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In celebration of the charming, effervescent and all-round-nice-gal Sandra Bullock, who turns 54 years old today, we’re calling out all the reasons we’re head over heels for her.
She can speak German
Sandra was born in America, but spent much of her childhood living in Nuremberg, Germany – where her father was stationed in the military – or travelling around Europe with her mother, an opera singer. What a family! Having studied ballet and singing, she even starred in some of her mother’s productions. Advanced, much?
She’s never been afraid to hustle
When she set her heart on being an actress and moved to New York City, she took side gigs as a bartender, cocktail waitress and coat checker in between auditioning for parts. We’re tired just thinking about it.
She’s a boss lady
She has her own production company, Fortis Films (and, clearly a fan of keeping things in the family, her father is the CEO and her sister used to be the president). She helped produce movies like Two Weeks Notice, Miss Congeniality and Practical Magic. Bullock also tried to produce Million Dollar Baby, but no film studios would go for it. While she was working on Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, she discovered Clint Eastwood had snapped it up, and Hilary Swank was signed on to star in the lead role. Taking the loss like a true champ, she said afterward, “When things like that happen, that's the way they're supposed to be.”
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Sandra Bullock Ocean's 8 premier via Getty Images
She’s making bank
When she declared she was shifting her focus to meatier roles in the early 2000s, some critics doubted her ability to move away from romantic comedies. Proving her haters wrong, she went on to win an Oscar in 2010 for The Blind Side, and was nominated again in 2014 for Gravity (in which she spends most of the film floating around in space, completely alone, and still manages to leave you on the edge of your seat). Gravity turned out to be her second most commercially successful film ever, pulling in a casual USD$723 million. Top honours, though, goes to 2015’s Minions – she voiced Scarlet Overkill – which earned $1.159 billion. Ca-ching.
She’s got a heart of gold
Bullock has donated plenty of her hard-earned cash to charitable organisations, including the American Red Cross. As a proud New Orleans resident – both her children, whom she adopted in 2010 and 2015 respectively, are Louisiana-born – she’s a major supporter of the state, particularly in the aftermath of devastating events like Hurricane Katrina.
She sends her co-stars sweet treats
During the promotional tour for their recent release Ocean’s 8, Mindy Kaling shared that Bullock had sent her, Sarah Paulson and Anne Hathaway milkshakes... just because. If that’s not friendship 101, we don’t know what is.
