Sandra Bullock on how she got Hollywood to create her dream role for her
We’re so excited about Our Brand Is Crisis, a brand new film out in theaters that stars the immensely talented Sandra Bullock. Obviously, anything involving Sandra Bullock is fabulous, but what’s particularly intriguing about this film, a dramedy about American consultants intervening in a Bolivian election, is the role she’s playing was actually originally intended for George Clooney. The transition into the role was by no means a finger snap, as Bullock explained to Entertainment Weekly recently.
“About two-and-a-half years ago, I just put out the feelers saying, ‘I’m not reading anything I’m excited about. Are there any male roles out there that they don’t mind switching to female, as long as it works?’” Bullock told EW. “You put that out to the powers-that-be, and they went to George and said, ‘What about this? You guys have this and you’re not slated to do it.’”
George was “all for it,” Bullock told EW: “He could see how it might work, being changed to a woman. Then, we went to Peter (Straughan, who wrote the film) and Peter’s got the difficult job of having to switch an entire character. He was excited, and game for it, and then when we read it, it made me excited.”
Bullock is playing a combination of several of the characters from the documentary which inspired this film. “For lack of a better description, she’s basically a female Karl Rove,” she told EW. “But she’s just brilliant at the devious side of politics, of press, of PR, of what-have-you. [She knows] how to convince the people they need something and then give it to them.”
Calling the role “very tricky territory,” she went on to explain that exactly why she’s incredibly thankful for the role:
This isn’t the first time gender-swapping in Hollywood has happened in a majorly awesome way. Recently, we found out that Charlize Theron is taking on a role in The Gray Man that was originally intended for Brad Pitt. Angelina Jolie’s role in Salt was originally written for a man as well.
Apparently, the Clooney-Bullock role exchange in particular really works, because we just recently found out that Bullock will be playing Clooney’s Danny Ocean in an all-female reboot of Ocean’s Eleven, which Clooney is set to produce.
We are all for taking parts written for men and giving them to kick-ass actresses. In an industry laced with deep-seated gender inequality, it’s essential to demonstrate just how adept women are at raking it in at the box office. Thanks, Sandra, for standing up and speaking out.
Related:
There’s an all-female Ocean’s Eleven in the works
PSA: Sandra Bullock’s new role was written for George Clooney
Image via Participant Media
