American Outlaw - Jesse James [127]
I strayed, but realized that no one could replace you.
“Look up at all these stars,” Sandy exclaimed. “They’re so incredibly perfect. I mean, are we the luckiest people on earth, or what?”
No, I realized. I couldn’t tell her the truth.
“We are,” I agreed, gazing up at the black, quiet sky that loomed over our private stretch of beach. “We’re very, very lucky.”
That evening, as I walked along the beach with Sandy, I knew that I’d have to swallow what I’d done. I had no choice. It was the only plan that made any sense to me.
As time passed, strangely, our marriage began to gel again. I felt satisfied with my wife, and far less constrained by the specter of being known as Mr. Sandra Bullock. So what if I had to act in a certain way? So what if I couldn’t go to the racetrack anymore? Wasn’t being with a remarkable woman worth that much? In the grand scheme of things, was that really much to ask?
My creative lull also seemed to be on its way out, and that helped a lot. We’d developed a new reality show called Jesse James Is a Dead Man, where I performed challenging stunts. The show premiered on Spike TV, a new network for me, where it enjoyed moderate success. We didn’t break the world in two, exactly, but then, audiences were a little harder to overwhelm these days. More important was the fact that I’d created a show again, and I’d expanded my horizons for what I could do creatively. It opened the doors for future projects and gave me ideas about what more I’d like to do.
The bigger event for our family, though, turned out to be Sandy’s participation in a movie about, of all things, football.
“I think this film is going to do really well,” Sandy announced the day she returned from filming. “I don’t know, it’s just a feeling I have.”
“Pretty much every movie you do does well,” I reminded her.
“Oh, hush,” Sandy said, smiling. It was obvious she was finding it impossible to contain her excitement about the difficult role she’d mastered. “I’m telling you, this story is really special. People are going to relate to it.”
The film was The Blind Side. Based on a true story, it centered around a conservative Christian family in Tennessee who’d decided to adopt an exceptionally gifted, young black football player from an impoverished background. Initially, Sandy had turned down the role of Leigh Anne Tuhoy, the mother, feeling uncomfortable with the idea of enacting a woman whose philosophy in some ways ran counter to her core beliefs. But in the end she’d taken it on, and from the way she was acting now, she’d emerged gratified and energized by the challenge.
“I got the chance to stretch a little bit,” she explained. “I can’t tell you how good that feels for an actor.”
I just nodded, staying quiet.
Sandy’s instinct turned out to be right: The Blind Side opened in mid-November of 2009 to great interest. It had a huge opening weekend, taking in more than $35 million at the box office. Through all of Sandy’s success across the years, she’d never been part of a movie that had grossed that high in initial sales.
The Blind Side kept rising. Incredibly, it made even more its second weekend, taking in sales of upward of $40 million. On its third weekend, it ousted the new Twilight movie, to become the number-one box office draw in the United States.
“This is wild,” Sandy breathed. “I knew it was going to be good, but this good?”
But the film hadn’t stopped yet. By January, it had grossed over $200 million, making it one of the most profitable sports movies of all time. And Sandy had earned strong reviews from critics across the board for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuhoy, the adoptive mother of Michael Oher. It appeared as if the award season might be a busy one for her.
“This really might finally be your year,” I said.
Sandy waved me off. “People like to make fun of my movies,” she said. “I’m just