Sandra Bullock: ‘Outspoken, Narcissistic Actors Like Myself’ Keep Gender Equality Issue ‘Alive’

While discussing wage inequality for women in Hollywood, actress Sandra Bullock said she’s glad the film industry is being held accountable for its business practices.

In an essay published on Variety, Sandra Bullock, who is one of the industry’s most bankable female stars, argues women are treated as less than equal and shares her thoughts on her own career, while telling a vague story of a breakdown that left her “destroyed” and “fearful” more than a decade ago.

On the discussion of gender equality in Hollywood, Bullock notes:

Hollywood has always been at the forefront of pioneering a new road and a new movement. So it’s a blessing that they got caught, and there are a lot of outspoken, narcissistic actors like myself who are very happy to talk about the issue and keep it alive.

Bullock then added, “Once we start shifting how we perceive women and stop thinking about them as ‘less than,’ the pay disparity will take care of itself… There’s a much bigger issue at hand. I’m glad Hollywood got caught.”

Indistinctly retelling a story of the personal toll of gender inequality, the 51-year-old writes:

I always thought we are all equal, and we are. I was actually doing a film about 10 years ago, and I found myself yelling and being angry. And I was like, ‘What is happening to me?’ I was literally fearful.

And I realized, it’s because I’m female. It dawned on me. At that day and age, at that point in my career, it was the worst experience I ever had.

Bullock adds:

I was destroyed, because you can’t unsee something. Was I so naïve up to this point to actually think that I was on an equal level with everybody? It was the way I was being treated, because I was female, versus the way others were being treated.

It took me a while. It took a year and a half, where I regrouped, and thought, “Okay, this is an isolated case.

She concedes she has had other “subtle experiences,” and credits the “experience” with opening her eyes.

“I was just happy to be working, so you take it, especially in this business,” Bullock concludes of the decade-old event, while saying she hopes to one day see the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment for her son.

Read the rest of Sandra Bullock’s income disparity essay here.