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

Sally Field has revealed that Julia Roberts was “picked on” by the director while filming Steel Magnolias.

The 77-year-old actress has stated that the Steel Magnolias director, Herbert Ross, was “very hard” on the Pretty Woman star on the set of the 1989 film.

“We would all rally around Julia, because she was the baby. She was sort of the newcomer,” Sally told Vulture of Julia, who was 19 when she took on the role of Shelby in the blockbuster, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Sally continued of her former co-star, “And she was wonderful, and he just picked on her. It was awful.”

Sally and Julia starred alongside Hollywood icons Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis and Daryl Hannah in the film.

The Mrs. Doubtfire actress joked that Herbert, who died in 2001, “could be a real son of a b**ch”.

“But we all came to her aid, and I remember Dolly once just turned on him – always with humour, but usually the most vulgar humour you ever heard, so that it was like, you just literally don’t have a leg to stand on,” the Forrest Gump actress recalled.

Sally told the outlet that the director didn’t dare pick on her back then.

“I mean, I don’t mind notes, but I will argue if it doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “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.”

During an event in 2013, Shirley recalled that while they were filming the movie, Julia “would come to my house every night and say, ‘I think I’m terrible. What am I doing?’ and she really was in tears.”

The Terms of Endearment star added at the time, “I remember the day Herb (Herbert) said to Dolly Parton, ‘Why don’t you take some acting lessons?'”