Sally Field Back to TV
Posted: March 26, 2002 @ 8:30 PM C
Source: USA
Today
By: Donna Freydkin
NEW YORK -- Tonight, Sally Field finds out if
viewers still really like her.
The two-time Academy Award winner is immortalized for her giddy
acceptance speech for 1984's Places in the Heart, when she cried out
that the academy voters ''really like'' her. Now, she puts that fondness
to the test with ABC's The Court (10 p.m. ET/PT), which has Field
playing a novice Supreme Court justice.
And Field -- who first giggled her way to stardom on 1965's Gidget
but vaulted to fame two years later as The Flying Nun -- is thrilled to
be back on the small screen full time.
''I feel right now that television is a very exciting place for an
actor,'' says Field, matter-of-factly pointing to the lack of quality
roles for women over 40. ''You have to find a way to go where the work
is.''
She portrayed Aunt Betsey in last year's TNT remake of David
Copperfield and won an Emmy for her six-episode stint on the hit NBC
series ER, where, at the request of producer John Wells, she played the
troubled mother of medical trainee Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney).
''As an actor, (ER) was a gift,'' says Field. ''It was so much fun.
At the same time I was doing that, this came to my attention. It
interested me -- the Supreme Court is incredibly fascinating.''
Field, 55, says that stepping into a judge's chambers to play Justice
Kate Nolan on the show has proved to be one of her biggest professional
challenges. Both she and her character, Field says, are ''very
accomplished, very successful, and yet entering a brand-new place.''
But that's where the similarities end.
''The biggest difference is education,'' she says. ''I don't know
that I have the same intellectual capabilities as her because I never
challenged them. It's always been a longing of mine to have a real
education. . . . I would surely like to study history and political
science. I would certainly like to know more about law.''
For now, Field's day job is keeping her busy.
''In doing television, you don't stop and think about anything,'' she
says. ''You just have to do it. You don't have a lot of time to analyze
yourself. It's all about doing the work. And if the work is good and
exciting -- that's all there is.''
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