austin faithful. “I’ll get back to it. I don’t know when. Probably when they’re teenagers, solidly 16- or 17-year-olds.” The community outreach statement was prompted by a question from the audience about her zeal to be a mother. When the teenage years arrive, Bullock would “love to work on more film projects within the Hispanic and Chicana communities.”
Her choice to stay home and focus on motherhood is admirable in Hollywood, where sometimes parental responsibilities are usually eighth or ninth place in the thespians’ hierarchy of needs. However, it seems a little of that choice comes from the contentment, and security Randall provides her. To Entertainment Tonight, Sandra Bullock gave a little more emphasis on her SXSW decision. “I take my job very seriously when I’m at work,” she said. “And now, I just want to be 24/7 with my babies and my family.” (That means Randall.) She also shared that her home is “the place that makes me happiest.”
In 2010, things were unlike those heartwarming emotions she has now. Back then, Sandra Bullock and Jesse James ended their public marriage, following a few (dozen) trysts on his part, which he admitted to openly to The Hollywood Reporter. “I got divorced and lost a kid I adopted because of it. Whether that’s fair, I should have lost a kid due to infidelity, which I don’t think anybody ever does. But I think with ‘Hollywood Law’ that’s totally fair.” It was a messy break-up with the West Coast Choppers’ trickster, one that caused her “considerable embarrassment.”
The humiliation could have been any number of things as James wasn’t hubs of the year material. There were reports that James was remarkably jealous of the attention she received being a Hollywood actress. That seems correct since he was a reality TV motorcycle mechanic, right? Also, he hated attending the premiere parties and things usually part of the package of being recognized among those motion picture types. Sandra Bullock has said the relationship between her and James was a physical thing, but it should have stopped there.
To compound the feelings of abandonment and delirium she faced with James; another problem almost caused her to leave Hollywood for good. When she was making her name in Hollywood in 1994 alongside Keanu Reeves in Speed, she was wide-eyed and ready to take on the big screen because she was imbued with girl power. However, later in her career, she told USA Today in 2018 that she had a “wake-up moment, where I was like, ‘What is this feeling? Why do I feel so (expletive)? Oh my God, I’m being treated this way because I have a vagina.’”
There were no specifics, but sexism clouded her career. And that’s sad considering her successful career and breaking records on Netflix. Disrespect destroyed her marriage. So, when Sandra Bullock is quoted telling the world last December that Randall is “the love of [her] life,” put some weight on that statement. If she is as good of a mother as an actress, her kids are in great shape for the future.
