The 1982 movie Dolly Parton hated working on: “Not fun”
Dolly Parton was never the kind to complain about whatever project she was working on.
There was hardly anyone else in Hollywood or beyond who had the same kind of optimistic spirit that she did whenever she took on something new, and even if it didn’t work out, she was going to let it roll off her back and move on to whatever the next success story that she could find. So when she did admit that one of her projects was absolutely horrible to work on, there had to be something pretty miserable going on.
Then again, it’s not like Parton was a stranger to more than a few headaches when working on some of her greatest albums. It took everything she had to break free from what Porter Wagoner was making her do on every one of their records, and when she finally became her own artist, she wasn’t taking that for granted. She had to fight for what she wanted, and that normally involved standing up for yourself in a world that didn’t really take kindly to people like her in that position.
She was flying the flag for what a woman could be in country music, but she was also ready to transfer her talents to the screen as well. She had never been camera-shy when working on the Grand Ole Opry, and since many of her songs translated perfectly to little stories like ‘Jolene’, what was the harm in making movies as well? Everything seemed like it would be perfect, but there’s a difference between working in 9 to 5 and trying to make The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas work.
At the same time, Parton wasn’t kicking and screaming from the word go or anything. She knew that the idea had something that could work, and since it was starring Burt Reynolds right when he was the biggest star in the world, it wasn’t like it didn’t have merit. But when she took a look at the kind of schedule that she had to juggle throughout the entire production, it wasn’t like she was itching to get back on set any time soon.
Having since worked in the theatre world and fighting her own health struggles at the time, Parton wasn’t shy about the production cycle feeling like hell, saying, “Well, Whorehouse was not fun. I loved Burt Reynolds and Jim Nabors and all those people, but at that particular time, I was ill, and coming from a Broadway play, we already had everything against us. I was happy with the success of it; it was just a hard one to do.”
That said, the movie did give the world a full theatrical production of the song ‘I Will Always Love You’ years before Whitney Houston had even touched it. And compared to Houston’s larger-than-life version, hearing Parton sing this tune on the big screen does have a lot more charm to it, especially with her more delicate voice giving the tune a little lift whenever she gets to the chorus.
And it’s not like the whole experience soured her experience onscreen. There are plenty of movies that she has made since where she can show off more of her acting chops, and for those who grew up in the 2000s, Parton practically got a new audience when she was written into Hannah Montana as Miley Stewart’s aunt.
The Best Little Whorehouse wasn’t going to change the world overnight by any stretch, but even if Parton didn’t like to remember that time, it was just a matter of her getting back and moving on to whatever was next. The odds were stacked against her more than a few times throughout her career, but she wasn’t going to let a little bit of sickness get in the way of getting the most out of her career.
