The actress recently revealed how Jack Nicholson helped her overcome a difficult moment in her career, shortly after starring in “The Flying Nun”.
Sally Field recently revealed that shortly after starring in 3 seasons of “The Flying Nun”, she could not get invitations to audition for new roles, and that it was Jack Nicholson who quietly helped her get through that period.
According to Field, after appearing in the fantasy sitcom in the early 1970s, producers and directors thought they already knew her work and who she was.
“I couldn’t even get in a room to audition. I couldn’t even get on the list. They thought they already knew who I was. ‘No, thank you. We don’t want any of that,’” she told People.
“I had to tell myself that if I wasn’t where I wanted to be, I needed to get better,” she said. “It had to be my responsibility to change things. I felt that if I didn’t do that, I would just be handing all the power over to them,” said the 79-year-old actress.
According to Field, she then went to study at Lee Strasberg’s renowned Actors Studio in Los Angeles, where Jack Nicholson was one of the many “wonderful actors, really dedicated actors” studying there.
Field says Nicholson saw her working with Strasberg and recommended her to the late casting director Dianne Crittenden and director Bob Rafelson, and she finally got an interview for “Stay Hungry”, the comedy-drama directed by Rafelson and starring Field, Jeff Bridges and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
For Field, it marked the beginning of a change and today, with two Oscars, two Emmys and a Tony nomination on her résumé, the star of films such as “Smokey and the Bandit”, “Norma Rae”, “Places in the Heart” and many others has one of the most successful careers in Hollywood.
The actress can currently be seen in “Remarkably Bright Creatures”, a Netflix series adapted from Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling book.
Images: Netflix reproduction, 20th Century Fox. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
