LOS ANGELES-Sandra Bullock jokes her secret to looking ageless involves sleeping in a sealed ‘’container’’.

The 54-year-old actress has quipped she avoids ‘’outside carcinogens’’ - any substance which could cause cancer - before insisting she only gets seen at events when she works hard to look her best.

She told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: ‘’I’m sleeping in a container that is devoid of of outside carcinogens, that helps lift what you don’t have and - come on, please!

‘’The only time you see me is when I do press junkets. Do you know how many hours of hair and makeup this took? Two and a half hours!’’

The star revealed she actually just puts in a lot of time and effort when it comes to being at premieres and press events.

She explained: ‘’I’m gonna work this look all day today and then I’m gonna go home and take a shower, and it’s gonna happen again at 8 o’clock in the morning.

‘’I’m never out in the world where I get photographed unless it’s in things like that, so I just look my best.’’

Meanwhile, the ‘Bird Box’ actress - who has children Louis, eight, and Laila, six - revealed how she drew on her own parenting experiences for her role in the post-apocalyptic thriller which showed her take an authoritative tone with her on-screen kids.

She added: ‘’You know that you can go there. I try really hard not to go there with my kids but you do that when you’re scared, [like] when your child about runs into traffic.

‘’It is the fear, and the beast that comes out... you become a human being you don’t like, but it’s the only thing you know how to do [to protect your kids].’’