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Anyone here remember when Sally Field was a perfectly awful actress?

posted 5 years ago by Destinata (2587)
40 replies | jump to latest

No nuance. Great for a high school actress. But for a pro, perfectly awful. Still she had the #1 thing any actress needs to keep getting parts in Hollywood -- she was short. She had to be at least sort of competent, but if she at least had that AND was short, she was going to keep getting roles.

Why? Because most leading men in Hollywood are short. Halfway competent leading women who can make the men look like they're six feet tall are few and far between.

I remember when Jeff Bridges stank as an actor. But he kept at it, and eventually became brilliant. Not all actresses are given the chance to keep acting regularly like the short ones do, and eventually we don't see them anymore. Shortness helps you get ahead in Hollywood.

[–] ABee (44) 5 years ago

I don't know, I think the earliest movie I've seen her in is Absence of Malice and she's perfectly fine in that!

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[–] Destinata (2587) 5 years ago

She was on TV before that. I saw her recently in an “Alias Smith and Jones,” and she was pretty horrible. She had a long pull to be taken seriously after her start in “The Flying Nun.”

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

You know, I dont think it was possible to be good in "Gidget" or "Flying Nun", the stuff she did early in her career called for cuteness, not acting. And she didn't have a career in sixties fluff just because she was short, she had as career because she was as cute as a basket of kittens!

She's still cute, but at least now they let her do more these days.

[–] [email protected] (5486) 5 years ago

Yeah, there's not much an actor could've done with the dialogue in "Gidget" or "The Flying Nun". A high school student who had experience in school plays could've handled those roles.

Sally Field's Sister Bertrille was so cute. She was very sweet but prone to mischief. I never had a nun like her in school. I found her personality harder to believe than her ability to fly. lol

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

Yeah, well, spending all day trying deal with modern kids would beat the cuteness out of anyone. Your monstrous nuns were young once, and some of them may have been cute!

Sally Field is a very rare sort of person, she's 72 now, and still as cute as a basket of kittens!

[–] [email protected] (5486) 5 years ago

"Modern kids"?? I was talking about my grade school days...many moons ago. LOL

I did have some nice nuns. It's just that Sister Bertrille got into mischief so often and she had to explain herself to the Mother Superior. In my school it was us kids who got into the mischief. The nuns seemed so perfect. They never broke any rules.(at least they hid their flaws from us!)

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

Yeah, there's not much an actor could've done with the dialogue in "Gidget" or "The Flying Nun". A high school student who had experience in school plays could've handled those roles.
---- ---- ----- ---- -----
It's not mainly the dialogue, but the execution to sound believable. Lucille Ball could have bad dialogue, and she would still be convincing. (the reciprocal with Ali MacGraw). Low-budget horror films may have bad dialogue, yet the actors are often excellent.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Do you mean she "made it look easier than it was"?

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

Yes, thank you. I must have been in a hurry when I typed it.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Welcome. You were quite right, too.

[–] Destinata (2587) 5 years ago

Of course, you have to be REALLY talented to make it in Hollywood if you’re not good-looking. But while the junk you cited is pretty awful, the Clementine character in Smith and Jones had complexity and would have been bearable with a better actress. She over-acted and depended a little too much on the “Gee, aren’t I just as cute as a basket of kittens!” look to get her through the role. They had more veteran actresses — also short (the leading men were on the short side) — who managed to get more out of their parts than the superficial.

With time, though, she learned her craft.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

I haven't seen "Smith and Jones", but I have seen her be really awful just once... in the dreadful 1967 campfest "The Way West". It's about a wagon train crossing the frontier, and Sally played the slut of the wagon train, and... she should have stuck with being cute! At least she's far from the worst thing in the movie, not with Kirk Douglas at Peak Overacting.

And yeah, Field is like Jessica Lange, someone who learned their craft in front of the camera, and learned it superbly. It can be done.

