Put your average Oscar winner in a room with a hammer and some nails, and they’d be calling their lawyer. Not so for Sandra Bullock; the star told Entertainment Weekly that she felt right at home filming a few sawdusty scenes in her new Netflix film, The Unforgivable.

Bullock’s character, Ruth Slater, is a newly released convict struggling to navigate her difficult post-prison life. Unhappy with her seafood-packing job, she hears the sounds of men at work and wanders into a home-construction site. Ruth offers her carpentry services to the supervisor, and soon she’s working full time.

The new job serves as a comforting return to something a little closer to normal for Ruth. For Bullock, the experience was nearly as familiar. “My dad pretty much raised me as the son he wished I was,” she told EW. “He restored homes and would always drag me into the homes he was restoring, so I have a big comfort level when it comes to that world.”

The Unforgivable is a story that revolves around memory, so it’s fitting that Bullock’s own memories were so crucial to even the smallest parts of her performance. Working with her hands is an oasis in the midst of the messy and complicated new world that Ruth struggles to navigate, and in the scenes in question, Bullock’s comfort level bleeds into the character’s. 

That isn’t to say she didn’t have any trouble at all. “They did not want me getting close to the band saw,” Bullock continued. “I’d go, ‘I know what I'm doing!’ Then I’d have to stop and question myself — ‘I haven’t used a band saw since I was a teenager, so maybe you should show me how to use it real quick.’ ” Maybe she should take a quick carpentry class before she heads off to make any Bird Boxes of her own.