The movie director who couldn’t stand working with Dolly Parton: “He told me I couldn’t act”
It’s as good as scientifically proven that it’s impossible to hate Dolly Parton, who doesn’t have a bad bone in her body. And yet, one movie director found dealing with the living legend to be a tall order.
Imagine having an axe to grind with Dolly Parton, of all people. It’s every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, and in typical fashion, the country icon and occasional actor refused to let it get to her. Instead, she turned it around on the filmmaker by making an excellent and completely accurate point.
Unlike many other singers-turned-actors, she was under no illusions. Parton knew that she’d never be in with a shout of competing for Academy Awards, and she didn’t choose her onscreen roles with accolades and acclaim in mind, which was the exact reason why Herbert Ross became so frustrated with her.
Outside of cameo appearances, playing herself, and voiceover gigs, she’s only starred in seven fictional features, dating back to her debut in 1980’s 9 to 5, so it’s not as if Parton let the idea of becoming a movie star go to her head and strutted around like she was the second coming of Katharine Hepburn.
When you hire such a big personality, never mind one so ingrained in pop culture, there’s only one thing you’re going to get on the set. Despite that, Steel Magnolias director Ross quickly discovered that trying to convert Parton into a thespian on the spot was a fool’s errand, and she was fully aware of that, too.
The star acknowledged that the filmmaker “was kind of tough on me,” mentioning co-star Julia Roberts as another source of his ire. Fellow Steel Magnolias alum Sally Field revealed that Ross “went after Julia with a vengeance,” forcing the rest of the ensemble cast, which included Shirley MacLaine and Darryl Hannah, to rally around the relative newcomer in one of her first major roles.
As for Parton? “He told me that I couldn’t act,” she remembered. “I said, ‘Well, that’s no news to me. You didn’t hire me because I could act, you know’. They hired me because I’m Dolly Parton and I’m a personality, and if you’re any kind of director, then you’ll make it look like I’m acting.”
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An excellent point, and one of the rare examples of Parton getting as close as she’s ever been to talking shit about one of her former collaborators. She was typically nice about it, though, even if the tales of woe from behind the scenes of Steel Magnolias indicate that the singer was far from the only actor on the production who found Ross to be an absolute nightmare.
The mere concept of holding a grudge or having any issues with Dolly Parton is almost unfathomable, but as the saying goes, if you run into an arsehole in the morning, you’ve run into an arsehole, but if you run into arseholes all day, then you’re the arsehole. Based on the testimony from those involved, Ross was clearly the arsehole in this instance.
