Sally Field wins SAG Life Achievement Award and pays sad tribute to Mrs Doubtfire co-star Robin Williams

Virgin Radio

27 Feb 2023, 10:54

Sally Field was honoured with the Life Achievement Award at the 2023 SAG Awards over the weekend by her Spider-Man co-star Andrew Garfield and paid a tear-inducing tribute to the late, great Robin Williams.

Held at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, the actress recalled making the 1993 comedy Mrs. Doubtfire with Williams, who died in 2014, aged 63.

"What you think about immediately is Robin. There isn't a moment of it that's not filled with my love and joy at being in his presence," she said.

"I mean, Robin was Robin. He was everything he seemed to be: a generous, loving, sweet, geniously talented man.

"We all miss him. He should be growing old like me, for God's sakes. I hate it that he isn't here."

She told the audience about her most important roles from her five decade-spanning career which began in 1960's sitcom Gidget.

The actress, 76, said: "I wasn't looking for the applause or the attention, even though that's nice… sometimes and it was never about a need to hide myself behind the characters of other people. Acting to me has always been about finding those few precious moments when I feel totally, utterly, sometimes dangerously alive. So the task has always been to find a way to get to that, to get to the work, to claw my way to it if necessary."

Applauding the plight of other actors in the room, she said: "You know what? Easy is overrated. I've flown on wires and surfed in the ocean, rode on horses on wagon trains and fast cars. I've had multiple personalities, worked at a textile mill, picked cotton...

"I've been Mrs. Doubtfire's employer, Forrest Gump's mother, Lincoln's wife and Spider-Man's aunt. I've done scenes wearing 50lbs. of period dresses, been fully clothed, semi-clothed and totally naked.

"There is not a day that I don't feel quietly thrilled to call myself an actor. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this great honour, from you, the people I most wanted respect from in my life. Actors."

The gong is 'given annually to an actor who fosters the 'finest ideals of the acting profession'.

"Sally is an amazing actor with an enormous range and an uncanny ability to embody any character," SAG President Fran Drescher said. "She has an enduring career because she is authentic in her performance and always projects likability and humanity — she just connects."

She continued: "I have memories, I think, of almost everything I've done. Except sometimes something will pop up and before I turn it off, and in the really young days of television, where I actually do not remember — I don't remember being there, I don't remember saying that. So it's like literally an out-of-body experience."

Field added: "But, you know, it's almost 60 years ago. I'm allowed to forget some of those days!"

Here's more on the SAG Awards 2023 and who broke some impressive records.