Source: Alexandre Schneider / Getty
Netflix premiered their new Susanne Bier directed thriller, Bird Box, on December 13th. The film stars Sandra Bullock as a slightly cold introvert who is pregnant with her first child when she finds herself having to fight for the life of her and her unborn when some kind of mysterious energy takes over the world and forces people to do bodily harm to themselves if they look at it. As this mysterious force is wreaking chaos on the entire human population, Sandra Bullock’s character finds herself connecting with a group of strangers in an attempt to survive. Eventually, she falls in love with a man named Tom, played by Moonlight star Trevante Rhodes. He attempts to help her find a safe haven where she can live in peace without fearing her ability to see.
Sandra Bullock and Trevante Rhodes aren’t normally who you’d likely see paired with one another romantically on screen but according to Sandra, no one was better for the job than Trevante.
Sandra tells Global Grind, “You write this human being and in the time of the big #MeToo thing, you get to experience a glorious man that I go, ‘That’s the man I want. That’s the father that I would want my children to have. That’s the kind of representation that exists in a lot of places but we just don’t see it in films.’ And here it was written. I wanted more of a love story, Susanne wanted more of a love story. I missed love stories, you know? So she says, ‘I want you to meet Trevante’ and I’m like, ‘Ok.’”
Source: Alexandre Schneider / Getty
Sandra continues, “We were all in Moonlight heaven at that time and we sat down… I remember where he sat, I remember how he looked, and it’s how he is right now. You know, it’s a human being that hears you, who respects you, you felt his connection to the ground and to the greater. There was insight. There was kindness. I mean, the talent was already there, we saw that, but then you meet this human being and… it’s the movies. You want your leading man to be the leading man that you want to just ride off into the sunset with. You also want that leading man to be someone you trust with your children.”
Sandra says she was so sure about having Trevante Rhodes playing her leading man that she threatened not to tod the project if he wasn’t hired.
“I walked away and I said, ‘If we don’t cast him, if we don’t make this deal, I’m just gonna…’ I was very dramatic,” said Sandra Bullock. “I said very dramatic things. But to me, I said this is the story I want to tell and I want this human being to be my ride or die in this process.”
As far as the on-set dynamic, Sandra says it’s all love working with the Moonlight star.
“We work really really well together. There’s an unsaid ping pong match that happens when you just connect with somebody. It’s just nice. He’s a good human being who happens to have a wicked 12-pack!”
Bird Box also stars Lil Rel Howery, Machine Gun Kelly, B.D. Wong, Sarah Paulson and more. Check it out when it hits Netflix on December 21st.
Exclusive: Sandra Bullock Says Trevante Rhodes’ Kind Heart And Wicked 12-Pack Is The Reason She Wanted Him As Her Love Interest In Netflix’s “Bird Box” was originally published on globalgrind.com
