ENTERTAINMENT
Actor Sandra Bullock says that she almost stopped accepting acting jobs in the middle of her career because of rampant sexism in the industry.
Actor Sandra Bullock says sexism in Hollywood made her think about quitting acting altogether.
“My career has been a domino effect of people who said, ‘I would like this person to fill this role’,” Bullock said.
“And not just in the industry, but people in my life. My mother raised me like, ‘You don’t need to get married, you forge your own path. You make your own money, and be your own person’. And I literally went out into the world thinking there was no disparity, that everyone was equal, and I can do whatever a man can do,” she added.
It wasn’t until later in her career that Bullock had a “wake-up moment”.
“I was like, ‘What is this feeling? Oh, my God, I’m being treated this way because I have a vagina’,” she said.
Bullock did not get into specifics about the sexist behaviour she was subjected to, though she said it had a lasting effect.
“It was hard for me, because I walked with blinders on through life and got to where I (felt) like I was less than (other people) because I was a woman. And that was a hard pill to swallow. I had a lot of sadness from that. I was like, ‘Wow, maybe I need to step out of here. Maybe I need to do something else for a living’. And that was in the middle of when I was getting work — I didn’t want to be a part of that world where there was that experience,” she said.