Sally Field Claims Ex Burt Reynolds Told Her Not to Take 'Norma Rae' Role: 'He Wanted to Control Me'

Sally Field is opening up about how her late ex Burt Reynolds reacted when she landed the role that would eventually change her career forever.

In a recent interview, the 79-year-old actress reflected on the complicated dynamic of their on-and-off relationship and revealed that Reynolds strongly objected to her starring in the 1979 drama Norma Rae — the movie that later earned her her first Academy Award.

“It was the beginning of me pulling away when he didn't want me to do Norma Rae, called her a w-----, and it was because she had some sexual past. He threw the script at me," Field shared. "He wanted to control me, and 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 met with [director] Marty Ritt. I did the film. But it was the beginning of me finding my legs."

Despite Reynolds’ objections, Field moved forward with the project.

The actress also recalled how Reynolds tried to discourage her from attending the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, which ultimately became a defining moment for her.

"It was a standing ovation for like 10 minutes, and I started to cry," Field remembered. "I just was like, 'What?' After I had worked so hard to get out of television, to even be considered for anything, and here I was."

According to Field, Reynolds later refused to attend the Oscars with her the night she won Best Lead Actress.

“Being Norma at that time was exactly what I needed, because to learn how to stand in her shoes, I think I said this [in her 2018 memoir In Pieces], I could feel my own legs,” Field explained. “I could feel my body getting stronger. Because I was having to portray how she grew up, I started to grow up, and I eventually just wouldn't be manipulated and humiliated like that. And ultimately I left.”

The former couple first met while filming the 1977 hit Smokey and the Bandit. They later reunited for three more projects, including the 1980 sequel to Smokey and the Bandit, along with the films Hooper and The End.

During the interview, Field admitted she mainly remembers working with Reynolds on Smokey and the Bandit, recalling how casually the projectc= came together from the start.

"He said, 'It's really awful. The script is awful, but we're going to fix all of that because we'll just make it up as we go along,'" Field recalled of Reynolds calling her about the role.

Once filming began, she said the atmosphere on set was spontaneous.

“It was completely improvised. We'd drive off in the car with the cameras mounted, and I would go, 'Okay, roll!' And then of course, he and I met and began whatever it was that we began,” she recalled.

While reflecting on their five-year relationship, Field acknowledged that Reynolds had both charming and difficult sides.

“There were parts of Burt that were so wonderful and lovable, and then there were parts that were really frightening,” she said, adding that the actor reminded her “very much” of her abusive stepfather.

She explained, “[Burt] was me exorcising my stepfather out of my brain.”

The couple officially split for good in 1982.

As Field previously wrote in her 2018 memoir In Pieces, which was released just days after Reynolds’ death, the actor “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.”

Field later married producer Alan Greisman in 1984, and the two welcomed a son, Sam, before divorcing in 1994. Since then, the Oscar winner has remained single.