Sally Field Remembers Her Journey as an Actor as She Accepts SAG Life Achievement Award | “Easy Is Overrated”

Sally Field has another prestigious award to her name!  The actress has already won two Academy Awards and three Emmys and her recent credits include 80 for Brady, Spoiler Alert, and Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Her The Amazing Spider-Man costar Andrew Garfield presented Field with the SAG Life Achievement Award at the 2023 SAG Awards on Sunday. Field is the 58th recipient of the award which is "given annually to an actor who fosters the 'finest ideals of the acting profession.'" Previous honorees include Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and Robert De Niro.

"[Field] has an enduring career because she is authentic in her performance and always projects likability and humanity — she just connects," Fran Drescher, SAG-AFTRA president, previously said in a statement, according to EW. "That's part of why she has sustained her massive fandom and incredibly rich and layered career."

At the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, the veteran actress received the Life Achievement Award, recognizing “career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, she said, “I’ve been Mrs. Doubtfire’s employer, Forrest Gump’s mother, Lincoln’s wife, and Spider-Man’s aunt,” highlighting how she feels lucky to be a part of projects "whose screenplays were so good that my hands shook the first time I read them…" She continued, "They opened and revealed parts of myself I would not have known otherwise. I’ve worked my whole life. In all of these almost 60 years, there is not a day that I don’t feel quietly thrilled to call myself an actor.” 

The actress also confessed that she felt rather shy off-stage when began her career but she felt exhilarated when she began to perform. “Acting, to me, has always been about finding those few, precious moments when I feel totally, utterly, sometimes dangerously alive,” she explained. “The task has always been to find a way to get to that.” 

She talked about the difficulties as a young woman in the industry and acknowledged that the struggle is even more challenging for actors of color. “My fight, as hard as it was, was lightweight compared to some of yours,” she said, before stating, “easy is overrated.” 

The 76-year-old also fondly recalled the time she worked with the late Robin Williams while making the 1993 comedy Mrs. Doubtfire. During the PEOPLE & Entertainment Weekly Red Carpet Live show ahead of the SAG Awards 2023 on Sunday she remembered her "sweet" costar who died nearly 10 years ago.  At the age of 63, Williams died by suicide on Aug. 11, 2014. It was later revealed that he suffered from Lewy body dementia, a type of progressive dementia that is the second most common type after Alzheimer's disease.

"What you think about immediately is Robin. There isn't a moment of it that's not filled with my love and joy at being in his presence," she said, according to PEOPLE. "I mean, Robin was Robin. He was everything he seemed to be: a generous, loving, sweet, geniously talented man. We all miss him," added Field. "He should be growing old like me, for God's sakes. I hate it that he isn't here."

References:

https://ew.com/awards/sag-awards/sally-field-remembers-robin-williams-2023-sag-awards-red-carpet/

https://people.com/movies/sag-awards-2023-sally-field-remembers-robin-williams-we-all-miss-him/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/sally-field-2023-sag-awards-speech-1235334937/

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Kevin Winter