Sally Field: Jack Nicholson Revived My Career

has credited  with reviving her career after Hollywood refused to take her seriously after she starred in The Flying Nun.

The acclaimed actress, 79, has two , two Golden Globes and three Emmys under her belt and starred in the likes of Steel Magnolias, Mrs Doubtfire, Forrest Gump and Lincoln.

However, she has revealed that her incredibly six decade-long career might never have come to pass if not for the help of fellow acting icon, Jack, 89.

After getting her start on television short-lived sitcom Gidget, Sally was cast as the titular character in ABC's The Flying Nun, starring in three seasons from 1967 to 1970.

While the role made her famous, she has been candid about her hatred of the show, blasting it as 'nonsense' and saying she felt 'lost, afraid and humiliated' throughout the experience.

But after the series ended in 1970, Sally said she found herself 'persona non grata' in Hollywood, telling PEOPLE that she 'couldn't get in a room to audition' because execs 'thought they already knew what I was'.

But she recalled how it lit a fire in her to change the 'rotten and 'unfair' situation, with her mantra being: 'I had to say to myself that if I wasn't where I wanted to be, I had to get better. 

'It had to be that it was on me to make it different. I felt if I wasn't doing that, then I was just handing them all the power.'

Her next step to be taken more seriously was by studying at the famed Actors Studio in Los Angeles under founder and coach Lee Strasberg, alongside other notable performers like A Few Good Men star Jack.

Sally recalled working hard to perfect her skills and techniques out of her strongly-held belief that her situation 'will change when I'm good enough'.

And it was none other than Jack who was the first to notice her undeniable gifts, with the Shining star hailing her as an 'undiscovered talent' to casting director Dianne Crittenden and director Bob Rafelson.

Through his recommendation, Sally scored her first audition since Gidget, going on to land the part in 1976 film Stay Hungry, opposite Jeff Bridges and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Reflecting on the start of her now legendary film star career, the double Oscar winner declared the comedy-drama 'was the beginning of the change' and credited it all to Jack.

'So in some weird way, my theory was right,' she concluded. 'I worked at the Actors Studio for so long - and it was so hard - that Jack had seen it and the word spread.'

The same year, she earned her first Emmy for TV film Sybil, quickly followed by starring turns in Smokey and the Bandit, Steel Magnolias, Mrs. Doubtfire, Forrest Gump and two Best Actress Oscar wins for her performances in Norma Rae and Places in the Heart.

Sally has long been open about her hatred of The Flying Nun, even admitting to Oprah Winfrey that she 'didn't want to do it' from the moment she heard the premise, because she was still trying to find her own identity.

In the 2012 interview, the Lincoln star revealed she'd been strong-armed into taking the part of Sister Bertrille by her stepfather, stuntman Jock Mahoney - who she later revealed had sexually abused her throughout her childhood until the age of 14.

'I was trying to figure out who I was, but I knew who I wasn't: a flying nun,' she recalled. 'I was almost 19, and my sexuality needed to be explored. My real father was Catholic, and I had issues with all religions. 

'So I said no, which I thought was incredibly brave. But my stepfather said, "Don't get on your high horse. If you don't take this part, you may never work again." 

'The assumption was that I wasn't good enough. At the time, I wasn't old enough, strong enough, or sophisticated enough to tell him that he was wrong.'

Sally confessed that 'fear made the decision for me' and said her time on The Flying Nun was long and unhappy, with the show becoming 'a huge joke' that left her feeling 'denigrated as a person.'

'Bob Hope and all the other comics poked fun at it. I couldn't tell the difference between jokes about Sister Bertrille, my character, and jokes about me. It was deeply humiliating,' she said.

Things only got worse when she became pregnant with her first child, Peter, and she became a 'walking sight gag', quipping: 'You can only imagine what a pregnant flying nun looked like.'

But despite suffering from depression and self-confidence issues while working on the series, Sally has insisted that the experience made her stronger as a person and helped her in her journey to becoming 'a real actor'.

'Something in me started to take care of myself in a way that I hadn't been able to before. I started to change and heal. I grew up and moved out of the fog,' she said in 2008. 

'And ultimately, the experience of being on the series gave me tremendous strength. It made me want to be a real actor, no matter what. When you hold your feet to the fire long enough, you realize just how much you don't like that fire. It hurts like holy hell.'