Sally Field Interview (page: 5 / 8) Two Oscars for Best Actress	Print Interview

Before Norma Rae you did Sybil, a role that brought you your first Emmy. Could you tell us about taking that on?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Sally Field: After I did Stay Hungry, I serendipitously was reading -- at the same time I got this call -- this really interesting book, Sybil. And as luck would have it, Diane Crittenden, who had brought me in on Stay Hungry, against Bob Rafelson's wishes, was casting this mini-series -- one of the first mini-series' that television did, actually, called Sybil. I knew in my heart that it was mine. I knew that I was the girl to play it. For so many reasons, I linked with her. Even just physically, because I have a childlike quality that I have fought against all my life, but there it is, and because of some troubled things in my life, I knew that this had to be mine. Diane Crittenden called me in, and again, it was this amazing battle to get the role. They didn't want me in there. What was I doing? Had Diane Crittenden lost her mind?

Hadn't they seen you in Stay Hungry?

Sally Field: Stay Hungry wasn't out yet, I had just finished it. Most people didn't know that I'd even done it. All these wonderful actresses wanted to do this role. Vanessa Redgrave wanted to do this, and here was little me! But I just knew this was mine. I came in as Sybil, which was difficult, because I wasn't sure which one of her personalities I was going to be. But I came in and auditioned as the Sybil herself.

Which Sybil?

Sally Field: The core Sybil that is without people, that is just a vapid, vacant soul that's frightened of people, that can barely look up, that's dour, dirty, and cannot deal with mankind, because all of her gifts and all of her colors are somewhere else, with other voices that will be revealed. I decided to come in as her. People were like, "Oh, my goodness! We had no idea that Sally Field was so terribly drab and depressed. I think Diane Crittenden knew what I was doing, and I came in and read. And they said, "Oh my. Okay, we'll have her come back." And of course...

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I came back and came back and came back and came back and came back. And they kept saying, "This can't be true. She can't be the one. It can't be her." But some magical thing happened, and that is that I had the opportunity to do a test with Joanne Woodward. And again, it was one of these moments in my life where I instantly fell in love with someone like Don Porter. She opened her heart and her arms. I hadn't met her, and I did one of the scenes with her that one of the characters was emotional and carrying on and crying. And I remember kneeling on the ground, and the video camera that's trying to video you to do the auditions, trying to follow me around, and I'm like running all over. And he kneeled down on the ground and laid my head in her lap and sobbed. And she picked my face up and I took her sweater and wiped my nose on her sweater, snot off the thing. It wasn't a costume. This is Joanne Woodward who'd come in. And there wasn't a pause of, "What are you doing?" It was this enveloping. She enveloped me as this sobbing person. And it wasn't Sally who looked up at her so desperately saying, "Don't shut me out." Or was it Sybil who looked up at her, one of Sybil's characters desperately saying, "Don't shut me out." And I remember this sort of magic heat of that moment. They cut the audition, and I remember the quietness of the room. Joanne and I looked at each other. When I left the room, Joanne had said, "Don't even dare thinking of someone else. That is Sybil." Joanne made sure that it was me. It was a huge turning point in my life. It was a huge turning point in my career, but most especially because it was the first time I really got to do my work. It was the first time I got to do what I had studied so long to do, and what I was so sure I could do. It is the time that I learned how you throw yourself so deeply in your work that it doesn't matter if you ever come back. It doesn't matter if you ever come home, and that it's more important that you be gone. And I was gone. And many times, I would have to call my mother to come pick me up and take me home. People would be worried about me, and how would I get out of there, the day's work. And it was a very important time. It was Joanne Woodward and it was Dan Petrie, the director.

Did that role change your attitude toward mental illness or schizophrenia?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Sally Field: Sybil had something that was a personality disorder. At that time it was called "multiple personality" and now it's called something else, which is a very real thing but not called multiple personality. I wish I could remember exactly what it's called, and it's not schizophrenia. But Sybil -- I think if you work in the arts, especially if you're in the performing arts, especially if you're an actor -- I understood the illness so much, because I have those voices in those parts of myself that contain certain colors. There's certain characters I've even given names as a child, that could be the strong one, or could be the sexy one or could be the shy one. And we, as human beings, accept that. I mean we don't name them, and we don't tell anyone that we feel that when we deal with our teachers we deal with somebody, and when we deal with our friends we deal with somebody. But I felt it very distinctly. So I really understood that particular mental illness, and subsequently have played other people with mental illness, and have felt very connected to it. I mean, thank God I can get out of it and go home, to an extent, but understand that there is this link between creativity and madness, and I have walked on that delicate line. I really understand that in the brain there is a place that, that madness and creativity sort of go like this with each other and have read about it. Later on, when I played someone who had bipolarism, I have great regard for people with mental illness and dealing with it. I am so lucky that I can flirt with it and come home.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

You're referring to your ER character, and your second Emmy, I believe. What was it like to get an Emmy the first time?

Sally Field: It was very weird after all the time I'd worked for it. That was the year that the Emmys were cancelled for some dispute that was going on, and then they had some other awards show. I thought, "Well, I guess I'll go to that." Jane Alexander won that one, and rightfully so for the magnificent performance she did playing Eleanor Roosevelt. And okay, that's fine. Then there was an Emmys all of a sudden, and I was actually working in Northern California. It was such a confusing year. None of us really knew if it was a real Emmys or what was really going on. So I didn't go down for it. I wasn't there. It was bizarre.

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