Sandra Bullock had a classy response after Ellen took credit for her success: "You want the truth..."
Renowned talk show host Ellen DeGeneres' interview with Sandra Bullock took an awkward turn! In May 2018, the Oscar-winning actress appeared on an episode of 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' and during the episode, DeGeneres claimed that she was the inspiration behind the classic comedy film 'Miss Congeniality,' which gave a big boost to Bullock's acting career. According to a report by The Things, DeGeneres asked Bullock, "Do you ever thank me for your career?" Soon after, Bullock burst into laughter and quipped, "Yeah, I know. Yes, I do, every day." Then, DeGeneres interrupted Bullock mid-sentence by saying, "Don't be sarcastic."
While keeping a straight face, Bullock further explained what she meant earlier: "At Grace, at dinner, I thank you, my children thank you because we have a good life. You gave us a good career, and we're grateful." DeGeneres, who felt amused after hearing Bullock's answer, exclaimed, "Because I didn't know that was the truth until somebody told me," which led Bullock to say, "It's not the truth!" Soon after, DeGeneres chimed in, "I'll find the guy who wrote the script." After that, Bullock cut off DeGeneres and asked, "Which script?" to which the latter responded, "It was both Miss Congeniality and Speed."
Later in the episode, Bullocks shared her side of the story and elaborated, "Let me tell you what happened with [Miss] Congeniality. You want the truth, this is what happened. The writer saw you... I think you were hosting something, the Emmys, and you were doing an interview about wearing a dress, and that you just didn't like it or didn't feel like you, and so maybe he lied to me, maybe he did write it for you, and you turned it down."
The 67-year-old comedian uttered, "I didn't turn it down. It was never offered to me. I found out later he said, 'You inspired me because you were learning how to walk.'" Shortly afterward, Bullock went on to say, "That's like Laurel and Yanny inspired." DeGeneres chimed in, "And then he wrote it for me and I said, 'Why didn't it get here?' He said, 'I thought it got offered to you.' I said, 'No. It never did' and it just went right to you." Following that, Bullock and DeGeneres tried to get the writer Marc Lawrence on the phone to clear out their doubts. Then, Lawrence was either unavailable or not comfortable appearing on the talk show. At the end of the day, Bullock and DeGeneres didn't get a straight answer from Lawrence. However, DeGeneres wasn't ready to leave the topic and jokingly remarked, "I've given you a career, so you have lots of money for therapy."
During a February 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lawrence revealed how he came up with the idea of 'Miss Congeniality'. At that time, Lawrence said, "I was in my kitchen, and Ellen DeGeneres was on TV and about to host the Emmys. They asked, 'What would be the hardest part of this job?' and she said, 'Wearing a dress.' For some reason, I just heard that and thought, 'What kind of woman would have a tough time wearing a dress? Probably a tough FBI agent. Where would she be? The Miss America pageant.” That was 15 seconds of thinking. I spent no time in my life thinking about beauty pageants before that and very little after we finished the movie. Sometimes you think, 'I need a next project to work on,” so you put one together.'"
