Todd Field

Todd Field (birthname: William Todd Field) is a fascinating case of a serious actor who became a full-time filmmaker, and not just any filmmaker, but a writer-director of exceptional quality. Even though he has made only three features in 21 years, each has received either great acclaim or major, international platforms with world-class actors, adapting major fiction writers like Andre Dubus and Tom Perotta. Field’s third feature, TÁR (2022), starring Cate Blanchett, was in competition for the Golden Lion in its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Todd Field began his cinema career as an actor, landing a role as a singer in Woody Allen’s Radio Days (1987), then in supporting roles in movies directed by Carl Franklin (1988’s Eye of the Eagle 2: Inside the Enemy, and 1990’s Full Fathom Five), Dyan Cannon (1988’s The End of Innocence) Roland Joffé (1989’s Fat Man and Little Boy, with Paul Newman), Thom Eberhardt (1989’s Gross Anatomy, with Matthew Modine), Steve Rash (1991’s Queens Logic, with Kevin Bacon), Victor Nuñez (1993’s Ruby in Paradise, for which Field received a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the Independent Spirit Awards), Rory Kelly (1994’s Sleep with Me), Jan de Bont (1996’s Twister, 1999’s The Haunting, with Liam Neeson), and Nicole Holofcener (1996’s Walking and Talking).

Field’s final notable performance—he did appear in supporting or starring roles in three minor indie films through 2001— is remembered as the mysterious pianist Nick Nightingale warning Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick’s final feature, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), starring Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

Quietly during this period, Todd Field developed his skills as a writer-director as an AFI Fellow, making six short films, including two: When I Was a Boy (1993), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (in front of the premiere screenings of Ruby in Paradise, in which Field co-starred) and also screened at New Directors/New Films; and his AFI thesis project, Nonnie & Alex (1995), which won a Sundance special jury award.

Six years later, Todd Field wrote, produced, and directed his remarkable debut feature, In the Bedroom (2001), with Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Nick Stahl, and Marisa Tomei. Acclaimed as not only one of the year’s best films but one of the greatest American filmmaking debuts in recent years, Field’s project was his adaptation (with co-writer Robert Festinger) of Andre Dubus’ 1979 short story, Killings, premiering at Sundance and earning an extremely profitable box-office gross of nearly $45 million based on a $1.7 million budget. The movie earned three Golden Globe nominations, and five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay, nods for Field.

Five years passed until Todd Field’s second feature as writer-producer-director, his brilliant adaptation (of Tom Perotta’s 2004 novel, with Perotta as co-writer) Little Children (2006), starring Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, and Noah Emmerich. After premiering at the New York Film Festival, the film received three Oscar nominations (including a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Field) marking an extraordinary third Oscar nomination for a filmmaker with only two features.

Field’s major filmmaking mentor was Stanley Kubrick (he often frequented Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut set when he wasn’t working in front of the camera), and like Kubrick, Field had many unmade projects between finished films. These included an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, Blood Meridian; a thriller co-written with Joan Didion; and a movie about the Mexican Revolution slated to star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Unexpectedly, after 14 years of no movies, Field completed TÁR (2022), starring Blanchett, Nina Hoss, and Mark Strong, about a classical composer and conductor, and distributed in the U.S. by Focus Features. Field’s productivity has accelerated: His next project is directing the highly anticipated streaming adaptation of Erik Larson’s now-classic history, The Devil in the White City (date to be announced), starring Keanu Reeves and co-produced by DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese.