The Oscar-winning actor Sandra Bullock has called for an end to looks and age-shaming attacks on women three months after being named People Magazine’s most beautiful woman for 2015.

Bullock, 50, told E! News she agreed to appear on the April cover only if she were able to talk about her own definition of beauty.

“I feel like it’s become open hunting season in how women are attacked and it’s not because of who we are as people, it’s because of how we look or our age,” she said. “I’m shocked — and maybe I was just naïve, but I’m embarrassed by it. My son is getting ready to grow up in this world and I’m trying to raise a good man who values and appreciates women, and here we have this attack on women in the media that I don’t see a stop happening.”

Bullock, mother to a five-year-old son, Louis, said she felt concern for children growing up in 2015. “Little girls are having the hardest time with bullying and the internet. Somebody with a very large hand and big voice needs to put a stop to it,” she said, adding: “We are harming girls and women in a way, at a speed that it’s scaring me. It’s really scaring me.”

Rose McGowan 'fired by agent' for pointing out casting call sexism Read more

Bullock praised initiatives to bring female artists together and push for an end to misogynistic attitudes in Hollywood and the wider world. “You’d be surprised at the love that you have in our crazy industry,” she said. “The women have bonded together and have sort of become this tribe of trying to take care of each other and be there for each other in a way, because the minute you step out it’s an onslaught. And I laughed when [People] said they’re gonna be generous and bestow me this wonderful privilege, but I said if I can talk about the amazing women who I find beautiful, which are these women who rise above and take care of business and do wonderful things, and take care of each other, then I’m more than honoured to be on the cover of this.”

In related news, actor Anna Faris has revealed in a newly published interview that she feels women in Hollywood are “pitted against one another”, while their male equivalents enjoy a strong support network.



“As women, we definitely have to generate our own work,” Faris, who produced her comedies The House Bunny and What’s Your Number, told the Hollywood Reporter. “Part of it is just the sad fact that something like one in every three to four roles is a woman. So men have more opportunity. And you have all these women fighting for the same roles.”

The actors’ comments come a week after fellow star Rose McGowan ignited controversy over Hollywood sexism, revealing she had been fired by her agent for pointing out sexism in a casting call for an Adam Sandler movie. McGowan had earlier taken to Twitter to rail against a note which called for actors to show off their cleavage with pushup bras.

