We aren’t the only ones totally in love with the cast of Marvel Studio’s latest hit, Black Panther. Oscar winning actress Sandra Bullock fan-girled out when she met them on the red carpet at Sunday night’s Academy Awards.
Bullock told Access Hollywood she shed a few tears when she saw Black Panther’s stars because of what the film means to her children.
“I started to cry backstage when I was telling them how much the film meant to me as a woman, but how much it meant to me as a mother,” she explained.
“My daughter has all the swag,” Bullock continued. “I bought her swag before it even came on. She runs around in the ‘Black Panther’ mask. Which is scary when she comes out of the dark.”
Bullock, who is the mom of two Black children — Louis, who she adopted in 2010, and Laila, who joined the family in 2015 — said she’s had a difficult time finding characters her children can relate to.
“I’m so grateful to Marvel because about five years ago, my son asked me if there were any brown Legos, and I said, ‘Yes, there are,’” she recalled. “I got a Sharpie and I turned Spider-Man brown, I turned the Legos brown, and I don’t have to turn them brown anymore.”
Since its release, Black Panther has become a worldwide phenomenon, raking in more than $900 million worldwide. Additionally, thousands of children across the country have seen the film, thanks in part to fundraising campaigns like the #BlackPantherChallenge.