SISSY SPACEK The power of saying yes

At 75, Sissy Spacek is working on some of her favourite projects to date – on screen and at home. She sits down with The Weekly for an intimate chat.

- TIFFANY DUNK

Sissy Spacek is finding it tough to say no right now. And that’s lucky for us, as it means she’s agreed to a chat over Zoom from her family home, where she reveals this stage is part of the regular swings and roundabouts of the approach she takes to life.

“Sometimes I’m in a ‘no’ phase,” the Oscar-winning actress explains. “I just say no to everything. But just recently I’m going through a ‘yes’ phase and I’ve been very excited.

“Mainly I’ve been saying yes to my grandchildren. I have two – a four-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother. They’re just so entertaining and precious, so I’m enjoying them and spending a lot of time with them. And then I’ve been working a lot.”

First work cab off the rank in her latest “yes” phase was a role in Disney+ drama Dying For Sex. Starring Michelle Williams (“We kind of have a girl crush, we still do,” Sissy says), the darkly humourous series is inspired by the real-life story of Molly Kochan. After being diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, Molly left her husband in order to explore her sexual desires, starting a podcast and finding herself in the process.

“I only read two scripts and I loved them,” Sissy says of her immediate “yes” reaction to playing Molly’s mother, Gail. “It moved me. I’ve been through loss in my life, as many people have or will. I just found it so authentic and funny and real. And the main reason I wanted to do it was because of Michelle Williams. I’ve been a huge fan of hers since she was just a teenager. And she was even more amazing than I thought she would be. Watching her work was just wonderful.

“Acting is a real process. It’s a practice. I wasn’t surprised at how easy she made it look, Michelle. She really brings things up from her solar plexus and from her heart and from her gut. She’s just spectacular.”