Sandra Bullock Says 'Ocean's 8' Wouldn't Have Happened If It Wasn't for Her 8-Year-Old Son

Looks like audiences have Sandra Bullock's little guy to thank for Ocean's 8

Looks like audiences have Sandra Bullock‘s little guy to thank for Ocean’s 8.

The actress told PEOPLE at the New York premiere of the film that she almost had to pass on her part in the all-female reboot of the Ocean’s franchise. Luckily, her 8-year-old son Louis convinced her otherwise.

“This almost didn’t happen for me because it was supposed to shoot during the summer, and then when Cate wasn’t available, they said, ‘Are you willing to shift it to fall in New York?’ And I went, ‘I gotta take the kids out of school,’ ” she reveals.

Not wanting to disrupt Louis and 6-year-old sister Laila’s routines, Bullock wasn’t sure about moving them across the country until she got the approval from the little man himself.

“Then my son said, ‘Why don’t we go look at a school and see if we find something?’ We left on Mother’s Day, day after Mother’s Day found a school,” she reveals. “It’s all about my kids. If I could never work again, I’d be okay with it because I’d get to go home and be with my babies.”

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

The movie, out Friday, follows Bullock as she plans an epic heist to steal millions of dollars with an impressive cast of women by her side: Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna and Awkwafina.

RELATED VIDEO: Anne Hathaway Rocks Studded Dress at CinemaCon After Revealing Weight Gain For New Role

But when it came time to film, the actress realized an important lesson in being a leader around capable women.

“You don’t really lead! Everyone gets in and knows their part and you help when you can help, or you ask for help when you need it,” Bullock says. “That’s the thing that I think was really lovely was that once we all got to know each other, we realized we were safe with each other. We all trusted each other to ask for help, and we asked for a lot of help. We still do. And it doesn’t make you weak, it makes you realize that, ‘Wow, someone else is nervous, someone else is struggling.’ ”

At the end of the day, Bullock is glad she got to be part of such a ceiling-shattering moment.

“It was an honor to work with them because I feel like this should’ve happened a long time ago, but I’m glad I’m alive to experience it,” she says.