Sandra Bullock Once Stopped Doing Romcoms Because She Felt They Were ‘Terrible’
Sandra Bullock has starred in many films in her long and storied career. But romcom films were very familiar to the Crash star, which helped increase her profile.
However, Bullock once shared that she no longer wanted to do romcoms after she started hating the genre.
Sandra Bullock once explained why big-budget romcoms didn’t sell anymore in theaters
Bullock is known for starring in several successful and highly memorable romantic comedies. Films like Forces of Nature and Miss Congeniality are all notable contributions to Bullock’s filmography. But big-budget romcoms might not be as popular as they used to. Bullock noticed this trend and discussed what might have changed for romcoms over the years.
Speaking to the New York Times, Bullock shared her belief that romantic comedies became undervalued and perceived in a negative light over time.
“But when you go back to the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, anything with a base of comedy and adventure that also had romance in it wasn’t marginalized the way that it is now,” Bullock said.
The Oscar-winner also claimed sexism played a role in the fall of big-budget romcoms.
“I think when everything swung toward the very masculine action-adventure, women got relegated to the arm piece or damsel in distress. Then, when romcoms came up, it was always like, ‘Oh, we’re going to let the women come back in, but it’s going to be this formula that we like, and it can’t be too edgy,'” she added.
Sandra Bullock vowed to stop doing romantic comedies because they were ‘terrible’
Bullock has long held that the quality of romantic comedies was dipping even while she still starred in them. In a 2009 interview, around the time she was the star of The Proposal, Bullock vowed to avoid romcoms.
“I stopped doing them – how many years ago? They are terrible, they are bad, and they are not funny,” she once said according to The Age.
She felt that Hollywood writers didn’t write well for women in romantic comedies at the time. Still, Bullock made an exception for The Proposal, which she saw as different than typical romcoms.
“I don’t call this a romantic comedy,” she said. “[The movie] reminds me of the films from like the 1930s and 40s where there was a landscape, a story, and drama was allowed to be in there, and you can’t have good comedy without drama in it.”
Why Sandra Bullock will only do comedies later in her career
Sandra Bullock recently starred in the Netflix drama The Unforgivable alongside Viola Davis. Although it was a return to Bullock’s more dramatic roots, it was only temporary. In an interview with Q’s Tom Power, Bullock shared that she was going to stick strictly to comedies after The Unforgivable.
“I’m never doing a drama again,” Bullock said. “I just want to do my comedy. I’m going back to comedy. And I’m going to fight for it and I’m going to enjoy it.”
Bullock acknowledged that comedy was different for her than drama. For the actor, comedy really required a good co-star to bring out the best in each other in the genre.
“It really requires a village to make comedy work, at least for me,” she continued. “I need a great partner opposite me to play ball with.”
