Jason LaVeris/FilmMagicAfter Patricia Arquette gave her powerful Oscars speech about the wage gap, more and more actresses—including Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence—have spoken out on the topic and encouraged change. Thus, it was only a matter of time before the empowering Sandra Bullock also took a stance.
In a new interview with Variety, the 51-year-old recalled the "worst experience" of her life while working in Hollywood: blatant sexism.
"I was actually doing a film about 10 years ago, and I found myself yelling and being angry," the Our Brand Is Crisis star remembers. "And I was like, 'What is happening to me?' I was literally fearful."
She continues, "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."
Though Bullock doesn't explicitly state the movie in which the encounter occurs, there are four films she was working on at that time (2005-2006): Loverboy, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, The Lake House and Infamous.
"I was destroyed, because you can't unsee something," she continues. "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."
The whole experience took her a good period of time to really move forward from.
"It took me a while," Bullock explains. "It took a year and a half, where I regrouped, and thought, 'OK, this is an isolated case.' I've had other subtle experiences, but nothing that blatant. It was a big eye opener, because it wasn't just men on women. A lot [of it] came from women as well. The blessing of that film was that it opened my eyes."
But the situation wasn't just about money for Bullock. She says it's also in the way women are treated and talked about.
"I know we're focused on the money part right now. That's just a byproduct," she says. "I keep saying, 'Why is it that no one is standing up and saying you can't say that about a woman?' We're mocked and judged in the media and articles. [...] Once we start shifting how we perceive women and stop thinking about them as 'less than,' the pay disparity will take care of itself."
Needless to say Bullock—who is taking sexism head on after nabbing a role written for a man in her latest film, Our Brand Is Crisis—is happy Hollywood "got caught."
She jokes, "Tthere are a lot of outspoken, narcissistic actors like myself who are very happy to talk about the issue and keep it alive."