As Sandra Bullock mulls her next move — most likely starring opposite Tom Hanks in an adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close — EW takes a look inside her stunning comeback, examining how she consciously retooled her career, how she transcended the tabloid noise, and where she might go from here.
One thing’s for sure: Bullock has no shortage of options. At age 46, a decade and a half after she jumped on the bus in Speed, the actress is being courted for virtually every female starring role Hollywood has to offer, from a Disney family fable called The Odd Life of Timothy Green to Our Wild Life, a drama about an elephant orphanage. There’s also the action comedy EW reported about exclusively in June called Most Wanted, in which she’d star as a criminal suspect being escorted to the courthouse by a U.S. marshal (played by her Proposal costar Ryan Reynolds). ”Every movie you hear about and every script I see, they say, ‘We’re going after Sandra Bullock for the woman,’ ” says Ben Affleck, who costarred with Bullock in 1999′s Forces of Nature. “She’s the golden girl,” says a top Hollywood agent. “Everyone is rooting for her. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Indeed, it’s been quite a year for the actress: The two biggest hits of her career. A Best Actress Oscar. A tabloid firestorm. A new baby. EW examines her rising status in Hollywood, and how, thanks to the intangible chemical reaction that creates stardom, she’s always had a knack for making audiences fall in love with her. “From the minute we saw her in Speed, she just had this quality that people want to be around,” says Bradley Cooper, who costarred with Bullock in last year’s All About Steve. “It’s like being around a source of light.”
For more on Sandra Bullock, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands September 3rd.
Sandra Your THE Best
x 2 Sandy rocks. I’ll buy a ticket for any movie she does, and then the DVD for good measure!
I wish EW would take a vacation from stories about Sandra, Jen, Jane and Betty. Basta. Enough.
It must be a really, really slow news week if she’s on the cover with nothing to promote. Quit kissing @$$, EW.
Diva, “YOUR” does not equal “YOU ARE.”
I just blew cereal through my nose reading “most powerful actress”. Most powerful, my @$$. Please.
do you really care that much?
She’s powerful, but I would put my money on Meryl Streep and Helen Miren before Sandra Bullock.
Yeah, she’s pretty undeniably awesome. I can’t believe she’s 46; she looks like she’s 30!!!
On what damn planet does she look 30? Lens Crafters is your friend.
that picture is photshopped and in a good angle. gooogle other images and you can tell shes in her 40s
I agree, she looks great!
what the h3ll’s wrong w/being in your 40′s?!? can women not be beautiful then too?
Whooooaa people, chill out! There’s nothing wrong with giving a compliment (nor is there anything wrong with being in your 40s, or ANY age).
The main reason why I love Sandra is because after her project, she goes away. She needs to do that again before we get Sandra Bullock overload(like we are getting with Betty White). I don’t want it to turn into something bad where we don’t miss her one bit. By the way, my favorite Sandra Bullock movies are: Premonition, Practical Majic and The Net. I think she is a phenomenal actress, I just don’t want her to get overexposed because we will get sick of her. It’s like eating your favorite food continously, after a while you could care less for it and don’t crave it at all.
No, woman can’t look beautiful at 40, Sorry.
Okay, morbid ctsioriuy requires that I watch the first. Then I will be paranoid of all sorts of things! As a child, I spent months walking around in fear of spontaneously combusting after watching an episode about such things on That’s Incredible. I’m curious about the 2nd. There was one Disney (I believe) movie for tweens where a South African white female exchange student gets placed with a black American family. Other than that, I haven’t seen any movies that deal with South Africa’s racial prejudice. I did see Hotel Rwanada, which deals with different African racial prejudice, but that’s all that immediately comes to mind. It is late though and maybe I’m just too out of it????
I’m not bashing Sandra, she’s talented and graceful, but is she the most powerful actress in Hollywood? Not by a longshot..
Love me some Sandra Bullock. Thank you EW for putting her on the cover. She is gorgeous and can’t wait to see what she does next.
She is stunning.
WOWZA! Great cover!
I know! I love love love her, and have ever since I first saw her in Speed!
Am I the only one who’s a little sick of EW’s adulation of her?
yeah…you might be.
No. Sadly, we’re in the minority “Me”. This magazine is guilty of overexposure. If she didn’t have such a meltdown over her personal life, this adulation would not be as strong.
Funny I don’t recall her having a meltdown…actually she was someone to admire the way she handled the situation.
Strange – I guess I missed her meltdown. When was that?
Hiding away for months until it blew over would be considered a meltdown of sorts.
she didn’t hide away. she was trying to take care of the adoption of her son without the media finding out, which is QUITE admirable of her.
It could also be considered as the most sane and logical thing to do. As meltdowns go, that was pretty tame.
Ugh, I thought she handled the breakup of her marriage with a lot of class and dignity. I didn’t see any signs of a meltdown.
You have to give credit where credit is due. Sandra is worthy of the adulation. In a day and age where everything is about Lilo and Paris’ latest arrests and probation hearings, it’s nice to have some coverage on someone that works hard and seems to be a decent person inside and out.
AMEN!
Wow…that was deep. What happened to you?
and Hallelujah!
Exactly. Sandy is a class act and deserving of the praise she’s getting right now. She’s a beauty inside and out.
Didn’t they just have this exact same cover story a few months ago?
I’m sick of it too and the only reason she has this cover is her ex-husband is a Nazi-loving cheater and everyone was all “poor Sandra” and she got herself a kid to combat all the press about her jerk of a husband. Go away, you can’t even act! WORST. OSCAR. WINNER. EVER.
