Sally Field is opening up about bringing one remarkable story to life.
In an interview with PEOPLE for this week’s cover story, the actress, 79, spoke about how she helped to bring Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, to the screen.
Field stars as Tova, an elderly widow who forms an unlikely friendship with an octopus (voiced by Alfred Molina) while working the night shift at an aquarium. The film also features Lewis Pullman.
But Field heard of the book before it was even published, thanks to her son Peter’s Night Owl Stories production company.
“Bryan Unkeless and Peter Craig were starting their company. Bryan Unkeless was given this in galleys, I believe,” the actress says. “They didn’t have another project in the works. And then Bryan said, ‘Maybe give this to your mom. Maybe she would like this.’”
“I read about three chapters and said ‘yes,’ and then gave it to my manager, who is anonymous,” Field says. “Anonymous picked it up for them. And we began developing it.”
The movie provided a particularly striking role for Field, given the kinds of parts that draw her in today.
“Because I’m old, it’s very hard to find a role that’s interesting for an older woman. I never take to the kinds of stories about women and older women that are trying to find a man,” Field says. “I didn’t like it then, and it doesn’t appeal to me because I think women are about so much more.”
“I’m so involved in it,” she adds of Remarkably Bright Creatures. “So much of it is stuff that came from me and so much of what Lewis and I do, the wonderful Lewis Pullman. So much of everything that we do is just improv.”
Van Pelt’s 2022 debut novel also touched many people before it was even in development for the screen. Remarkably Bright Creatures was an instant New York Times bestseller and was selected for Jenna Bush Hager’s Read with Jenna Book Club.
“It’s a lovely, lovely little book about healing, about family, and an homage to sea creatures,” Field says. “It’s very unique and small in its way, and large in other ways. We worked a long time to make it what it eventually became.”
In this week’s issue, Field looks back on her on-screen career, along with iconic roles in Gidget, Mrs. Doubtfire and Norma Rae, the latter of which earned the actress her first Academy Award.
“I had to say to myself that if I wasn’t where I wanted to be, I had to get better,” Field says.
Remarkably Bright Creatures premieres on Netflix on May 8.
