Sally Field: ‘Acting was my escape from dark times’

Sally Field used acting as an outlet to protect her from self-destructive paths in her life.
The Forrest Gump star struggled with mental health, binge eating issues, and the lasting affects from the childhood trauma she experienced when she was allegedly molested by her late stepfather, actor and stuntman Jock Mahoney.
Sally opens up about her life experiences in her candid new memoir, In Pieces, and in an interview with U.S. talk show The View on Tuesday (18Sep18) she explained that after discovering she had a passion for acting, she was able to channel some of her trauma into her craft.
“I had a drama department and a really good one in the seventh grade, and it was the first time that I had this experience of being out of my body, where a bell rang and everything went clear and I could hear myself and I wasn’t lost in a fog…,” she said.
“I spent the rest of my life chasing that feeling… And anytime there was a part of me that was going down roads of destruction… I never did because it would have gotten in the way of what I deeply loved, and that was both my acting and my children.”
And Sally lashed out at politicians who are trying to strip schools of drama programmes, insisting they are not considering children, who are having trouble at home or issues with their own mental health: “You disallow them the place to explore who they are…,” she said. “It’s tragic.”