Sally Fieldseems to have a knack for playing mothers who lose their children.
“Emotional work is always hard,” Field says.
The difficult thing [here] was to not feel it until it was time to feel it."
Focus Features; Everett Collection
So would Field callSteel Magnoliasa harder scene to play?
“you’re free to’t say harder,” she demurs.
“They were both acting challenges in my life.Steel Magnolias,that monologue is a great monologue.
Linda Källérus / FOCUS FEATURES
Every aspiring actor tries to conquer that monologue.
It’s full of everything.
I did what I knew to do.'
Linda Källérus / FOCUS FEATURES
Could you have been better?
She costars as Marilyn, Kit’s mother.
We called up Field to talk about heavy roles, improvising, and having to believably play a triathlete.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did this project come your way?
Had you met Michael Ausiello at all through interviews?
They wanted me to be in it.
I said, “Absolutely, I’m there.
I’m in.”
And they said, “Well, at least read it first, will you?”
Ausiello is a producer on this.
How much did you turn to him for insight on Marilyn and Kit?
I hardly talked to him.
Marilyn and Bob (Bill Irwin) really do exist, thank goodness.
But I never met them.
I know they’re very private people.
My allegiance was not really in accurately portraying who Marilyn really might be.
Was that exactly what happened?
Were those verbatim the words?
Probably not, because we did a lot of improv to bring it to life.
But I didn’t have that requirement with this because they’re people that are unfamiliar to the public.
They respond warmly, in a fashion he’s not expecting.
Your youngest son is openly gay.
Were you drawing on any experiences with him for that moment?
Well, all actors draw on themselves.
Whether it be absolutely, specifically, or an awareness that stays there.
But this is very different than my life and what my son’s life is like.
Was getting to depict that a motivating factor in signing on though?
[Laughs] You really can’t come into a project with an agenda, you know?
It’s a lovely story about loving, about generosity, about compassion, and about family.
But I didn’t have an agenda.
you’re free to’t do any of that.
It puts too much weight on it.
you’re free to’t judge the story.
you might’t judge a character.
You just do it, be that good or be that bad.
You do your job.
You and Bill Irwin have this wonderfully lived in chemistry as this couple here.
How did the two of you find that together?
Bill and I have a longterm friendship.
He and I did a play on Broadway together many years ago.
[Laughs] you’re able to’t not love Bill Irwin.
When it was him going to do this, it was such a great gift to me.
We could just hit the ground running.
We weren’t replicating the kind of work we’d done on Broadway.
We played two very different people, but because we know each other, we just could land.
It was like barely rehearse and just begin.
And there we were.
Speaking of hitting the ground running, Marilyn is a triathlete.
We don’t see her in a race.
But we do see her on these wintry jogs withJim Parsons’Mike.
Did you have to train or learn anything about running technique for those sequences?
I used to run a lot.
It’s probably why my knees are so very bad.
So the running stuff, thank God I didn’t fall on my face.
My knees were sleeved tightly to make a run at keep them from swelling up too much.
The camera would be way far away.
And I would say to Jim, “Is the camera around?
Are we even filming this?”
But there was a lot of improv and great fun.
Marilyn is a lovable busy body.
As a mom yourself, was that something that came naturally to you?
A lot of it wasn’t there on the page.
I’ve been here long enough to know how to fill the space with activities.
Rarely do people in families just sit and look at each other.
Unless there’s something specific you’re needing to know, you’re doing something with your hands.
I was always looking for the Marilyn that existed in activities.
You mentioned there was lots of improv in the jogging scenes.
Something’s not fitting with the logic.
If that’s who she was here, then how can she be that here?”
One of the reasons Michael is so good is because he allows the space to find it.
Michael let me do that.
But in the film that would be me trampling on his territory.
He has to own that spot.
There were many, many moments in this film that Showalter let me find where Marilyn is.
