Reasons we love Sandra Bullock

By Wonderwall.com Editors 8:20am PST, Nov 15, 2019

Is there any other actress who can garner universal goodwill like Sandra Bullock? In honor of the 10-year anniversary of the release of "The Blind Side," Wonderwall.com is taking a look at some of the reasons why we adore its Oscar-winning star, Sandy B. Keep reading for more…

1. She runs her own production company

Hollywood's finally making an effort to push female-driven stories to the forefront, but Sandra Bullock has been ahead of the curve for a while. The actress started her own production company, Fortis Films, in 1998 so she could produce the insta-classic "Hope Floats." Her company has gone on to produce more great female-centric projects including "Practical Magic" and "Miss Congeniality."

2. Like the rest of us, Keanu Reeves had a massive crush on her

Keanu Reeves gave us all the feels when he admitted what we all dreamed in our heads — that he had a massive crush on Sandra Bullock while filming their 1994 action movie "Speed." When Keanu appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in 2019, the host played a clip of Sandra saying, "It was hard for me to really be serious because he would look at me and I'd be like giggling." After seeing that, Keanu admitted that "she obviously didn't know that I had a crush on her either." He explained that he didn't reveal his crush to Sandy because "we were working." Oh, what could have been!

RELATED: Keanu Reeves' life in pictures

3. She speaks German fluently

Even though Sandra Bullock was born in America and spent the majority of her childhood in the States, she speaks fluent German. Sandra's mother, Helga Meyer, was a German opera singer who met Sandy's father while he was stationed in Nuremberg, Germany. In 2000, Sandra won a Bambi Award (the German equivalent of an Oscar) and gave her entire acceptance speech in perfect German.

4. She's an amazing mother

It was a surprise when Sandra Bullock revealed in the wake of her 2010 split from Jesse James that she'd secretly adopted a baby boy, Louis, but it's no surprise at all that she's an amazing mother to Louis and his little sister, Laila, who joined the family in 2015. "When I look at Laila, there's no doubt in my mind that she was supposed to be here. I can tell you absolutely, the exact right children came to me at the exact right time," she told People magazine.

5. She loves dogs

For years, Sandra Bullock was the proud mama of Ruby and Poppy, a pair of very special rescue dogs: Ruby had two legs while Poppy had three. After the 2010 Golden Globe Awards, Sandy spoke as if her canines were normal and four-legged pups were the unusual ones, telling a reporter, "If it has four legs and is perfectly OK, it's got to have some emotional problems!" Her pooches went everywhere with her until their death within days of one another in 2018. In July 2019, Sandra and boyfriend Bryan Randall adopted a new rescue dog.

6. She's an Oscar winner

Sandra Bullock can flat-out act. There's actually a little golden man named Oscar whom she met when she won the best lead actress prize for her performance in "The Blind Side" in 2010. Really though, Sandra is one of the most well-rounded actresses on the planet, or rather, in the universe — she was also nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the space-based drama "Gravity." She can also deliver laughs (remember her as a reluctant beauty queen in "Miss Congeniality" and as a hardliner in "The Proposal"?) and serious action (she was a great bus driver in "Speed"!).

7. She has a sense of humor about her misfires

The movie "All About Steve" was… terrible, to put it lightly. In the same year that Sandra Bullock was awarded an Oscar for her work in "The Blind Side," she also won a Razzie Award for worst actress for "All About Steve" — and actually showed up to accept it! As only she can, she handled it with grace and humor: She pulled a wagon full of hundreds of DVDs of the movie on stage, a copy of the bomb-worthy flick for every member of the audience. She also brought her script and threw down the proverbial bad acting gauntlet. She said, "I'm willing to go page by page through my dialog, so we could be here a while. I will read it like the way I read it in the film and then anyone who wants to give me a line reading of how I could have done it better…" That's how Sandra does it!

8. She got down with Betty White

While filming "The Proposal," Sandra Bullock became good friends with a then-87-year-old Betty White. The two shared a fabulous scene where they dance in the woods to Lil Jon's "Get Low." At the 2010 Teen Choice Awards, Sandra described their dancing skills as "death power moves." Then, while claiming Betty hadn't been a teen "since 1919," she invited the eternally youthful actress on stage and they re-created the dance.

9. She has a playful friendship with George Clooney

Sandra Bullock has been the victim of notorious celebrity prankster George Clooney. He once got her good when they were at a pool party, she told former late night host Jay Leno. "I went to the bathroom and came out and there was George and someone else with just their pants on going, 'We're gonna go in the pool, and I was like, 'Really?' And so I held their hands and on the count of three … I jump, and they let go, and I go in the pool … The sad part was I wore this cute little lace dress that I paid a lot of money for, and as I got out [of the pool], it started disintegrating."

10. She has a massive heart

Her heart is as big as her talent. Sandra Bullock is one of the most generous celebrities around. She donated $1 million to the Red Cross for relief efforts after an earthquake devastated Japan in 2011. And that was the fourth known time she's donated $1 million to that organization for disaster relief efforts. In 2017, she donated another $1M — to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts — and in 2018, she donated $400K to the Red Cross for California wildfire relief plus another $100K to the Humane Society of Ventura County to help save animals affected by the fires. Back in 2005, she adopted New Orleans' Warren Easton Charter High School, which sustained $4 million worth of damage when Hurricane Katrina hit. The latter was one of the main reasons Sandra won the very first People's Choice favorite humanitarian award in 2013. Humble as always, Sandy said, "I am simply blessed to be able to do what I do because of what you allow me to do, and that is write a check and be a really good cheerleader and that's it."

11. She's dated several Hollywood hunks

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Gosling dated back in the early aughts. Nothing more needs to be said… but we will. Sandra has also dated fellow Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey, actor Tate Donovan, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman and other gorgeous and talented guys.

12. She has very normal fears

In 2000, Sandra Bullock was heading to her vacation home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, when the plane she was on missed the runway! The landing gear was clipped off and the plane sustained severe wing and nose damage. She told The New York Times that she has been "deathly afraid of flying" ever since.

13. She's uncensored

Have you ever seen "The Heat"? While promoting the movie co-starring Melissa McCarthy at CinemaCon in Las Vegas in 2013, Sandra Bullock spoke to reporters about a double standard in movies where men curse and get away with it but it's frowned upon for women to speak that way. She said, "Uncensoring women has, I think, led to more fun on screen. We curse. I talk like a truck driver."