OnlyOnAOL: Sally Field on love, learning, and Robin Williams

Donna Freydkin
Updated
Sally Field and Michael Showalter On "Hello, My Name Is Doris"
Sally Field and Michael Showalter On "Hello, My Name Is Doris"

BY DONNA FREYDKIN

Don't be fooled.

"Hello, My Name Is Doris" isn't a swoony love story. Nor is it a goofy romance. Or a rote rom-com. And it most definitely doesn't center around Sally Field playing a cougar who falls for her younger coworker (Max Greenfield), as you might have heard. "It's a coming of age of a woman of age. All our lives, we're coming of age," says Field.

Field was smitten from page one of the script, co-written and directed by comedy veteran Michael Showalter. "I fell in love with the story and the character from the get-go," she says. "It's not a love story at all."

Showalter jokes that he "once auditioned for a part that was described in the breakdown as a Michael Showalter type. And I didn't get the job." So he relished having creative control of the movie, and the subject. Of Doris, he says, "She's falling in love. She's having her heart broken," says Showalter. "I really related to the character."

Sally Field and director Michael Showalter visit AOL Hq for Build on March 8, 2016 in New York. Photos by Noam Galai
Sally Field and director Michael Showalter visit AOL Hq for Build on March 8, 2016 in New York. Photos by Noam Galai

Let's face it: Field, the two-time Oscar winner forever immortalized as Forrest Gump's mom and Mrs. Doubtfire's dubious ex/employer, doesn't exactly have to prove her worth in Hollywood anymore. She's got the chops, and we know it. So it takes a lot to impress her.

"With this, it's not anything I'd ever seen before," says Field. "I've been doing this for so long. I don't want to stand at the door and say, 'Bye guys.' And the story is all on them. I'm fine without working. Luckily I don't need to. Not totally."

The film was shot in three weeks, which meant Field and her co-stars were flying by the seats of their pants. "You gotta stick the landing every time," she says.

She stuck it while playing in 1993's "Mrs. Doubtfire," opposite the late, great, and deliriously talented Robin Williams. Field gets emotional when speaking of her costar.

"I adored him. He was a spectacular human. He was such a good man. He was such a good and decent man," she says. "I wish he was still around. I wish I could watch him age into a different kind of performer."

Don't we all, Sally, don't we all.

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