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

She was fine in "Gidget" and "Flying Nun"; she did what was called for and believable. But, success (especially with females) has nothing to do with being short; that is absurd. Female average height is just under 5' 4"

It's Field's dramatic acting that is very overrated. She cannot express anger without these short spastic bursts and movements with no nuance, and her big scene in Norma Rae was stilted, blubbery and lacked depth: "you want laundry, you got laundry; you want cooking, you got cooking", etc. (embarrassing). Her stepfather was Jock Mahoney; she was born into the business.

Fine in comedy, not in drama. I think people subconsciously feel the more average-looking the actor is, the better they must be. 2 Oscars for zip.

[–] bohemianroxie (2471) 5 years ago

If you're referring to those godawful sitcoms than you're referring to 98% of all sitcoms.
That wasn't her fault.
I can't really remember any films she was in where she was awful.

And I don't think shortness is a winning factor for females in film today regardless of the notorious shortness of many male actors. It's not as important as it was back in the golden age of Hollywood where the male actors stood on boxes.
And look at Tom Cruise who married 2 women at least a head or 2 taller than he and seemed proud of it. Aren't tall women more in demand?

And when was Jeff Bridges so bad? I just watched The Last Picture Show and he did well in that.
But it would make sense that actors would improve over time, doesn't it?.
Experience trumps taking classes..
Doing is better than being told how to do.

[–] Destinata (2587) 5 years ago

The writing wasn’t bad in “Alias Smith and Jones” and her acting was just as bad as it was in “The Flying Nun” and “Gidget.”

Who a guy marries is one thing. Who he stars opposite is different. If he has to tilt his head back to kiss his leading lady, he’s going to look stupid.

I can’t remember the first Jeff Bridges movie, but I actually tried to sit through it. I think he got the role based on papa’s fame, or possibly the movie was just so bad — the rest of the actors weren’t much, either — that it didn’t matter if it looked like community theater.

And yes, it’s obvious that people get better over time. It’s also obvious that the girl who comes to the 5’7” guy’s shoulder is going to get more roles when a lot of the leading men are really 5’7”, no matter what their bio says on IMDb.

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

Tom Cruise's beards' height didn't really matter.

[–] ducksoup (3933) 5 years ago

"You like me! You really, really like me!"

She was excellent in Maniac, by the way. (Among many other wonderful roles over the years.)

[–] Destinata (2587) 5 years ago

One of the reasons she was so happy that she was liked and respected was because it was a long, hard pull to get to be the actress she became. She could have coasted on perky, cute, and gushy for a whole, small career. Some actresses do. She really grew as an actress. But her lack of physical stature gave her the opportunities she needed to learn and grow.

[–] ducksoup (3933) 5 years ago

I'd never heard the importance of being short before. Does it have something to do with the cameras? Or they can save money building the sets smaller? Is it cheaper on insurance because when there's an accident there will be less of a target?

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

No importance. For every short actress, there is a very busy bankable famous tall actress

And Field had a VERY easy way to the top (co-starring in films/ sitcom-lead in your 20's is a not a hard long way) since she grew up with show-biz folk, and was competent in her early sitcoms. Her later dramas is where she was often mediocre. So many women better than her that will never see the sight of a camera and/or the opportunities Field had.

[–] BourbonKing (5612) 5 years ago

No.

She's about as good as many of her contemporaries.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

Shortness is preferred in all actors, male or female. The main reason is because its far easier to male people appear taller, than vice versa.

Never cared for Sally. Her performance style, her mental theory of acting, is all built on pure artifice. Shes a cartoon, a caricature.

I think her other big It Factor was how she looks anxious/sad/desperate without trying, and it doesnt look fake the way her acting does, because that expression is BURNED into her face.

[–] snepts (11123) 5 years ago

Thank goodness Lauren Bacall had the presence and chops to carve out her career. I think she was 6' tall.

[–] snepts (11123) 5 years ago

I like Sally Field. She doesn't have the smoldering presence most actresses have. She can't do Sexy. But Norma Rae was a great leading role, and Forrest Gump (how would you like to play a dying person?) and Mrs Doubtfire (the bad guy) really showed she was versatile and, well, likable. I like Sally Field.