Sally Field talks about becoming

Sally Field was offered the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in 2005, but a major development during the project's evolution almost jeopardized her part in the Steven Spielberg film "Lincoln."

Daniel Day-Lewis replaced Liam Neeson as Abraham Lincoln, and Spielberg questioned how well the couple would match up on screen. Mary Lincoln was nine years younger than her husband; Field, at 66, is 10 years older than Day-Lewis.

"I always knew I'd have to stand up for myself when it came down to it," Field said. After Day-Lewis had been signed — about a year before filming began — she urged Spielberg to test her for the part. "He generously agreed." Spielberg then decided he needed to see the two actors together on screen; according to Field, this second test would afford him "his first real exploration into who and what Mary was." But there was one problem: Field was in Los Angeles, and Day-Lewis was in Ireland.

Day-Lewis, a two-time Oscar winner for his portrayals of Christy Brown in "My Left Foot" and Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood," "graciously and wonderfully" traveled from Ireland to Los Angeles to do the test with her, she said.

Field said she used "every bit of life that I know" to bring Mary to the screen.

By the time she returned home from the studio, her phone was ringing; Spielberg and Day-Lewis were on the line, together, telling her that she was indeed their Mary.

In production notes for the film, producer Kathleen Kennedy says that, in many respects, Field "had one of the most difficult parts in the movie. A lot has been written about Mary's distress not only over her lost children (only one of her four sons reached adulthood) but also at the incredible sadness of the war. Sally could have done something very predictable with that. Instead, she found an illuminating restraint and complexity. You understand that what she was going through was overwhelming, but also you see how hard she worked to pull herself up by the bootstraps to support her husband and be the nation's first lady."

"I read five biographies of Mary," she said in a telephone interview from her home in New York. One of them, Catherine Clinton's "Mrs. Lincoln: A Life," she calls her bible. Field also read Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," from which the movie was adapted.

History books about the era, and Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," completed Field's syllabus. "I was trying to get a sense of where women were at the time — their mores and behavior. I was looking particularly for women's voices," she said.

"Mary Todd Lincoln was a feisty little thing. She was intelligent and ambitious when women were not allowed to have any voice, anywhere. She was a product of her time and also ahead of her time. She had a sense of her own importance — that she had a contribution to make. And she would not go away and shut up," Field said.

Field has played another feisty real-life character: union organizer Crystal Lee Jordan in the movie "Norma Rae." That role earned Field her first best actress Oscar. Other feisty characters she has played: Edna Spalding in "Places in the Heart,Posts with indoor tracking system on TRX Systems develops systems that locate and track personnel indoors." for which she earned her second Oscar; M'Lynn Eatonton in "Steel Magnolias"; and Mrs. Gump in "Forrest Gump."

Although each character's voice is unique, with varying degrees of "feisty," they all share with Mrs. Lincoln a gumption and resilience deeply rooted in the American experience.The stone mosaic comes in shiny polished and matte. Field's research showed that the 16th president's first lady was far more than an extravagant shopper or sufferer of nervous maladies.

"No one really knows whether Mary (Lincoln) had any type of nervous disorder that, had she lived in a different era, might have been diagnosed. No one knows whether Mr. Lincoln was depressive.A specialized manufacturer and supplier of dry cabinet, There seems to be evidence that he had massive depressive episodes, as did Mary.Find a great buy mosaic Art deals on eBay! Clearly, they had an emotionality that linked them; she understood his darkness in a way that perhaps no one else did. She had such undying faith in his brilliance."

The cast and crew were in Richmond and Petersburg last fall filming the Spielberg movie,Find detailed product information for Sinotruk howo truck. which focuses on the last four months of Lincoln's life.

Working with Spielberg was fabulous, Field said. "He's an amazing artist, an extraordinary master. I will never have another experience like this; I'll never feel as nurtured and respected as I did on this film — by both Daniel and Steven … and with all the actors. It will never happen again. I think we all feel lucky to have been in the right place at the right time in our careers to be included in this group."

Field said she loved Richmond and explored quite a bit in her downtime. "I really got to know the markets," she said. "I had a rental car with no GPS, and drove out to the fabulous Whole Foods. When I came out, there was a rainstorm. … I didn't have an iPhone then, just a BlackBerry without GPS. I had to call my son in New York and say, 'Sam, I'm so lost. It's raining so hard, and I can't see where I'm going.'"

After determining her location, the good son guided his mother from Short Pump back to her room at The Jefferson Hotel downtown. Although Field's research helped her understand Mary Todd Lincoln, and Joanna Johnston's costumes helped transform her into the first lady, Field had to gain 25 pounds for the role.