Sandra Bullock discussed a woman’s rights over her own body and her distaste for the term “adopted child” in a revealing interview for InStyle’s June 2018 issue.
“Look: I’m all for Republican, Democrat, whatever,” the Oscar-winning actress said, “but don’t talk to me about what I can or can’t do with my body until you’ve taken care of every child who doesn’t have a home or is neglected or abused.”
She also said it’s time to stop calling kids who were adopted “my adopted child.”
“Let’s all just refer to these kids as ‘our kids,’” Bullock said. “Don’t say ‘my adopted child.’ No one calls their kid their ‘IVF child’ or their ‘oh, shit, I went to a bar and got knocked-up child.’ Let just say, ‘our children.’
Bullock has two children: Louis, 8, whom she adopted in 2010, and Laila, 6, adopted in 2015.
“Lou is supersensitive. I call him my 78-year-old son. He’s like Shecky Greene, a Jewish Catskills comic. He’s wise and kind. I saw that when they handed him to me,” Bullock said. “There was a spiritual bigness to him. I was like, ‘I hope I don’t eff that up.’”
The actress added, “And Laila is just unafraid. She’s a fighter, and that’s the reason she’s here today. She fought to keep her spirit intact. Oh my god, what she is going to accomplish. She’s going to bring some real change.”
Bullock has spoken candidly about the process of adopting her two children ― and the difficulties that came with it, especially because of her job as an actress. Right after she adopted Laila, she said she found out that paparazzi were essentially stalking the family for a picture of her daughter.
“You feel it’s very much like witness protection,” the actress told People in 2015. “I learned that a photo of her was being shopped around for sale to every outlet around the world. I had promised and legally agreed to protect her from something like this, and here I was chasing down lawyers — having them begging them to keep her safe.”
But luckily, the adoption process succeeded and Bullock’s happy family made it through.
“My family is blended and diverse, nutty, and loving and understanding,” she told People. “That’s a family.”
Read the rest of Bullock’s interview with InStyle.