Burt Reynolds Didn’t Want Sally Field to Do Her Oscar-Winning Movie: ‘He Wanted to Control Me’

Sally Field is opening up about her relationship with Burt Reynolds — and his attempted influence on her career.

“There were parts of Burt that were so wonderful and lovable, and then there were parts that were really frightening,” Field, 79, revealed to People of her Smokey and the Bandit costar, in a story published on Thursday, May 7.

The pair met in 1977 and began an on-again, off-again relationship while making four movies together. During that time, she also got the script for the 1979 drama, Norma Rae, based on the true story of a factory worker who became a union advocate due to poor working conditions.

“It was the beginning of me pulling away when he didn’t want me to do Norma Rae, called her a whore, and it was because she had some sexual past. He threw the script at me,” the Flying Nun alum said.

“He wanted to control me, and because I was standing up, he said, ‘Boy, you’re letting this get the better of you,’” she continued. “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.”

Field explained that Reynolds refused to attend the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a 10-minute standing ovation. He also didn’t attend the Oscars with her in 1980, where she won the award for best lead actress.

Playing Norma had given her courage, the Steel Magnolias star explains, and she eventually split for good from the Boogie Nights actor in 1982.

“I could feel my body getting stronger,” said Field, who won a second Oscar for 1984’s Places in the Heart. “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.”

Reynolds died in 2018 at age 82.