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


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.

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I've never liked her as an actress. She's so bland.

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I don't mind Field, she was particularly funny in Soapdish but I agree, she tends to overact in emotional scenes.

Can't get on board with your short actress theory though. If we believe that how do we explain the success of Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman, Sigourney Weaver, Tilda Swinton, Gal Gadot.. tall ladies all. I guess if an actress is going for romantic leads only shortness may help, but I'm not sure tallness is such a handicap in Hollywood.

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I'm not going to look up the height on all of them, but Kidman isn't all that tall. Wearing flats she was about the height of Tom Cruise, who is notoriously short. I just looked up Julia Roberts' height which is listed as 5'9" on a page that has Kidman's height as 5'11". Golly. I can't believe they expect us to buy that.

A reliable source tells me that most people are lying about height, weight, and even age in Hollywood.

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Nicole Kidman is 5'11" and Tom Cruise is 5'7". Did you never see them photographed together? She towered over him even in flats. Her famous quote after the divorce was "now I can wear heels again".

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Your ignorance shows. You've never seen Places in the Heart. She deserved her Oscar for that. You're some ignorant kid or you wouldn't be saying such stupid stuff.

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I've seen Places in the Heart, and I liked her work in that. But it wasn't made early in her career, either.

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I grew up watching her on re-runs of Gidget and Flying Nun in the late 70's and early 80's. Not sure if it was her acting or just the fluffy nature of the shows.

She is one of few crushes that I still have though. She still looks good.

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I've only seen her in Places in the Heart ( only because my parents wanted me to watch it with them), Forrest Gump, and the Amazing Spider-Man movies.

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Sally Field is a good actress: I'll give that to her. That said, I don't particularly like her politics.

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Another boring celebrity left winger?

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She did a good job in Gump and that film was shocking.

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I actually didn't realize how young she still was at the time of Forrest Gump. I had watched Mrs. Doubtfire as a kid but just watched it a few months ago for the first time since I was a kid and forgot she was in it. She looked so pretty in it. I actually as a kid thought Forrest's mother when she was older was how she actually was. Since I had seen Places in the Heart as a kid and thought she was in her early 40s when she did that. This was before most people had the internet in their homes and could just look stuff up.

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She was 48 at the time of Gump but she ages really well even now.

A couple of my fave pics of her when she was young https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTxHlCN9kVXhYbAVU-mTIKgI3DIGu6lv6YjHS4vIkv0ied_Etkn

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRTiZoVMy5PYH1gi0_mUbRgqXaPjK_UYTmMJDF3egtZRrZNRv2Q

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She is a very pretty woman.

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