How do you think Hollywood has changed since you entered the industry? Winning Time doesn't shy away from talking about the sexism in the workplace as experienced by Claire Rothman and Jeanie Buss or the racism faced by the Black members of the Lakers. Norma Rae was my first lead role in a film, and it was a real turning point in my life. ![]() By the time I got to '79, I had begun to make that transition, as hard as it was. You were forever branded as “lesser than” so I had to work really hard and study, to get out of it and get an opportunity to even audition. I started in situation comedy television which at the time, was impossible to get out of, especially if you're a woman. What was it like being a woman and a working actor in Hollywood at that time?īy the time I got to 1979, it was a lot easier than when I started in 1964. The series begins in 1979 when Jerry Buss buys the Lakers. So we figured it had to have been from Jessie. Very narcissistic, not pathologically so, but charismatically strange. She's a bigger-than-life personality, slightly narcissistic, and he's a bigger-than-life personality. I thought there should be a reflection somewhere in Jerry as to who his mother was, and you see it. Hollywood was this magical world of reaching out for something bigger than yourself, and I think that was instilled in him. She was a single mother, and they had a very tight bond. She came to Hollywood and took her son with her because she wanted to be a movie star and that didn't work out, so she became an accountant. What kind of preparation went into playing her? What was she like? There isn’t too much information online about Jessie Buss. It also takes a look at the whole machinery behind what this is.”ī caught up with Field via Zoom to learn how she researched playing Jessie Buss, what it was like to be a working actress in 1979, and why she believes streaming networks are a boon to independent film and shows like Winning Time. “It's about culture in LA in the late '70s, both the Black culture, the business culture, and the pressure of these young talents that are taken out of their families and thrust into a big arena. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playīut beyond being an avid Lakers fan, Field was attracted to the story Winning Time is telling. ![]() Reilly), who purchased the Lakers in 1979 for $67.5 million dollars and would revamp the team into a global phenomenon. “I saw the pilot that Adam McKay did and it was really, really good.” Field plays Jessie Buss, the eccentric mother of Dr. So when Field was approached to join the cast of the new HBO series Winning Time, which chronicles the meteoric rise of the Lakers during the 1980s, she was ready to sign on without even reading a script. ![]() This was a huge part of my parenting existence.” By then, my youngest son was going as well. We were there when Kobe Bryant first came on board and walked on. We watched young Magic play the game, and Kareem. “I was a single mother and needed a way to communicate with my boys. Lakers games, and it soon became a family tradition. Looking for some quality bonding time with her two small sons, she started taking them to L.A. In 1979, Sally Field was coming off her first Oscar win for playing a factory-worker-turned-union-organizer in Norma Rae.
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