Sally Field Remembers Paul Newman’s Shyness, Bad Jokes and Brilliance
Hollywood royalty Sally Field reflects on fellow legend Paul Newman for Criterion, saying simply: “Paul was spectacular.” But the memory she shares is less about the movie-star myth and more about the man underneath it — shy, funny, occasionally grumpy and seemingly almost allergic to thinking of himself as Paul Newman.
Speaking with critic and host Isaac Butler in a new Hud special-feature excerpt, Field reaches back to working with Newman on Absence of Malice. She remembers him as someone who carried enormous screen magnetism without behaving as though he knew it. “He had a shyness about him,” she says, recalling a shoot at the Miami Herald when Newman noticed a crowd gathering and genuinely wondered what everyone was looking at.
Field’s punchline was perfect: “Paul Newman is here. Haven’t you heard?” According to her, it simply did not occur to him that he was the reason people had stopped to stare. That distance between Newman the person and Newman the icon becomes the most revealing part of the conversation.
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Sally Field on Paul Newman and Hud
Criterion’s new special-feature excerpt gets into Newman’s quiet magnetism, Patricia Neal’s earthy power and the performances that made Hud endure.
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Newman, Field says, also had a habit of acting as though the good roles had dried up completely. He would grumble that nobody was offering him anything, leaving Field — standing there listening to one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history — understandably baffled. Her conclusion is generous: maybe every actor thinks the best part is somehow going to somebody else.
Then there were the jokes. Field remembers Newman stopping everything to tell elaborate, terrible jokes — “four of the worst jokes you ever heard” — while somehow remaining genuinely funny whenever he was not trying so hard to be. It is the kind of detail that instantly punctures the marble-statue version of a screen legend.
When Butler turns the conversation back toward Hud, Field gets to the heart of what made Newman so difficult to look away from. He was not decorating the performance or fussing over every moment. “He just was it,” she says, pointing to Cool Hand Luke and The Verdict as examples of the same grounded control.
That stillness matters in Hud. Butler singles out how often Newman can sit back, listen and size up the person opposite him without pushing the scene. Field agrees: he is “not fooling with himself,” and that lack of strain is exactly why the camera keeps finding him.
The conversation also turns to Brandon deWilde, who plays Lonnie opposite Newman. Field calls him fascinating to watch because of the fragility and eagerness he brings to the role, while Butler notes how convincingly he holds his own beside Newman. Field even points back to deWilde’s childhood performance in Shane, marveling at the arc from child actor to the young man sharing the frame with Newman in Hud.
And then comes Patricia Neal, whose Alma gives Hud so much of its earthy heat. Field remembers Martin Ritt directing her through a scene on another film by giving her one simple note: think Patricia Neal in Hud. For Field, that was enough. Neal was not reaching for allure or fussing over how she looked; the sexuality came from how completely she inhabited herself.
Field describes Neal’s presence as profoundly earthy and radiant, which is exactly why Newman’s Hud cannot stop circling her even as Alma refuses to be impressed by him. Their scenes work because she can meet his magnetism without surrendering to it.
Images: Criterion Collection YouTube.
Sally Field on Paul Newman, Patricia Neal and Hud for Criterion
Watch Sally Field’s Criterion Collection interview excerpt on Paul Newman, Patricia Neal and the performances in Hud.
Source: The Criterion Collection / Hud special feature. Images: Criterion Collection YouTube.
