Oscar-winning actress Sally Field has a memoir due out later this month. Called In Pieces, the book chronicles Field’s life and career, but also delves into its fair share of turmoil. In an interview with The New York Times, Field reveals that the book explores her relationship with Jock Mahoney, an actor and stuntman who she says sexually abused her until the age of 14.
“I felt both a child, helpless, and not a child. Powerful. This was power. And I owned it,” she writes in the memoir about the times he’d call her into his bedroom alone. “But I wanted to be a child — and yet.”
Field also shares her experiences with sexual misconduct in Hollywood and beyond, the likes of which sound consistent with the kinds of stories emerging from the #MeToo movement. One anecdote involves director Bob Rafelson (Five Easy Pieces, The Postman Always Rings Twice), who she alleges coerced her into kissing him during an audition for the 1976 film Stay Hungry. “I can’t hire anyone who doesn’t kiss good enough.” she says he told her.
“It must have been good enough.” Field told the Times. “I was the sole support for my family, and I didn’t see that I had any direction but down, unless I could get out of this spot that I was in.” Rafelson denies the event.
Field’s book also touches on her relationship with the late Burt Reynolds, whom she dated in the ’80s. She describes their pairing as “confusing and complicated, and not without loving and caring, but really complicated and hurtful to me.” She also discusses Reynolds struggles with anxiety, and her attempts to guide him towards treatment, which he called “self-delusional poppycock.”
In Pieces is due out September 18th via Grand Central Publishing.
