Sally Field Proves She's in a Category of Her Own With Emmys Speech

This is Field's fourth Emmy win. The actress won in the same category in 1977 for her performance in Sybil, as well as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2001 for ER and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Brothers & Sisters.

During her acceptance speech, Field also had a hilarious recovery after stumbling over the name of author Shelby Van Pelt, whose book Remarkably Bright Creatures served as the inspiration behind the movie.

"I love this project from page one of this lovely novel by Shelby Van Pelt, whatever her name is," she quipped. "She knows what it is. This story of an old woman, a young man and an octopus doesn't come around a lot."

And for Field, she "read about three chapters" of the book before immediately jumping on board the project, which also stars Lewis Pullman.

"Because I'm old, it's very hard to find a role that's interesting for an older woman," she told People in May. "I never take to the kinds of stories about women and older women that are trying to find a man."

Especially since the two-time Oscar winner didn't like those types of stories when she was younger as well.

"It doesn't appeal to me,' she explained, "because I think women are about so much more."

In fact, Field found Remarkably Bright Creatures to be quite "life-affirming."

"It's an homage to life, to creatures, and the connection that human beings have to creatures," she told People back in February. "Even when we were shooting, we were constantly noodling and fixing and letting it breathe and have its own existence outside of the book. It was a long journey."

To see Field and more stars on the Emmys 2026 red carpet, read on.