The star of Carrie, Badlands and Coal Miner’s Daughter talks about losing her brother, working with Hollywood’s greats and infuriating Harvey Weinstein
‘Hey there! How are you!” hollers Sissy Spacek, as if she has just come across an old friend in the shopping mall. We’ve never met; I’m half an hour late for our video meeting and in a cold sweat. She is totally chilled and chuckles kindly at my incompetence.
Spacek has been one of my favourite actors for half a century. From the off, she starred in a series of fabulous films made by great directors: as 15-year-old Holly, who goes on a killing spree with her boyfriend in Terrence Malick’s brilliant debut Badlands; as the manipulative identity thief Pinky Rose in Robert Altman’s 3 Women; as blood-soaked Carrie in Brian De Palma’s classic adaptation of the Stephen King novel; as the country singer Loretta Lynn in Michael Apted’s Coal Miner’s Daughter.
