Besides, who was she supposed to play? Too young to play Mrs Vorhees and too old to play Alice (though Field looked a lot younger than she did in the 80s. I remember thinking she was too young to play Drink the Juice Shelby in Steel Magnolias).
Overall, not doing Friday might have prevented her career from crashing down, though how cool would it have been to see her be chased down by a invisible killer.
Now that I think about, was Sally Field ever in a Horror movie?
The producers wanted her to play Alice.
She was in Home for the Holidays 1972, made for tv Christmas whodunnit/slasher
Friday the 13th gets an Oscar!
I would have liked to see Jodie Foster in more movies
Friday the 13th was 1980, at that point, Sally Fields was best known for playing the Flying Nun on TV, Sybil in the made for TV movie, and Norma Rae in which she won an Oscar. No chance she would have ever done this movie.
Sybil can be considered true horror in a way.
Yes absolutely and even more horrific is that the entire story based on the book, was exposed as all based on lies of the patient and exploitation by the psychologist and opportunism by the author of the book:
https://www.npr.org/2011/10/20/141514464/real-sybil-admits-multiple-personalities-were-fake
that would have been interesting
IIRC, Sean S. Cunningham offered the role to Estelle Parsons, but she wanted too much money. I think Crystal Lake Memories mentions this (the book version, at least).
They talk about it in the doc too. They were just lucky that Betsy Palmer's car broke down and she needed the money for a new one.
Not trying to be a ass but was she even well known then
She was a known actress from NYC theater and the golden age of Hollywood (she’s in Mr. Roberts with Jack Lemmon, I think). Not as well-known as Estelle Parsons (who was once nominated for an Oscar).
Estelle Parsons might have been even scarier if you're familiar with her work.
“Almost got cast” is pretty misleading. The producers would have liked her for the part, but there is no way in hell she would have done it. They couldn’t have offered her much more than a sandwich and fifty bucks, and she was a huge star. I’m sure they didn’t even approach her agent.
I'd guess she would have played Alice if cast. I got the impression Alice was supposed to be older.