Goldie Hawn "really wanted" Sally Field to do First Wives Club

No one can deny that Hollywood likes Sally Field. She’s cultivated her career from singing nun to Oscar winner to elder stateswoman of film. According to a new interview from People, she did so by being choosy about her projects, recognizing her strengths and understanding her own weaknesses. “I know there’s a territory that I can own, and some where I dare you to be as good as me, and then there’s some I can fake,” she tells the outlet. “But really, I would rather not be faking it.”

This has meant turning down some big opportunities along the way. One example, she reveals, was First Wives Club with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler. “Goldie really wanted me to do it,” she says of the role that eventually went to Diane Keaton. “Maybe it would have been fun, but they were all so musical, and I’m not. And the movie wouldn’t have been the same.”

Romancing The Stone is another project to which she said no: “My instinct was there’s somebody else out there who’s better,” claims the prescient Field,
“And that somebody was Kathleen Turner. That long-legged Kathleen, with her husky voice. I mean, she’s still breathtakingly good. And she’s so sweet. There’s nobody else like her.”

Apparently, the Steel Magnolias star also turned down some female-centric projects in her day. “I have avoided some other films that are groups of ladies because I have certain feelings that women are about so much more than just looking for a date or who’s my next husband.” Clearly, 80 For Brady transcends this superficial categorization, and lucky for us it does. (The press tour alone was worth the price of admission!) There’s an alternate universe somewhere in which she was also part of the First Wives Club girl gang, but in this universe, one has to appreciate Field’s instincts for the right part.