Sissy Spacek Remembers That Time She Met Andy Warhol

Sissy Spacek was 27 when Andy Warhol and Bob Colacello met her at the Sherry Netherland in the spring of 1977. Badlands had already put her on the map, but it was Carrie and 3 Women that established her as part of Hollywood’s new vanguard and landed her on the cover of this very magazine. Back then, Andy wanted to know how a small-town Texas girl became one of America’s most beguiling movie stars. Nearly 50 years later, we did too.

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“I remember waking up in the morning and thinking, I’m the luckiest little girl in the world to be born in the state of Texas, in this little town, in this house with this family. Nobody had fences. We rode our ponies everywhere, we played in the dirt, we caught frogs. It was the center of the universe.”

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“Neat. That was my big word. Then it became ‘far out’ and ‘groovy.’”

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“They were very excited for me, I think because they had to go through the pain of watching me and listening to me perform and play guitar and be on talent shows. It made them feel like a part of my career. It was wonderful, because I knew the whole town was cheering for me.”

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“I was always kind of different. I was always the one willing to sing or tap dance or do the Charleston or twirl or make a fool of myself.”

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“It was wonderful. You could go barefoot to the grocery store. I remember buying thrift store dresses, and we rode horses all the time, and I hiked all the trails. That’s a beautiful canyon, and it’s just as cool and wonderful today as it was back then.”

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“Theresa Russell ended up doing that movie [Bad Timing] and she was wonderful. The start date for that was on the same day, if I’m not mistaken, as Coal Miner’s Daughter. In the end, I realized that I understood Coal Miner’s Daughter and the character of Loretta [Lynn], a lot better with my background. But Nic Roeg and Theresa got married and they went on to make quite a few films together. It was meant to be.”

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“Everybody that was anybody was behind me. You name it, they were there. It was actually very terrifying. I remember calling my mother and saying, ‘Oh my god, what am I going to do? I’ve been nominated for an Academy Award.’ She said, ‘Relax. Just be yourself and have fun. You don’t have to do anything.”

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“I thought he must be the low man on the totem pole because he did all the work. He was always carrying sets and his assistant was telling people what they were going to do. It was wonderful to meet somebody that understands the business. We’ve worked a lot together, and he’s a brilliant set designer.”

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“What can I say? I changed my mind.”

“Oh my god. That shortened my life. They change your costumes as you’re running backstage from set to set. I remember looking down, in my underwear, with this cheering crowd up there. But the hardest part was after the nervousness when everybody’s like, ‘Come back and see us!’ So you go back the next week and there’s another host, and they’re like, ‘What are you doing here?”

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“My husband teases me. He says, ‘Well, you always wanted to be able to play your own age.’ But now I’m playing older than my age.”

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“I had a terrible time getting an audition for Carrie because Brian thought of me as a really bad set designer. I just would run from prop house to prop house, getting whatever Jack needed. Brian met me that way and that’s how he thought of me. He was like, ‘Actress? I don’t think so.’ So that was really hard. In fact, I got a commercial on the same day as the screen tests they were doing, and I called him. I said, ‘Brian, I got a commercial. What should I do?’ thinking he would say, ‘Please come to the audition.’ He said, ‘Do the commercial.’ I was so mad that I worked really hard and got the part. I was very, very fortunate.”

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“It was just time. But you know what? You never really leave New York.”

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“That’s what it was like. Nobody was looking over our shoulder and we were just going from one project to another. It was a beautiful, beautiful time.”

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Hair: Peter Butler using Blu & Green at Tracey Mattingly.

Makeup: Mariko Arai using Jones Road Beauty at Tracey Mattingly.

Nails: Lolly Koon using Deborah Lippmann Products at Home Agency.

Set Design: Happy Massee at LaLaLand Artists.

Tailor: Macy Idzakovich at The Zaks Team.

Photography Assistants: Milton Arellano and Chris Dinerman.

Fashion Assistant: Brittney Aceves.

Set Design Assistant: Jay Robertson.

Studio Management: Liz Andrien at Pamela Hanson Studio.

Location: Daylight Studio.