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For , loving Burt Reynolds was both “wonderful” and “frightening.”
The actress recently sat down with People and looked back at the defining moments of her life and career. During the conversation, the Oscar winner was shown a photo of herself alongside the late actor from their time filming 1977’s “Smokey and the Bandit.”
“It was a very complicated relationship,” the 79-year-old admitted to the outlet. “There were parts of Burt that were so wonderful and lovable, and then there were parts that were really frightening, and he was very much like my stepfather. It doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a part of me that loved Burt to pieces, but then I loved my stepfather too.”
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Sally Field and Burt Reynolds were in a relationship for about five years, from 1977 to 1982. (© Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection)
“That’s the complication of what loving a very complicated person is, especially when you’re a child, because my stepfather was both wonderful and evil,” Field shared. “So, he taught me that love is wonderful and dangerous.”
“… I eventually could stand up to Burt and I could eventually walk away,” Field said. “Because Burt wanted to control my work. He could hurt me, he could humiliate me, but don’t mess with my work because it meant more to me than work.”
Sally Field and Burt Reynolds starred in “Hooper” in 1978. The film was released that year, right after the success of “Smokey and the Bandit” (1977), during the height of their relationship and on-screen partnership. (Warner Brothers/Getty Images)
Field and Reynolds met on the set of “Smokey and the Bandit.” They had a tumultuous on-and-off relationship that lasted five years. Reynolds went on to marry Loni Anderson in 1988. The marriage ended in 1994.
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The actor died in 2018 at the age of 82.
Field previously said Reynolds was controlling during their time together. During the sit-down, the star said her breaking point came when the script for 1979’s “Norma Rae” came along.
Burt Reynolds died on Sept. 6, 2018, at the age of 82. (Getty Images)
“It was the beginning of me pulling away when he didn’t want me to do ‘Norma Rae,’” said Field. “[He] called her a whore because she had some sexual past, and he threw the script at me 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 did meet with [director] Martin Ritt.”
Sally Field attends Netflix’s “Remarkably Bright Creatures” conversation at 92NY in New York City on May 3, 2026. (Dominik Bindl/Getty Images)
“I did the film, but it was the beginning of me finding my legs,” she said. “And I really think the roles that I’ve been lucky enough to have … they changed me. They affected me. They changed who I am. And being Norma at that time was exactly what I needed, because to learn how to stand in her shoes, I could feel my own legs.”
The actress scored an Oscar nomination for “Norma Rae,” but Reynolds reportedly wasn’t impressed. In Dave Karger’s book, “50 Oscar Nights,” Field recalled how she wanted to attend the Cannes Film Festival in support of the film leading up to the Academy Awards. However, Reynolds wasn’t keen on joining her.
Sally Field and Burt Reynolds attend the “Golda” Gala at the Tower Suite in New York City. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images)
“I have a hard time understanding what Sally Field told me about how unsupportive Burt Reynolds was,” the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) host told Fox News Digital. “This was at the time when she was receiving all of this acclaim for ‘Norma Rae.’”
“50 Oscar Nights: Iconic Stars & Filmmakers on Their Career-Defining Wins” by Dave Karger is available now. (Running Press)
“I got the sense in the interview that it all came as a surprise to her,” Karger shared. “But it also showed her that this was not a relationship that was meant to last. I think she realized that she needed to be with someone who was going to be more fully supportive of every aspect of her life.”
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Sally Field recently looked back at her life and decades-long career in Hollywood. (Screen Archives/Getty Images)
Field also told Karger that Reynolds remarked, “You don’t think you’re going to win anything, do you?” Reynolds also refused to attend the 1980 Oscars as her date.
“He really was not a nice guy around me then,” she admitted, as quoted in the book.
Sally Field and Burt Reynolds attend the Los Angeles Television Critics Awards at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images)
Karger said that even with Field’s admission, he still wondered why Reynolds couldn’t support the star at the time.
“I can only guess that there were issues of control and jealousy,” he said. “[He] was uncomfortable with the thought of [Field] reaching the pinnacle of success in the industry. I think it’s really unfortunate that [he] couldn’t have been more supportive publicly and privately.”
Field said she “didn’t know what to do” about not having a date for the 52nd Academy Awards. Ultimately, Field attended the award show with actor David Steinberg and his now-ex-wife, Judy.
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Film director Martin Ritt is accompanied by actress Sally Field and actor Beau Bridges after the screening of his film “Norma Rae” at the Cannes International Film Festival on May 17, 1979. (Raph Gatti/Getty Images)
“David said, ‘Well, for God’s sakes, we’ll take you,’” Field recalled. “He and Judy made it a big celebration. They picked me up in a limousine and had champagne in the car. They made it just wonderful fun.”
Field took home the Oscar for best actress that day. She would become a two-time Oscar winner in 1985 for her role in “Places in the Heart.” By then, her romance with Reynolds was over. According to multiple reports, the couple called it quits in 1982.
Actress Sally Field and actor Dustin Hoffman smile after winning “Best Actress” and “Best Actor” Oscars at the 52nd Annual Academy Awards at the Music Center. Field won for “Norma Rae,” and Hoffman won for “Kramer vs. Kramer.” (Getty Images)
In a 2015 interview with Vanity Fair, Reynolds told the magazine that Field was the “love of my life.”
In her 2018 memoir, “In Pieces,” which came out days after Reynolds’ death, Field admitted he “was a hugely important part of my life, but for a very short period of my life … I really didn’t speak to him for the last 30 years of his life.”
“By the time we met, the weight of his stardom had become a way for Burt to control everyone around him, and from the moment I walked through the door, it was a way to control me,” Field wrote, as quoted by Vanity Fair.
Actress Sally Field is seen here playing the title role in the 1979 20th Century Fox film “Norma Rae”. (Getty Images)
“We were a perfect match of flaws,” she wrote. “Blindly, I fell into a rut that had long ago formed in my road, a pre-programmed behavior as if in some past I had pledged a soul-binding commitment to this man.”
Field told The New York Times that her time with Reynolds was “confusing and complicated, and not without loving and caring, but really complicated and hurtful to me.”
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The outlet noted that in her book, she characterized their connection as “immediate and intense,” but he was also “controlling of her.” Field alleged he was uninterested and disapproving of certain aspects of her life.
Actors Burt Reynolds and Sally Field appear in a scene from the 1977 film “Smokey and the Bandit.” (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Field admitted to the outlet that she was thankful Reynolds wasn’t around to read her memoir.
“This would hurt him,” she said. “I felt glad that he wasn’t going to read it, he wasn’t going to be asked about it, and he wasn’t going to have to defend himself or lash out, which he probably would have. I did not want to hurt him any further.”
When Reynolds died, Field told The Associated Press, “There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away.”
Burt Reynolds and Sally Field are seated together at the Steak Pit Restaurant in Los Angeles, California, on March 15, 1978. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection)
“They stay alive, even 40 years later. My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy.”
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