Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep will be pitted against each other again for their respective roles in "Gravity" and "August: Osage County" at the 20^th Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) for the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role category.

One film highlights the loneliness of space. The other highlights the demons of an individual even when surrounded by family.

In August, Meryl Streep, 64, plays Violet Weston, the matriarch of a dysfunctional family who's also fighting off drug addiction and disease. Her co-star Julia Roberts described her performance as setting "the new gold standard for cruelty."

Julia plays the eldest daughter in the film who has to go home due to a family crisis and faces off with a cranky mother. When you have Meryl hesitating to even do the role because it might alienate her fans, then you have a role fit for the Screen Actors Guild.

Meryl Streep told Complex during Q&A press junket, that playing a heavy role like Violet is very taxing.

"As an actor you're supposed to want to go into the house of pain over and over and over again, but it's not something that's fun, and I resisted doing the part initially because of that. On so many levels-physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally-Violet is enraged or in pain or drugged at any given time," she said.

The other female leads nominated along with Sandra and Meryl are Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Judi Dench (Philomena) and Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks).

Meanwhile, Sandra Bullock plays medical engineer Ryan Stone in Gravity who is on her first shuttle mission when something goes wrong. She finds herself all alone in the vastness of space when the shuttle is destroyed.

In 2010, Sandra Bullock edged out Meryl Streep's "Julie and Julia" for her role as socialite Leigh Anne Tuohy in "The Blindside."