Sally Field shares stories from over six decades in Hollywood
NEED TO KNOW
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“I can't stand at a distance to see. [Acting] is what I do,” she tells PEOPLE
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Her new film, Remarkably Bright Creatures, begins streaming on Netflix Friday
WhenSally Fieldbroke out asGidgetin 1965, America quickly embraced her carefree California teen surfer. But stronger currents churned beneath the surface.
At 18, “there was a part of me that was very much like Gidget. I knew how to make people laugh, but there was a darkness that was yet to be explored,” Field, 79, says in this week's issue of PEOPLE.
Field—who’s now starring in the Netflix movieRemarkably Bright Creatures—would relentlessly probe deeper places over the next six decades, cementing her place in Hollywood history with two Oscar wins, three Emmys and a Tony nomination. All of it was hard-won, and a sharp turn from her sunny start.
Following three “incredibly difficult” years on the absurdist sitcomThe Flying Nun(“I had just turned 19. I didn’t want to be a nun!” she says of a role she was pressured to take afterGidget) Field effectively landed in Hollywood jail, unable to land any decent auditions.
"I had to say to myself that if I wasn't where I wanted to be, I had to get better," says Field, who was by then raising two small children, Peter, 56, and Eli, 53 with then-husband Steven Craig. She poured herself into working on her craft at the Actors Studio, and a turning point came with a small role 1976’sStay Hungry,followed by 1977’sSmokey and the Banditwith Burt Reynolds.
Then came her Oscar-winning breakthrough, 1979’s union dramaNorma Rae.
It was on that set Field began to explore the impact of a traumatic childhood, during which, she would later reveal in her 2018 memoirIn Pieces, her stepfather had emotionally and sexually abused her.
"Being a little girl raised in the '50s and having a very complicated childhood with my stepfather and even my mother at times, I was filled with rage. Really filled with rage," she says. "And it was working with [acting coach] Lee Strasburg that allowed me to begin to tap into it, to not let it devour me."
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ShootingNorma Rae, “I asked [director] Marty Ritt, ‘How angry can I be here?’ He said, ‘How angry are you?’” Field recalls. “And I said, ‘Angry.’ And so that was the first time I was ever really able to learn how to tap into my own rage on film."
Deeply emotional work became Field's calling card across genres and decades including 1981’sAbsence of Maliceopposite Paul Newman, 1984’sPlaces in the Heart(for which she won a second Oscar), 1993’sMrs. Doubtfire, 1994’sForrest Gump,Emmy-winning roles on NBC'sERand ABC'sBrothers & Sisters(2006-2011) and 2012’sLincoln(which earned Field another Oscar nomination).
Memorable friendships were forged along the way. Shortly after the birth of her third son, Sam, 38 (from her second marriage to Alan Greisman), Field shot 1989'sSteel Magnoliasalongside Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts. "Sam was on the set all the time and my friends took care of him," she says of her costars. "We all just rolled him around, and Dolly [wiggling] her fingernails [at him]."
Today the legendary actress and grandmother of five is as resilient as she is an open book. But there’s one type of role that’s still easy to turn down: “I never take to stories about women that are trying to find a man,” she says. “I didn’t like it then, and it doesn’t appeal to me now, because I think women are about so much more. Life is so much more complicated than that.”
And her legacy? It’s not something she feels moved to weigh. “I can't stand at a distance to see. [Acting] is what I do,” she says simply. “I'm supposed to go into rehearsals for a play at the end of summer. I still have my head down, and I'm always hoping to get better.”
For more stories behind the scenes of Field's Oscar-winning career, pick up a copy of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.
Remarkably Bright Creaturesbegins streaming on Netflix Friday.
Read the original article onPeople