Sally Field has enjoyed a remarkable career spanning more than six decades, establishing herself as one of the most accomplished performers of her generation. Audiences have watched her move successfully from early television comedy to demanding dramatic roles, major Hollywood productions and stage performances. Along the way, Field worked opposite numerous well-known actors and portrayed many memorable relationships on screen. That long history made one seemingly simple question particularly interesting: of all her co-stars, who gave her the least enjoyable on-screen kiss?
The question came up during Field’s December 2022 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. A viewer asked the Oscar-winning actress to identify her worst on-screen kiss. Field, who was 76 at the time of the interview, initially hesitated and laughed at the idea of publicly naming someone. She looked around before asking whether she should really reveal the person’s identity. Cohen encouraged her to answer, and Field eventually decided not to avoid the question.
Before revealing the name, Field warned viewers that her answer might be unexpected. She then identified Burt Reynolds, a man with whom she shared far more than a brief professional relationship. Reynolds had been her co-star in several films and was also her romantic partner for several years. Given the chemistry audiences saw between them on screen, his name was hardly the answer many viewers would have predicted.
Cohen immediately recognized the irony and reminded Field that she and Reynolds had dated. Field did not change her answer. Discussing their time working together, she explained that kissing was simply not something Reynolds did particularly well from her perspective. When Cohen asked her to explain what made the experience unpleasant, Field humorously mentioned that there had been a great deal of “drooling.”
The exchange was delivered as a lighthearted piece of Hollywood recollection rather than as a serious new accusation against Reynolds. Field laughed during the conversation, while Cohen reacted with obvious surprise. Nevertheless, the anecdote quickly attracted attention because of the famous history connecting the two actors. Their relationship had fascinated audiences for decades, and Reynolds himself had spoken publicly about Field many times before his death.
Field and Reynolds first worked together on Smokey and the Bandit, the enormously successful 1977 action comedy directed by Hal Needham. Reynolds portrayed Bo “Bandit” Darville, while Field played Carrie, a runaway bride who becomes caught up in Bandit’s cross-country adventure. Their chemistry helped make the pairing memorable, and the film became one of the biggest commercial successes of its year.
The production also marked the beginning of their relationship away from the cameras. Field and Reynolds became romantically involved and remained together, with interruptions, for several years. Their professional partnership continued as well. They appeared together in movies including The End, Hooper and Smokey and the Bandit II, making them a recognizable Hollywood pairing during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The relationship eventually ended, and the two stars later remembered it differently. Reynolds frequently spoke about Field with affection during the later years of his life. In his memoir But Enough About Me and in interviews, he expressed regret over the relationship’s ending and suggested that he wished he had made different decisions. His comments helped create a popular narrative in which Field was portrayed as one of the great lost loves of his life.
Reynolds died in September 2018 at the age of 82. Following his death, his past relationship with Field received renewed attention, particularly because of the affectionate comments he had made about her. Field acknowledged their history, but her own later reflections made clear that her memories of the relationship were considerably more complicated than the romantic story sometimes presented in headlines.
In a 2022 interview with Variety, Field discussed Reynolds’ later portrayal of their relationship and said she did not share his interpretation. She explained that she had intentionally avoided renewed contact with him during the final decades of his life. According to Field’s own account, she did not believe the relationship had been good for her and did not want to become involved again in Reynolds’ retrospective understanding of what they had shared.
Those comments should be understood as Field’s description of her own experiences and feelings. They do not require audiences to decide which person’s memories represented the definitive account of every aspect of their relationship. Two people can remember a complicated relationship differently. Reynolds publicly emphasized affection and regret, while Field emphasized why she believed distance had ultimately been healthier for her.
Their relationship represents only one period in Field’s much larger personal and professional story. Born on November 6, 1946, in Pasadena, California, Field entered entertainment at a relatively young age. Her breakthrough came with the television sitcom Gidget, which premiered in 1965. Although the program lasted only one season, the role introduced Field to a national television audience and helped establish her early career.
She soon became even more recognizable through The Flying Nun, in which she portrayed Sister Bertrille. The series ran from 1967 to 1970 and turned Field into a familiar television personality. However, she later spoke about wanting opportunities that would demonstrate a wider acting range. Escaping the expectations created by those early lighthearted roles became an important part of her professional development.
Field eventually accomplished that transition in dramatic fashion. Her performance in Norma Rae earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. Released in 1979, the film featured Field as a textile worker who becomes involved in efforts to organize workers at a factory. The role demonstrated that she was capable of carrying serious dramatic material far removed from the television characters that had first made her famous.
