Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock, who stars in the renown Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón's "Gravity," is anything but stranded in space -- you could say that her career is on top of the world.

The talented 49-year-old actress told the TODAY show that "the experience of making the movie -- for which she was filmed in narrow lightboxes, against green screens and even in a tank of water, often all by herself -- was an 'unnatural experience' and 'scary on every level.'"

"It took you out of your comfort zone, completely," she said.

In the film, Bullock and Clooney play astronauts whose shuttle explodes, leaving them tethered only to each other -- imagine the pressure and the terrifying yet bonding experience!

"Gravity" was the brainchild of writer-director Alfonso Cuarón, who directed "Children of Men" and "Y Tu Mamè Tambièn." His son, Jonès, who is Cuarón's biggest advocate, co-wrote the film, which was a challenging four-and-a-half-year journey.

"We shot space scenes in a sort of virtual-reality box that had the characters' environments projected on the walls. The actors had very little room to change their timing or their positions. But we adapted," Cuarón told Wired. "Sandra Bullock trained like crazy to be able to be a part of all these technological challenges. It was choreography for her. I think her background as a dancer helped a lot. It was so much by numbers. After all the training and all the rehearsals, she was able to just focus on the emotional aspect of her performance."

According to Reuters, Cuaron went to Bullock's hometown of Austin, Texas, to meet for the first time and talk about the "Gravity" role, and agreed adversity was very present in both their lives. He said the Bullock had "an amazing insight about that and an amazing maturity and clarity about that experience," which was made him realize she was perfect for the film.

Besides the impressive yet grueling animation process and CG mastering, Cuarón told Wired how he approached the character development and brought its meaning and symbolism to life.

"In 'Gravity' nearly everything is a metaphor for the main character. The way I tend to approach a film is that character and background are equally important; one informs the other. Here, Sandra Bullock is caught between Earth and the void of the universe, just floating there in between. We use the debris as a metaphor for adversity," he explained.

"She's a character who lives in her own bubble, and in the film she's trapped in her space suit. She's a character who has trouble communicating, and here she literally starts having communication problems. She's a character who needs to shed her skin to move on, and in the film she needs to get out of her astronaut suit because it's suffocating her," he added. "In the end, the story is about rebirth as a possible outcome of adversity."

Bullock knows a thing or two about overcoming diversity, just three years ago she faced a very media-frenzy filled, public divorce with "West Coast Choppers" TV personality Jesse James, following her Oscar win for Best Actress in "The Blind Side."

She has since moved on and adopted a boy named Louis, who is now 3 years old. There has been Oscar buzz surrounding her "Gravity" role as well, but fans will have to stay tuned.