Sally Field reveals why she turned down the Diane Keaton role in “First Wives Club”: 'I would never have been as good'
Sally Field reveals why she turned down the Diane Keaton role in “First Wives Club”: 'I would never have been as good'
Derek LawrenceMon, April 27, 2026 at 4:40 PM UTC
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Sally Field in 2023; Diane Keaton in 'The First Wives Club'Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty; GettyKey Points -
Sally Field reveals she passed on The First Wives Club.
The Oscar-winner said that she would "never have been as good" as Diane Keaton.
Field also added that a secondary factor played a role in her decision.
Sally Field thinks it's for the best that she didn't join The First Wives Club.
Despite "loving" Better Midler and Goldie Hawn, the two-time Oscar winner turned down the chance to star alongside them in the 1996 comedy, which was adapted from author Olivia Goldsmith's 1992 novel.
“I have always had a problem with older women either wanting to get a date or looking to have more sex with their husband,” Field told Parade. “I just feel like there’s more for women to say, so that was just never my cup of tea.”
First Wives Club follows three divorcées who reunite at the funeral of their friend and decide to seek revenge against their ex-husbands, who have now moved on to younger women. If she'd signed on, Field would have played Annie MacDuggan-Paradis, an anxious housewife who initially tries to salvage her marriage, only to then learn that her husband Aaron (Stephen Collins) is sleeping with their therapist.
Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bette Midler in 'The First Wives Club'Credit: Andy Schwartz
Once Field passed, the role went to Diane Keaton, who Field believes was the better choice.
“I would never have been as good," she said of the late rom-com legend. "It was absolutely right for Keaton—not for me.”
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"The brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary Diane Keaton has died," Midler wrote after her costar passed away in October. "I cannot tell you how unbearably sad this makes me. She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was...oh, la, lala!"
The biggest reason why Field feels like she wasn't the right fight for First Wives Club is that the film concludes with Keaton, Midler, and Hawn memorably singing Lesley Gore's "You Don't Own Me."
"I couldn’t have done that role,” Field said, “because I don’t sing."
You heard her, she doesn't like it!
on Entertainment Weekly
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