FBI special agent Gracie Hart, played by Sandra Bullock, is put in charge of a bomb threat mission. When a terrorist threat targets the Miss United States beauty pageant in San Antonio, Texas, she goes undercover as Miss New Jersey. The 2000 action comedy follows the tomboy agent as she navigates the pageant world to uncover the plot.
The film was a box office hit and spawned a sequel, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Both titles are now on Netflix, with the original climbing the streaming service's Top 10 chart, and fans are still asking the same question about its title two decades later.
What does Miss Congeniality mean?
Congeniality, by dictionary definition, is the "quality of being agreeable, suitable, or pleasant." In pageant culture, Miss Congeniality is an award recognising kindness, generosity and positive energy, often voted for by the other finalists. It celebrates the contestant who has had the most positive impact on her peers.
In the film, Gracie is named Miss Congeniality for saving the lives of the finalists after solving the bomb plot. Although she initially turns her nose up at the concept, she comes to understand the true spirit of pageantry and how it can bring people together from all walks of life.
One fan wrote on IMDb: "I want to shake the hand of the man that came up with this idea as it is pure gold. It was a recipe for success from the start."
How old was Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality?
Sandra Bullock, now 62, was 36 when the film was released in December 2000. Born in July 1964, she was 35 during the primary filming stage and turned 36 a few months before the premiere. The role earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
In an Entertainment Tonight interview in 2000, Bullock said she liked that her character was "so inept and so unrefined." She had been eager to take on a physical comedy role, adding: "Through the years I would always look for something that had a lot of physical comedy and was, sort of, the great fish out of water story." She also said the role had her doing something she would never normally do, and that she didn't read many scripts for women who had that.
Miss Congeniality is now streaming on Netflix.
