It’s hard not to love Sandra Bullock. There’s something really down-to-earth about her. She has absolutely no pretensions and she seems friendly – she’s the kind of person you’d want to invite to your girls’ night! It’s probably never going to happen, but we can still wish for it, right? For the Sandra Bullock fans, here are 10 things you didn’t know about the A-list actress!
10. Raised in Germany
Although she was born in Arlington, Virginia, the first twelve years of her life she lived Nuremberg, Germany. Because of this, she speaks German fluently.
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9. Ballet and Vocal Arts
She studied ballet and vocal arts as a child. Her mother was an opera singer and voice teacher, so growing up Sandra would take small parts in her mother’s opera productions.
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8. Menial Work
After graduating from East Carolina University where she studied Drama, she moved to Manhattan and worked as a bartender, cocktail waitress and coat checker while she auditioned for roles.
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7. Business Woman
She owns two businesses in Austin, Texas: Bess Bistro, a eco-friendly restaurant, and Walton’s Fancy Staple, a bakery, upscale restaurant and floral shop that also offers event planning services.
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6. Funny Mom
She likes to wear cheetah-print pyjamas to humor her son Louis. “The only man in my life is my son, and it’s probably going to stay this way for a while. I go to bed wearing a very baggy one-piece cheetah suit, just because it makes my son laugh. My sexy lingerie has been locked in a drawer for a while!” she told Italian magazine IO Donna.
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5. Biggest Fear
She is petrified of flying. She overcame this fear with her role in Gravity. “I’m petrified of flying,” Bullock said. “Plummeting out of the sky was not my idea of how I wanted to work with Alfonso Cuarón. But at one point I sat down and said, ‘What is it about this movie that is telling me to get off my ass and get over something that has paralyzed me?’”
Photo by Moviestore/REX
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4. No Social Media for Sandra
She doesn’t use social media. When asked why, she replied, “I don’t want anyone to know where I am.” She also hates selfies. “I hate taking selfies,” she told U.K.’s The Times. “I will not take a selfie that I can’t erase. I don’t post or do any of that stuff.”
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3. Producer
She owns her own production company, Fortis Films. She tried to produce a film based on F.X. Toole’s short story Million Dollar Baby, but studios weren’t interested in a female boxing drama at the time. The story was eventually adapted and directed by Clint Eastwood and won four Academy Awards.
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2. Speech Impediment
She had a speech impediment as a child. “I had a lisp as a child, it’s all these things that made me different and I tried to squelch and then once I realized I had squelched them I didn’t feel like myself anymore,” she said.
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1. Almost Passed on The Blind Side
She turned down the role in The Blind Side three or four times. “I was so worried about it being a Lifetime movie,” she told Vogue.
Ralph Nelson/©Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection