Sally Field spent part of her Emmy acceptance speech thanking a country that is not her own. The two-time Oscar winner picked up the award at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, September 14, 2026, then turned her attention north.
“Blessed Canada! Our neighbors, our friends,” Field said as she accepted her trophy at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards. A room packed with stars roared back at her.
President Donald Trump has been pressing a campaign against Canada that includes a trade war and an executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America” — he signed the document standing beside a map that already carried the new label. Field, 79, delivered her line against that backdrop.
Oldest Winner in Her Category
The Emmy honored her performance as Tova Sullivan in the Netflix film “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” in the category for the top female lead in a movie or a limited or anthology series. The film was released on Netflix in May 2026. Field looked stunned on her way to the stage and squealed before she got a word out. “This is not supposed to happen,” she said. “I love this project from page one.” She warned the crowd she had very little time — “I gotta talk really, really quick” — and observed that “the story of an old woman, a young man and an octopus doesn’t come around a lot.” Her thanks went to director Olivia Newman, cinematographer Ashley Connor, the artists who animated Marcellus the giant Pacific octopus, and co-star Lewis Pullman, who “stood next to me the whole time.” Connor, she said, had turned the film’s Pacific Northwest setting into “another character” in the drama — though the movie was actually shot in Canada.
At 79 years and 10 months, Field is now the oldest winner the category has produced. She passed Jessica Tandy, who was 79 years and two months old when she won for “Foxfire” in 1988. The other nominees were Carey Mulligan for “Beef,” Sarah Snook for “All Her Fault,” Claire Danes for “The Beast in Me” and Sarah Pidgeon for “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.”
It was Field’s 10th Emmy nomination and her fourth win, after “Sybil” in 1977, “ER” in 2001 and “Brothers & Sisters” in 2007. Her Academy Awards for best actress came for “Norma Rae” in 1979 and “Places in the Heart” in 1984, and she picked up another Oscar nomination as Mary Todd Lincoln in “Lincoln” in 2012.
Field was back at the microphone later in the ceremony to honor her “Steel Magnolias” co-star Dolly Parton. “I adored her from Day One,” she said, adding, “I am not the only one on earth who will love you forever.”
A Warning Over the Paramount Merger
Canada was not the only subject on her mind. “I have been so grateful and so proud to be a part of this community, the arts, for 62 years or something,” she said, then turned to the proposed $111 billion combination of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.
“We’re the arts, we matter,” she said. “Our voices matter. Our diversity, our unique storytelling matters. We can’t let those voices be silenced or compromised or merged.”
Much of the industry seated in that room is unsettled by the deal. Paramount CEO David Ellison, whose father is Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, merged his Skydance with Paramount Global in 2025. Netflix had an agreement of its own to buy Warner Bros., but Ellison outbid it in March with a higher offer for all of Warner Bros. Discovery. Regulators still have to green-light any tie-up of the two legacy studios, and the attempt has drawn antitrust objections along with protest from a creative community that says a merger on that scale would destroy an enormous number of jobs.
Backstage, She Returned to Canada
Field came back to the subject with reporters after the show. “Remarkably Bright Creatures” was shot in Deep Cove, in British Columbia, and she said the shoot there had left her feeling welcomed. “This film was about things that matter to me greatly about friendship, family, and home,” she told reporters.
She had praise for Vancouver as well, and a closing thought about the two countries. “So all of that will add up to something,” she said. “These are the things that really matter to me and probably to all of us. Friendship, family, and home. Fight for it. Stand up for it. Don’t give it away. Resist.”
Mariska Hargitay hosted the ceremony, which aired on NBC and streamed live on Peacock, pulling 6.7 million viewers — down nearly 10 percent from last year. Matthew Rhys made Emmy history the same night, the first performer ever to win two lead acting Emmys in one evening, for “Widow’s Bay” and “The Beast in Me,” and the first man to claim all three top acting prizes.
Other winners on the September 14 telecast included Rhea Seehorn, for “Pluribus,” and Allison Janney, who took outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for “The Diplomat.” Jean Smart collected her fifth straight “Hacks” Emmy, her eighth overall, tying the all-time record for a performer. “What a ride this has been,” she said.
Field’s shout-out was not the only nod north that evening. Michael J. Fox, the “Back to the Future” star who hails from Burnaby, British Columbia, accepted the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his advocacy on Parkinson’s disease. He was diagnosed with the illness in 1991.
