Sandra Bullock has spoken out about the predatory auditions she endured as a young actress in New York.
The Oscar winner, 62, made the revelation during a conversation with close friend Jennifer Aniston for Interview magazine. Bullock recalled being a waitress at the time and facing repeated inappropriate demands from industry figures.
“I was in New York, I was a waitress, I was auditioning for every pervert that existed, asking me to drop my pants,” she said.
Bullock remembered her immediate reaction to those encounters. “Nope, not the role for me,” she thought, though she continued trying to “work [her] way up” in the business.
The “Miss Congeniality” star explained the mindset that kept young performers trapped in such situations. “Every working actor thinks you will never work again so you just take what you can get and make the most of it,” she shared.
Bullock identified her first truly “intentional” career move as the decision to step away from romantic comedies entirely. “I was getting so much shit for them,” she admitted.
That pivot led her to the 2004 Paul Haggis-directed crime thriller “Crash,” where she played Jean Cabot, the wealthy wife of a Los Angeles district attorney whose worldview is shaken after a carjacking. The film, which explored complex racial and social tensions, won the Academy Award for Best Picture and fundamentally altered how Hollywood perceived her.
“It was a genius film. I wanted to start flexing other muscles,” Bullock said of the project.
The dramatic turn paved the way for subsequent acclaimed performances, including her Oscar-winning role in “The Blind Side” (2009) and another nomination for “Gravity” (2013).
Despite the hardships of her early career, Bullock expressed nostalgia for her comedy roots. “I want to do nothing but that now,” she confessed. “Some people want to bring sexy back. We’re going to bring the funny back.”
The actress made her Instagram debut earlier this year to tease “Practical Magic 2,” the sequel to the late ’90s cult classic in which she and Nicole Kidman reprised their roles as sisters Sally and Gillian navigating a family curse. The film, which includes a cameo by Bullock’s two children, hit theaters on September 10.
Bullock’s early years in New York involved balancing her waitressing job with a grueling audition circuit where inappropriate requests were commonplace. The experience of being repeatedly asked to “drop my pants” by industry figures shaped her understanding of the compromises young actors face, even as she refused to make them herself.
