Sandra Bullock’s speech at the MTV Movie & TV Awards was worthy of its own award.
The actress, 54, delivered a moving and — sometimes humorous — speech about her kids, son Louis, 9, and daughter Laila, 7, while accepting the award for most frightened performance for her work in Netflix’s “Bird Box.”
“I made ‘Bird Box’ because my children asked me why I never made anything for them,” she said during the ceremony, which took place last Saturday in Santa Monica, California, and aired Monday night on MTV. “So when ‘Bird Box’ crossed my path, I knew this was a story I needed to make because it was about family. And when I finished the film, I went to my babies and I said, ‘Here, Mommy made this for you. And even though you can’t see it until you’re 21 — because apparently a movie about being a mommy is a horror film — you will know when you see it that there isn’t anything that I wouldn’t do for you,” eliciting a round of “awws” from the audience.
The Oscar winner, who adopted both of her kids, then talked about the importance of family, no matter what form it may take.
“I wanted you to see what being a family looks like, that sometimes you’re born into a family, sometimes you need to go find it, sometimes it finds,” she continued. “But no matter how it comes together, that when it does, family is what you fight for, family is what you protect and what you saw in that movie is what your mommy would do for you. And I know like in the movie, sometimes it looks like mommy is unraveling, but that’s probably because you have pushed her to that place. Because first time listening means listening for the first time, not the first time you decide to listen because that’s fifth time listening.”
She then reiterated her own devotion to her kids.
“But no matter what, you are my first thought in the morning, you are my last thought at night. I was put on this earth to protect you, you are my world, I love you so much, and I will move mountains to make sure that you are safe.”
After she laid all of her emotions bare, Bullock opened up about how she learned what son Louis was actually talking about.
She hilariously added, “And when I was finished, my son looked at me with his big, beautiful eyes, and he said, ‘Mommy, it was superhero movies I was talking about. Those are the films you should be making. Superheroes are the ones doing the important work right now.’ I grounded him,” she joked.
Bullock ended the speech by pointing out some of the other actresses who are making a difference.
“So I would like to thank MTV and all of you who recognized my fear, thank you,” she said. “Because it allowed me to be here tonight and bring my Marvel-loving, DC-loving son with me so that he may stand in the same room with real superheroes like Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel. Trailblazers like Jada Pinkett Smith, and I’m sure he will notice that they’re women, just like his mama. Thank you.”
Bullock’s heartwarming speech shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. While she may be one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, she has made no bones about what’s most important to her.
“It’s my kids,” she told TODAY's Hoda Kotb last year. “Everything is about them being OK, being in school, having what they need, their moments. I need to be there for every single moment that they have. It’s harder for me to leave them than I think it is for them when I leave. I don’t leave that much, and I don’t work that much anymore either. ... So my priorities are my kids, my kids, my kids. My family. My family. That’s it.”