Sally Field reveals the one type of role she refuses to accept at 79

Veteran actress Sally Field has reflected on her decades-long Hollywood career and the roles she continues to turn down, offering a candid look at both her legacy and artistic boundaries at age 79.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with People, Field, whose career spans more than six decades, said she remains deeply committed to her craft while avoiding certain types of stories that no longer resonate with her.

“I never take to stories about women that are trying to find a man,” she said. “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.”

Field, who first rose to fame in the 1965 television series Gidget, said her early career often typecast her as the cheerful California teen. However, she explained that a more complex emotional life existed beneath that image even in her youth.

At just 18, she said she already sensed a deeper artistic drive. “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,” she recalled.

Her early years in Hollywood included a difficult stretch on The Flying Nun, which she described as creatively limiting. Following that period, Field struggled to find meaningful roles before eventually returning to acting training and rebuilding her career from the ground up.

A breakthrough came in the 1970s with films such as Stay Hungry and Smokey and the Bandit, followed by her Oscar-winning performance in Norma Rae (1979), which cemented her reputation as a serious dramatic actress.

Field’s career went on to include acclaimed roles in Places in the Heart, Mrs. Doubtfire, Forrest Gump, and television hits like ER and Brothers & Sisters, along with a supporting role in Lincoln that earned her another Academy Award nomination.

The actress also reflected on the emotional depth she brings to her work, saying acting has always been her primary focus rather than external perceptions of her legacy.

“I can’t stand at a distance to see. Acting is what I do,” she said. “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.”

Field’s latest project, Remarkably Bright Creatures, is set to begin streaming on Netflix this Friday, adding another chapter to a career that continues to evolve well into her late 70s.