Sally Field slams 'controlling' Burt Reynolds
Sally Field has alleged the late Burt Reynolds, who she dated for five years, tried to "control" her.
Sally Field has alleged the late Burt Reynolds tried to "control" her.
The 79-year-old actress had a five-year turbulent relationship with the actor after they met on the set of 1977's Smokey and the Bandit, and she has recalled how the beginning of the end of their romance came after Sally refused to give into "frightening" Burt's insistence she turn down a role in 1979's Norma Rae.
She told People magazine: “It was the beginning of me pulling away when he didn't want me to do Norma Rae, called her a whore, and it was because she had some sexual past. He threw the script at me.
"He wanted to control me, and because I was standing up, he said, 'Boy, you're letting this get the better of you.' And I said, 'This is the better of me.' And I went and I met with [director] Marty Ritt. I did the film. But it was the beginning of me finding my legs."
Burt went on to attempt to discourage Sally from attending the movie's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, which proved to be a memorable night for her career.
She recalled: "It was a standing ovation for like 10 minutes, and I started to cry. I just was like, 'What?' After I had worked so hard to get out of television, to even be considered for anything, and here I was."
Sally's partner ultimately refused to attend the Oscars with her when she won the Best Lead Actress award and they eventually split for good in 1982.
She said:“Being Norma at that time was exactly what I needed, because to learn how to stand in her shoes, I think I said this [in her 2018 memoir In Pieces], I could feel my own legs.
“I could feel my body getting stronger. Because I was having to portray how she grew up, I started to grow up, and I eventually just wouldn't be manipulated and humiliated like that. And ultimately I left.”
Sally and Burt made four movies together, Smokey and the Bandit and its 1980 sequel, and Hooper and The End in 1978, but the Remarkably Bright Creatures star felt "stuck" during their collaborations.
She said: “I really only did one movie with Burt, which was Smokey and the Bandit.
"The others that I was in, I was just a girl. I just was stuck there because I was sort of stuck altogether. And it was a very complicated relationship."
Sally found Burt - who died in 2018 aged 82 - to be "very much like" her stepfather, who had abused her as a child, and she thinks their relationship was her "exorcising my stepfather out of my brain".
She added: There were parts of Burt that were so wonderful and lovable, and then there were parts that were really frightening."
