‘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.
