Sally Field has spent six years writing a memoir in which she opens up about abuse, Hollywood injustice, and a turbulent relationship with Burt Reynolds, as well as how she found power amidst it all. In an interview with The New York Times, Field previews some of the personal history she’s revealing in In Pieces, out September 18.
Field writes in the memoir the sexual abuse she suffered by her stepfather, who died in 1989, throughout her childhood. She also tells the traumatic story of her 1976 casting for Stay Hungry, during which she recalls director Bob Rafelson telling her, “I can’t hire anyone who doesn’t kiss good enough.” Rafelson denied the incident to the Times.
Leading, complex roles Sally Field took in Sybil and more famously in Norma Rae provided her a newfound confidence. “I was able to feel something I didn’t feel before. I heard my voice. And I wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t,” Field said.
Regarding the passing of her frequent co-star and once-lover Burt Reynolds, Field described herself as “flooded with feelings and nostalgia.” The book reportedly takes a layered approach to Field’s relationship with Reynolds, painting him as a simultaneously good-natured and controlling partner. Their relationship was “confusing and complicated, and not without loving and caring, but really complicated and hurtful to me,” Field told The New York Times.
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