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Daily Inspiration Quote by Sally Field

"I joined the Actors Studio and began to work with Lee Strasberg, and that changed my work"

About this Quote

A quiet sentence that carries the weight of a career pivot. Sally Field isn’t name-dropping the Actors Studio so much as drawing a line between two versions of herself: the popular, efficient TV-trained performer America already liked, and the actor who decided that “likable” wasn’t the point.

The intent is calibrated humility with a sharpened edge. “I joined” and “began to work” are simple verbs, but they signal agency. Field frames reinvention as a choice, not a lucky break. Then she lands on the blunt verdict: “that changed my work.” Not “my life,” not “my process,” but the product. She’s talking about what shows up on screen, where audiences and critics do their judging.

The subtext is about credibility and control. Strasberg and the Actors Studio are cultural shorthand for seriousness: Method technique, emotional memory, craft treated like labor rather than charisma. For an actress who came up in an era that often boxed women into ingénue parts or TV fluff, invoking Strasberg reads like a refusal to be reduced to “natural talent” or “America’s sweetheart.” It’s also a defensive move against the industry myth that some actors are simply born with it. Field suggests the opposite: you can train, you can deepen, you can re-author your own instrument.

Context matters here. Post-1960s Hollywood was busy rebranding authenticity as the highest virtue, and the Method was one of its loudest currencies. Field’s line positions her inside that lineage while keeping it personal: the transformation isn’t abstract doctrine, it’s an upgrade in what she can make the audience feel.

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APA Style (7th ed.)
Field, Sally. (2026, January 15). I joined the Actors Studio and began to work with Lee Strasberg, and that changed my work. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-joined-the-actors-studio-and-began-to-work-with-107022/

Chicago Style
Field, Sally. "I joined the Actors Studio and began to work with Lee Strasberg, and that changed my work." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-joined-the-actors-studio-and-began-to-work-with-107022/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I joined the Actors Studio and began to work with Lee Strasberg, and that changed my work." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-joined-the-actors-studio-and-began-to-work-with-107022/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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Sally Field on Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio
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Sally Field (born November 6, 1946) is a Actress from USA.

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