America fell deeply in love with Sally Field decades ago because of her unique combination of brilliance, tenderness, and quiet strength. She is still witty, bright, and disarmingly honest at the age of 78. She is the kind of lady who can casually drop a truth bomb on a talk show and drive everyone into a frenzy. She accomplished just that when she recently went back to one of Hollywood’s most cherished periods: her time as a leading lady, a budding star, and, yes, a heartbreaker.
A caller brought up something Field had stated years prior during a lively appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen: that her co-star in the romantic drama Murphy’s Romance (1985), James Garner, gave her the best on-screen kiss. Field was obviously at comfortable on set, much as Garner’s gentle demeanor enchanted audiences. The caller then followed the obvious course of action: if Garner was the best, then who was the worst?
Field didn’t think twice. She didn’t make it softer. She didn’t avoid.
She paused just long enough to create tension before warning, “This is going to shock you.” “Burt Reynolds.”
For a moment, even Andy Cohen froze, raising his eyebrows to see if she was kidding. She wasn’t.
Field claimed that Reynolds, the Hollywood mogul she had loved for five tumultuous years and who was once considered the world’s most swaggering hunk, was terrible at kissing. She also wasn’t evasive about it.
“I tried to ignore it and say, ‘Well, that was just then,'” she continued. However, no. That wasn’t the only time. He simply wasn’t very skilled at it.
Unwilling to let the moment pass, Cohen leaned closer. He questioned, “The tongue?” “Did the tongue do it?”
Field chuckled, but she refused to back down. “Not fully engaged. There was just a lot of drooling.
drooling. From the man who became a sexual icon in the 1970s and 1980s.
A generation of moviegoers must have felt their illusions crumble somewhere.
Field had previously detached herself from the Hollywood glitz that surrounded her relationship with Reynolds. Her 2018 autobiography, In Pieces, revealed a love story that the tabloids had previously depicted as thrilling, glitzy, and even predestined. She clarified that the reality was much less romantic. Despite their initial intensity, their relationship soon descended into chaos, an intermittent tempest that left her emotionally spent.
She later said in an interview with Variety, “He was not someone I could be around.” “He simply wasn’t good for me at all.”
She didn’t give him the full blame. Instead, she portrayed a man tormented by ego and insecurity who held on to her in later life because she was one of the few things he was unable to replicate or control.
She stated bluntly, “He had somehow invented in his rethinking of everything that I was more important to him than he had thought, but I wasn’t.” “He merely desired the thing that he lacked.”
Field didn’t say it in a mean way. She spoke honestly, the type that comes from maturity, insight, and decades of maturing past the demands made of her as a young celebrity. And that’s what sets her apart now. She is more than just a movie star. She has survived the highs, lows, gossip, and heartbreaks of Hollywood.
It’s remarkable how radiant she still is.
Sally Field hasn’t diminished at the age of 78; instead, she has become a self-assured individual. She still has the big smile, the playful gleam in her eye, and the warmth she exudes. She exudes an elegance that only comes from leading a true life, one that is complex, messy, and wonderful.
And that authenticity has been welcomed by the public. People’s admiration for Field grows when old interviews of her discussing her early years, her complex family, her struggles with anxiety, her memoir, or the times she stood her ground — such as when she refused to let Reynolds eclipse her career — come to light.
In Norma Rae, she remains the character that viewers supported. The Steel Magnolias mother who nevertheless crushed hearts. The energy in Places in the Heart is still unforgettable. She was still the actress who could make you forget you were watching a play in Lincoln by standing next from Daniel Day-Lewis.
She hasn’t become softer with age. She has become sharper as a result. It has made her interviews much more engaging than they were decades ago, emancipated her storytelling, and clarified her voice.
The reason her disclosure about Reynolds went viral was not because it was sensational, but rather because Sally Field was being open, kind, and sardonic in a way that only she can.
She is evidence that growing older is not a cause for concern. It’s something you develop over time.
She is evidence that how you overcome heartbreak defines you, not the experience itself.
She also serves as evidence that a woman in her late seventies can still command attention simply by speaking the truth with poise, humor, and no apologies at all.