Sandra Bullock put in a call to the astronauts on the International Space Station for tips on how to play her latest role in space drama Gravity, but America’s Miss Congeniality says she will never give up playing comic roles.

“I will do comedy until the day I die: inappropriate comedy, funny comedy, gender-bending, twisting comedy, whatever comedy is out there,” Bullock said in an interview with Reuters Television.

“Even a bad TV show – if that’s where I have to go at the end I will go there if it’s comedy,” she said the day after Gravity, in which she co-stars with George Clooney, got its world premiere at the Venice film event.

Bullock and Clooney reportedly were not Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron’s first choices for the roles of space scientist Ryan Stone and her country music-loving mission commander Matt Kowalsky, but Bullock went at the part with a vengeance.

One of the ways she prepared, she told a news conference, was by putting in a call to the astronauts on the International Space Station. She left a message and, she said with a hint of surprise in her voice, they called back.

“I was asking silly questions, ‘Where do you go to the bathroom?’ and in the end I got a viewpoint of these people whom we’ve idolised, these astronauts,” Bullock said.

“And the viewpoint is that they care about life, our life and what we’re doing with it so much – that’s why they’re up there. But I was really honoured that they would call me back, and you know they are normal people who do extraordinary things.”

Bullock said she has suffered setbacks but sees them as a learning experience.

“I’ve handled adversity and I’m sure there’s a lot more to come,” she said.

“I haven’t always acted or reacted in a way that made me proud, but I didn’t make that same mistake twice and I think that’s what I love about adversity is that it always reminds me of what’s really valuable in life.”