The one person Dolly Parton wanted to play her in a biopic
Anyone who takes on the challenge of portraying Dolly Parton in a biopic will need to understand a few things first.
The first is that they’ll need to know what it’s like to come from a working-class background, and not just in the materialistic sense, but also in terms of values and mindset, as Parton grew up in an impoverished family, and they all had to make ends meet with very little, which shaped her in more ways than one, eventually becoming a facet she threaded through most of her material.
The second is that Parton is made up of countless flourishes and contrasts, which is part of the reason many people didn’t understand her as an artist at first. With an appearance that gave every indication of someone who was happy-go-lucky and well put together and a heart and intellect that said the complete opposite, Parton is anything but the basic, one-dimensional figure that many people make her out to be.
Another thing that someone wanting to depict the country icon on screen will have to consider is the experiences that Parton navigated while finding her voice in a music scene predominantly built for men. In country music, especially, there was little room for female voices seeking to platform their thoughts and memories growing up, and many saw Parton as nothing more than a sweet voice without much to say.
Which is also why any actor who one day gets the pleasure of stepping into her shoes will also need to understand why Parton’s music means so much to her, and why she’s rarely ever in a position to give it away to someone else. Many of her favourite songs, from ‘I Will Always Love You’ to ‘Coat of Many Colors’, form a patchwork of who Parton is as a person and the things that mean the most to her, like family, resilience, and remaining hopeful during hard times.
When you take all of those nuances into account, the list of actors who might fit the bill is incredibly short, and the only name most people are likely to consider is Meryl Streep, but her gift for portraying complex and legendary musicians seems to have already been reserved for another icon, Joni Mitchell, still, perhaps the question is best left to Parton to answer, who once gave her thoughts and perspective on the entire idea.
When presented with the question during a Roger Ebert interview, the singer suggested Sissy Spacek, but only if she “made enough money off of playin’ Loretta Lynn” and “could get herself a boob job”. When pressed on what the biopic would be called, she suggested a musical called Wild Flowers, complete with all the themes that defined her life: “Sex, violence, religion, attitudes, a lot of really fun things”.
Although her comments were made in jest, Wild Flowers actually seems pretty fitting as a title when you look at the broader trajectory of Parton’s life. After all, Flower tells you everything you need to know about someone who grew up with strength and resilience in a delicate setting, while Wild speaks to someone who was an outsider in the broader scene but who carved out her own niche anyway.
While it’s unlikely that this project will ever actually happen, it’s nice to imagine that, one day, someone will actually bring Parton’s story to life on screen, taking all the different flourishes of working-class heroism and industry bias and mixing them in with all of her bigger, more career-defining achievements and milestones.
