Field shares sons Peter and Eli with her first husband, Steven Craig, and son Samuel, who is gay, with her second husband, Alan Greisman.
Key Points
- Sally Field is looking back on memories from the set of the classic 1989 film Steel Magnolias.
- Field says she frequently brought her son Samuel, now 36, to the set when he was an infant, where he was cared for by the film's expansive female ensemble cast.
- "Sam has always said that that's probably why he's gay," Field joked.
Steel Magnolias really is a life-changing movie.
Sally Field, who starred in the classic 1989 paean to the power of female friendship, is looking back on the "wonderful, wonderful experience" of making the film in a new interview with PEOPLE.
The 79-year-old Oscar winner described "a picture that I have hanging in my little office" of herself with three of her castmates, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, and Julia Roberts.
"We're looking off because it was the wrap party, and there was a big band, so it's all of our tight headshots, and on my chest is my little son Sam," she said.
Because her son with second husband Alan Greisman "was 6 months old, I'm holding his head because I'm trying to save his ears because it was loud. He was on the set all the time and my friends took care of him. Sam has always said that that's probably why he's gay," Field joked.
Field shares sons Peter and Eli with her first husband, Steven Craig, and son Samuel, who is gay, with her second husband, Alan Greisman.
Now a writer and producer, Samuel opened up about his life on and off sets with his famous mom, and how his coming out story influenced one of her on-screen storylines, in 2023.
"I grew up so connected to my mom that I can trace my life through her career. While she shot Mrs. Doubtfire, I built model airplanes and hung them all over our rented house in San Francisco. During Forrest Gump, I would get to buy something at the toy store in Beaufort, S.C.," he wrote. "Later, a frank, heartfelt conversation about my queerness was used verbatim for a scene between her and Matthew Rhys. Still waiting on a retroactive writing credit on that, if I'm being perfectly honest," he joked.
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Looking back on Steel Magnolias, which also costarred Daryl Hannah and Olympia Dukakis, Field noted, "We all just completely adored each other, and we would go shopping on the weekends, all together — even Dolly sometimes. We'd go to the market, we played games, we'd get together at somebody's house.
Field is as fond of her sons as they are of her. In a 2012 speech at the Human Rights Campaign annual national dinner, the actress shared, "The three things I am most proud of in my life are Peter, Eli and Sam — my sons. They are kind and loving, productive human beings. Each very different from the other."
Praising Sam in particular, Field added, "Sam was given colors and innate perceptions that his big brothers just simply don’t have. He’s a gentler nature, and it is a gift. Nature made Sam, it wasn’t a choice. He was always, always Sam, glorious, smart, funny, sweet Sam."
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