Sally Field Reveals Burt Reynolds' Infuriating Reaction To Her Oscar Nomination

The Norma Rae actor said that her Smokey and the Bandit co-star and then-boyfriend was "not a nice guy" as she found more success.
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When Sally Field was nominated for her first Academy Award, then-boyfriend Burt Reynolds was less than supportive.

Reynolds “was not happy” that his partner was up for 1980′s Best Actress award for her role in Norma Rae and “was not going to go” as her date to the ceremony, Field told author Dave Karger for the upcoming book “50 Oscar Nights,” per a Thursday report in People.

“He really was not a nice guy around me then,” Field said.

Sally Field (left) and Burt Reynolds are pictured in 1977.
Sally Field (left) and Burt Reynolds are pictured in 1977.
Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images.

She also shared that when Norma Rae premiered at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, Reynolds didn’t want her to attend.

“He said, ‘You don’t think you’re going to win anything, do you?’” she recalled.

If she did think that, she would have been correct. Field won Best Actress at both the Oscars and Cannes.

Field holds her Oscar for "Norma Rae."
Field holds her Oscar for "Norma Rae."
via Associated Press

The two actors started dating after meeting on the set of 1977′s Smokey and the Bandit, and maintained an on-and-off romance for five years.

In 2015, Reynolds still called Field the “love of my life” and said that he missed her “terribly.”

“I don’t know why I was so stupid,” he said. “Men are like that, you know. You find the perfect person, and then you do everything you can to screw it up.”

Reynolds and Field are shown in the film "Smokey and the Bandit."
Reynolds and Field are shown in the film "Smokey and the Bandit."
Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images

At the time, Field said that she had “no response, really” to his proclamation, and that the two didn’t “really talk to each other” anymore.

After Reynolds’ death in 2018, Field said that her memories of their time together would “never fade away.”

“He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live,” she said.

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