“People don’t think that older women are interesting”: Sally Field and ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’

Poster for Remarkably Bright Creatures

The adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s NYT Best Selling novel Remarkably Bright Creatures (dir. Olivia Newman) recently hit Netflix, starring Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, and Alfred Molina, to rave reviews. It’s a rare kind of story in that a giant pacific octopus called Marcellus (voiced by Molina) narrates the film, as he observes the life around him from his aquarium home that Field’s character Tova is the caretaker of.

Tova is our centre point in the film, navigating the recent loss of her husband, partnered with the decades long grief she holds for the loss of her teenage son, through talking to Marcellus the octopus every night when she goes to clean the aquarium - he is her safe and quiet space. When wayward Cameron (Pullman) comes into the mix, jobless and looking for his absent father, he too finds a safe haven in the monotonous task of cleaning the homes of the various sea creatures in the local aquarium and forms a close friendship with Tova.

This film provides a solid platform for Sally Field to continue to show us her dramatic acting chops as well as her comedic ones, and it’s the first film in several years that has allowed her to do so in a starring role, which is part of what makes this film so special. In the press circuit she has been doing for the film, she has frequently been asked about her career and legacy, to which she has uncomfortably, nervously guffawed and replied that she never looks back on her career and accomplishments, only on the future and the work that might come her way. Might, here, being the operative word as she explains that compelling work for her is hard to find because “people don’t think that older women are interesting.”

Hearing this comment reignited a kind of rage I have long felt for actresses of a certain age who were once the focal point of movies in the ‘70s and ‘80s, even going into the ‘90s: Field being one of them, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Jessica Lange, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep… the list goes on. As soon as these women hit a certain age, Hollywood seems to assume for the most part that they can’t make or be a part of extremely profitable and compelling films anymore, so goodbye to those incredible scripts.

This is not to say that compelling work is nowhere to be found for older actresses. TV in particular is especially good at producing great roles for older women, but my gripe relies on the mainstream, Hollywood films. I’m talking the films that have this build up and anticipation around them, ones that end up being talked about before and after their release. In this way, there is a lack of frequent, high quality work being offered to older actresses.

For example: the last time Jane Fonda was nominated for an Oscar was in 1986 at the age of 49; Sally Field’s was in 2013 at the age of 67 (ok, maybe not so bad); Susan Sarandon’s was in 1996 at the age of 50; Whoopi Goldberg’s at the age of 35 in 1990; and even Meryl Streep’s last nomination was nearly 10 years ago in 2017 when she was 68.

By comparison: Robert de Niro was last nominated in 2023 at the age of 80; Anthony Hopkins was last nominated (and won) in 2020 at the age of 82; Al Pacino in 2019 at 79; Robert Duvall in 2014 at 84 years old; and Stellan Skarsgård just last year at 74 (his first nomination).

By no means is this an in depth study on the age discrepancies in Oscar nominations, nor is this to say that Oscar nominations are the be all and end all, but to highlight that older actresses are clearly not being given the same quality of scripts as their male counterparts into their older age. And Sally Field’s commentary during the recent press run for Remarkably Bright Creatures confirms this.

Seeing iconic actors of the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s on the screen brings with it a certain nostalgia, so I can’t imagine why Hollywood, so endlessly obsessed with nostalgia, would see no benefit in making compelling scripts for our array of versatile and talented older actresses that would have them back on our screens doing what they do best. The industry loves to honour our legends of the screen with special lifetime achievement awards, to celebrate their careers and accomplishments during awards season (and rightly so), but forgets that most of them are still working. Wouldn’t it be greater if we could celebrate these artists by not discriminating against them and not acting as those their careers aren’t still ongoing, through riveting stories and interesting work that they are (shock horror) still able to do and be a part of?

We are so privileged to have these actresses still working and dedicated to a craft they so clearly love. I wish the industry had more to give them.

The most we can do as passionate film watchers is to keep tuning into their work, like Field’s great performance in Remarkably Bright Creatures, and appreciating what it is they give us, and have given us for decades, as artists: characters to relate to, admire, laugh with, to be moved or encouraged by… the list goes on.