Shooting for Bird Box, Sandra Bullock became ‘agitated’ and ‘frustrated’

Best known for starring in romantic comedies, Oscar-winning Sandra Bullock’s character has to fight for survival in the dark, dystopian thriller Bird Box.

Known for Miss Congeniality, The Blind Side, and Gravity (2013), Bullock plays Malorie, a woman desperate to keep her two children safe from an unseen threat that leads people to commit suicide, in Bird Box.

Premiering the film in Berlin, the 54-year-old said that while she was not usually a fan of scary movies, she enjoyed adding the genre to her portfolio of work.

“Here we had a journey that couldn’t have happened without this deep complex, intricate love story about a family and social commentary on what we all feel is the state of the world,” Bullock says.

“Everyone has a different thought about what’s happening in the world today, so those two blending together is a rare thing.” Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman, Bird Box sees Malorie take her children on a dangerous trip into the wild, all blindfolded, as they try to escape an “ominous unseen presence”, which if seen, leads to devastating consequences.

“I found I became very agitated, very angry, very frustrated, short-tempered and I didn’t realise it was a result of having been blindfolded until like halfway through,” Bullock adds.

“I went ‘Oh my God, it’s because I don’t have my tools of expression as an actor’ ... But I think in the end ...it helped give a really jagged feeling to those scenes rather than if I had holes cut in my blindfold and I could see and I was pretending to stumble and be blind.”

Bird Box is directed for the web by filmmaker Susanne Bier, who has previously directed In a Better World (2010) and Brother (2004). The film also stars Bullock’s Ocean’s Eight co-star Sarah Paulson, and John Malkovich.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK Sandra Bullock plays a mother desperate to shield her children from an unseen threat, in Bird Box