Sally Field details how Julia Roberts was ‘picked on’ by ‘Steel Magnolias’ director

Sally Field looked out for Julia Roberts on the set of the 1989 film “Steel Magnolias.”

Speaking with Vulture, Field said the cast (herself, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hanna, Dolly Parton, and Olympia Dukakis) would help out Roberts when she’d be “picked on” by director Herb Ross.

Field said the late director let her do “pretty much” whatever she wanted, while he was “very, very, very hard on Julia.”

“We would all rally around Julia, because she was the baby. She was sort of the newcomer. And she was wonderful, and he just picked on her,” she said. “It was awful.”

Field said she believes Ross singled out Roberts because “some people just need to have somebody to pick on.”

Field knows she was personally treated differently by the director “because he dared not.”

“I mean, I don’t mind notes, but I will argue if it doesn’t make sense to me,” she explained. “But if you’re gonna be mean to me, then you’re gonna find a warrior. I may be small, but you don’t want to do that.”