She won the same undeserved Oscar that Julia Roberts won. Both of those should’ve been Lifetime Movie network flicks.
what meltdown? she took time to take care of her life like any other normal person would do.
Ineffably sick of her.
And photos of her pet monkey.
@ Bull – WTF is wrong with you? you are not funny. You are an a**hole.
“The EW cover was a cleverly planned audition to play a female Two-Face in the next Batman movie.”
My brother loves this woman!
Love Sandra, love EW for putting her on the cover again, but that’s the best you could do? She deserves more than that.
Thank God it’s Sandra and not Julia.
Who’s Julia?
Someone that Sandra fans seem obsessed with. Julia ran ish for 11 years, she’s good.
Roberts.
Wow! Not that she usually doesn’t look nice but she’s especially gorgeous on this cover!
I think she is naturally beautiful, but this cover is, once-again, photoshopped to make her look like a stringbean, not to mention completely air-brushed. I think it would kill picture editors to run a “real” photograph.
It may be photoshopped some but her makeup, hair and the pose in this picture make her look particularly beautiful.
She is 50 times prettier than horsey Julia, come on she looks awesome.
Julia is better than her.
Love Sandra and will see any movie she’s in. That’s a hot EW cover, so I’ll buy the mag this week.
I guess you see a lot of bad movies then.
Ha ha ha ha ha!
The Proposal = Crap
The Lakehouse = Crap
The Net = Crap
Two Weeks Notice = Crap
Premonition = Crap
Murder By Numbers = Crap
Forces Of Nature = Crap
Hope Floats = Crap
In Love & War = Crap
Love Potion #9 = Crap
WORST. FILMOGRAPHY. EVER.
JL, I think you are kinda missing the point here. Yes, she has had some bad movies. But the main success story for her is that she rose from the ashes of her career and landed The Blind Side, an Oscar winning performance, and did The Proposal, which was a major hit at the box office whether you like it or not.
And then, in the midst of all that, her husband went and cheated on her with a less than stellar woman.
So instead of hating so much, why not acknowledge where her career is at now and where it could continue to go from here.
The Blind Side = Amazing
All About Steve = Crap
The Proposal = great
Premonition = great
The Lake house = good
Crash = Amazing
Two Weeks Notice = Cute
Miss Congeniality = Really Good
Miss Congeniality 2 = not so good
28 Days = Amazing
Practial magic = Good
Hope Floats = Really Good
Speed = Awesome
While you were sleeping= great
speed 2 = horrible
A timie to kill = excellent
All in all I think she rocks and no denying her movies bring in the $$$$
Seriously. She does have one of the worst filmographies out there for an Oscar winner. I guess we get to look forward to Kate Hudson following this same trajectory in the coming years.
Yeah, lots of those movies are pretty bad, but she does have some excellent ones under her belt, too:
A Time to Kill
Speed
While You Were Sleeping
28 Days
Miss Congeniality
Demolition Man (though small role)
and if you look at any actress, they’re gonna have a fair share of duds on their list
Forgot the obvious one…The Blind Side.
Two Weeks Notice does not deserve to be on the crap list. That’s actually one of the few witty chick flicks that I’ve enjoyed.
James – Really? You thought her roll in Demolition Man was small? I have to disagree, enjoyed every scene she was in. Love Sandra, she always makes me smile!
I have to agree with Ann (although not agreeing with how she categorizes ALL of the movies). Sandra has done a lot of movies and of course not all of them have been stellar. Some of them have been, yes, crappy, but some of them have been amazing. That’s the way movies go when you’ve been in the business for a long time. They can’t all be winners.
Now if only she would team up with Meryl, and do a buddy movie. We already know they are the best–and that they kiss great!
What’s next for Sandra Bullock? Hopefully a sandwich. That picture is unhealthy looking.
She looks so gorgeous on the cover!!! She always looks beautiful, but for EW to have a cover like this where she looks like she is on the beach with her hair blowing, that is different!! I like it every once in a while and it makes it look like EW is a fashion magazine!! haha!! but beautiful cover and beautiful woman!!!
Was hoping this would be the Fall TV Preview cover. When is that?
Me too, they usually do that on Labor Day and the season is about to start so was hoping to get it here.
LUV LUV LUV her . Sandra is awesome I am a hugh fan . Will see just about anything she’s in .
Hugh Jackman?
lol!!
She can’t act and she’s overrated. It’s great she had a good year last year and it sucks her husband embarassed her and has already moved on, but really, let’s not act like this will last. Soon the public will forget about her and move on. Remember how everyone loved Jennifer Aniston after Brad cheated on her and now nobody cares? Same will happen for Sandra, and her career won’t go much of anywhere cause she can’t act. She should stick to Disney and ABC Family movies
For someone who doesn’t like Sandra you’ve sure seen a lot of her movies (your ratings from an earlier post). Quit whining and don’t rent or go to her movies. That should cure the hatred you seem to have for her. She’s on the cover because she can sell magazines whether you like it or not. Don’t buy it. Sandra has always had up and down years in her career, so what they all do. Name one actor that hasn’t had a flop for a movie measured by box office success. Not just whether or not you like it and then I might be able to take your posts seriously.
I agree Sheryl, and thank goodness we all have choices. To buy this issue, to pay for movie tickets and to express our views. I for one like Sandra a whole lot. And I’m quite sure she has an idea about which movies she performed in were not so good.