How did Sandra Bullock land her breakthrough role in1994 film 'Speed'?

Sandra Bullock started her career in 1987 with Hangmen but the actress was widely recognised for her role in the 1994 action-packed film Speed starring Keanu Reeves.

Initially, Bullock was not the first choice for filmmakers to play the role of Annie Porter, the character's name. She retained the role after Halle Berry refused to take on the character.

The character in the movie was written as a “No-nonsense African-American paramedic.”

For the epic role, another A-list actress was approached before Berry, who also reportedly declined to take in the opportunity, according to the publication. That's how Bullock is being cast for it.

However, Berry later acknowledged that the absence of conversation and other creative elements caused her to reject the opportunity. The Moonfall movie star, who appeared in an April 1995 issue of Movieline, explained why she had rejected this film, according to Far Out Magazine, adding, “I turned down Speed because I thought, ‘I don’t want to drive that bus,” adding, “There wasn’t a whole lot of dialogue. What did feel good when I read it, though, was thinking, ‘Okay, this is not my Academy Award-winning role, but here I’m being offered something that wasn’t written for a Black woman. When I watched the finished movie, I loved it, and I thought to myself, ‘The movie gods sure didn’t talk to me that day.’”

Nevertheless, Sandra Bullock's epic depiction of Annie Porter rocketed her to being international celebrity and hence proved as a milestone in her acting career.