She won a second Academy Award for Best Actress for Places in the Heart, released in 1984. The achievement firmly established Field among Hollywood’s most respected dramatic performers. Her career continued to expand, and she subsequently appeared in films that reached audiences across several generations.
One of her most remembered performances came in the 1989 drama Steel Magnolias. Field portrayed M’Lynn Eatenton, the mother of Julia Roberts’ character, Shelby. An emotional cemetery scene following Shelby’s death became particularly famous because of Field’s ability to move rapidly through grief, anger, despair and moments of unexpected humor. Decades later, the sequence remains closely associated with both the film and Field’s dramatic abilities.
Field reached another enormous audience through Mrs. Doubtfire in 1993, playing Miranda Hillard opposite Robin Williams. The following year, she appeared as the mother of Tom Hanks’ title character in Forrest Gump. Both movies became enduring popular successes and introduced Field’s work to viewers who may not have been familiar with her earlier television and Oscar-winning performances.
Later generations also encountered her through The Amazing Spider-Man films, in which she portrayed Aunt May opposite Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker. Her extensive filmography demonstrates why reducing her career to one era would be misleading. Field successfully remained active through major changes in television, filmmaking and audience tastes.
Her life away from the screen has included much more difficult experiences. In her 2018 memoir, In Pieces, Field wrote about her childhood and family history with unusual openness. Among the experiences she disclosed were sexual abuse by her stepfather and an abortion she underwent at age 17. These subjects are significantly more serious than celebrity anecdotes about romances or on-screen kisses and deserve to be represented in the context in which Field chose to discuss them.
Field explained that examining her past required years of reflection. Her memoir explored how childhood experiences, family relationships and her early years in Hollywood influenced the person she became. The book provided readers with a perspective on Field that went well beyond the characters she had portrayed publicly for decades.
Her professional life also continued after the publication of the memoir. Field appeared in the television series Dispatches from Elsewhere in 2020 and portrayed Jessie Buss in HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. In 2023, she joined Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno in the comedy 80 for Brady, demonstrating that her acting career remained active long after the roles that originally made her famous.
Seen against that enormous body of work, the Burt Reynolds kissing story is best understood as an entertaining piece of Hollywood history rather than a defining moment in Field’s life. The reason the answer surprised Cohen was precisely because Field and Reynolds had once been such a famous real-life couple. Their apparent chemistry in Smokey and the Bandit gave audiences little reason to imagine that Field would later identify Reynolds as her least favorite kissing partner on camera.
The anecdote also demonstrates the difference between screen chemistry and personal experience. A convincing romantic scene is ultimately a performance. Audiences see the finished movie, while actors experience the technical reality of repeated takes, camera positions, dialogue and direction. Two performers can create memorable chemistry on screen without every aspect of filming being equally enjoyable for both of them.
Field’s comments about Reynolds therefore do not erase the effectiveness of their performances together. Smokey and the Bandit remains one of the films most strongly associated with Reynolds, and his partnership with Field contributed significantly to its appeal. Her later joke simply revealed that what looked effortless and romantic to movie audiences did not necessarily feel the same way while the cameras were rolling.
It is equally important not to merge the humorous 2022 television exchange with Field’s more serious comments about their relationship. Her remarks about Reynolds’ kissing technique came in response to a playful viewer question. Her discussions about why she eventually wanted distance from Reynolds were made separately and dealt with much deeper personal experiences. Preserving that distinction prevents a celebrity anecdote from being exaggerated into something Field did not actually say.
Ultimately, Sally Field’s surprising answer offered fans a humorous glimpse behind the scenes of a famous Hollywood partnership. Asked to choose the worst on-screen kiss from an extraordinary career, she hesitated before naming the man many viewers might have expected to rank among the best. Burt Reynolds was not simply another co-star; he had been her romantic partner and one of the actors most closely associated with an important period of her career.
Yet Field’s legacy reaches far beyond that relationship. From Gidget and The Flying Nun to Norma Rae, Steel Magnolias, Mrs. Doubtfire and Forrest Gump, she built a career remarkable for both its range and longevity. Two Academy Awards and decades of memorable performances tell a much larger story than any single Hollywood romance. The Reynolds revelation remains an amusing and unexpected detail, while Field’s enduring reputation rests on the extraordinary body of work she created across generations.
