Sandra Bullock gave a quick interview to The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet at The Unforgivable premiere, which they’re just reporting now. She praised Netflix for giving her work and for helping tell stories that weren’t covered on major networks or American movies before the rise of streaming. She also said that she really didn’t expect to be working as a woman at 57. It sounded like she told it in a joking way but that she meant it. That just makes me sad. Here’s some of what she said.

Netflix confirmed in recent days that viewers spent enough time with The Unforgivable for it to claim a spot in the top 10 most watched titles in the streamer’s history. But you won’t catch Bullock poring over the data.

“You can’t, you can’t,” she told The Hollywood Reporter of obsessing over its value at The Unforgivable premiere in December. But what she will do is praise Netflix for employing talent of a certain age. “They’re good to artists. They’re good to filmmakers. If it wasn’t for Netflix, a lot of people wouldn’t be working. Their stories wouldn’t be told. Who would think that me, as a woman, would still be working at this point? I would have been out in the cow pasture. It’s true.”

Jokes aside, the 57-year-old actress-producer continued that hits like Squid Game wouldn’t happen without the power of Netflix. “That’s one of the bigger ones, but I’ve seen more work from other countries told by other nationalities, and we never would have had that 10 years ago, ever. It brings people together in a way that really, you know, we’re getting more and more divided and yet, we have the streamers that are able to blend our stories together and go, look, same story, just different.”

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

This is Sandra Bullock, an incredibly talented and universally beloved Oscar winner, just assuming she’s not going to get work after a certain age and being grateful that Netflix has hired her. Imagine being in an industry gatekeeped by creepy old white men where you’re washed up at 40. The more I learn about that Hollywood, the more toxic, sexist and racist it sounds. Things are changing gradually as we have so many more venues for filmmakers and actors, but it’s not soon enough.

I honestly haven’t seen The Unforgivable yet as my attention span is shot (see this article), but I saw Sandra on Kimmel a few weeks ago and she was delightful. The Unforgivable does not have a great Rotten Tomatoes rating, but I’ve heard good things about it, particularly Sandra and Viola Davis’s performances.

The Lost City, with Channing Tatum and Sandra, is coming out on March 25th in theaters. I’ll VOD it because it looks awesome. Also, I just googled it and a Bird Box 2 is happening! I will watch that although the original hits different now, you know? We have no idea if Sandra is interested or when it will be released.

Photos credit: Avalon.red and Instar