Sandra Bullock Ribs Streep on Rivalry: 'I'm Gonna Beat the S*** Out of Her!'

March 4, 2010 — -- Before Sandra Bullock made "Speed" with Keanu Reeves, her status as an A-list actress was hardly a cinch. Her career up to that point had included a few forgettable films, with names like "Who Shot Patakango?"

Then "Speed" made Bullock the girl next door the world could fall in love with.

Now Bullock is nominated for best actress for her portrayal of Southern spitfire Leigh Anne Touhy in "The Blind Side." The role propelled her from perennial romantic-comedy favorite into an elite circle of top-flight actors.

Watch "The Barbara Walters Oscar Special" before the Academy Awards Sunday at 7 p.m. ET

In the final "Barbara Walters Oscars Special," Bullock sat down with Walters to talk about her first shot at Oscar glory and how her life has evolved since the last time Walters interviewed her, fifteen years ago.

Competing against Bullock for the best actress Oscar this year will be perennial favorite Meryl Streep, who won kudos for her portrayal of chef Julia Child in "Julie & Julia."

"If Meryl wins," Walters asked, "what will you say to her?"

"I'm gonna beat the s*** out of her!" exclaimed Bullock, without missing a beat. "No, I'm just kidding. Um, you know that."

"And thank you, censor," said Walters.

Talk turned to affairs of the heart.

When Walters last interviewed Bullock, during the shooting of a "Time to Kill," the actress said she wasn't ready to get married yet. All that changed in 2005, when Bullock married Jesse James, then the host of The Discovery Channel's "Monster Garage."

Walters asked Bullock why she had resisted marriage all those years.

Sandra Bullock on Prejudging Her Husband

"You know, I'd always had this feeling that if you got married it was like the end of who you were," said Bullock. "And I just never met anyone that was bigger than me."

It wasn't exactly love at first sight. Bullock met James, a motorcycle enthusiast, when she took her godson, a fan of his show, to visit his garage.

"You know, I passed judgment on him," Bullock said. "I had the whole list of what someone like him was supposed to be like, and my world is the exact opposite, supposedly, of what someone like, um, Jesse would be.

"But I was very wrong."

For the rest of Barbara Walters' interview with Sandra Bullock, watch "The Barbara Walters Oscars Special" at 7 p.m. ET.