Jane Fonda had plenty of Dolly Parton stories ready, the first day of 9 to 5, a tour bus through Appalachia, an unexpected night singing backup at the Grand Ole Opry. The question that stopped her was the simplest one.
Asked what Parton ultimately meant to her, Fonda became visibly emotional before answering, “She meant love.” The conversation was recorded at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival after Parton’s private burial and aired Aug. 31 on Democracy Now!.
Fonda said Parton had an unusual ability to move among very different groups of people without changing herself for whoever happened to be in front of her. She remembered traveling with Parton through rural communities in Tennessee and Arkansas and watching residents respond not simply to her fame but to the respect she showed them.
“She never played down,” Fonda said. Parton’s example eventually changed the way Fonda thought about her own relationship with audiences, notice the fans, respect them and never treat their devotion casually.
Fonda Says Parton Never Changed Herself for the People She Met
One of Fonda’s clearest memories came from the 10 days she spent traveling with Parton while preparing for The Dollmaker. Parton invited her into parts of Appalachia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri as Fonda tried to better understand the rural world of the character she was preparing to play.
Fonda remembered visiting communities where some residents lived without electricity or running water. Parton arrived in what Fonda called her “full regalia,” never toning down the hair, clothing or personality audiences associated with her.
The response stayed with Fonda. She believed people trusted Parton because Parton genuinely respected them, and that trust extended to Fonda while they traveled together. She said Parton taught her that showing respect to fans included allowing them to see the same person everyone else saw.
Fonda offered a smaller example from a photo shoot with Parton and Lily Tomlin. The three crossed their eyes for a joke photograph, but Parton immediately objected to showing it because she had a cross-eyed relative and worried the image could look as though they were mocking people.
The same trip also produced an experience Fonda had not planned. On her first night in Nashville, Parton informed her that she was coming to the Grand Ole Opry and would be singing backup. Fonda did it, recalling that nobody in the audience seemed to recognize her. She placed the memory around 1977 or 1978.
Fonda Had Already Called Parton a ‘Loyal Friend’ After Her Death
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Fonda’s Aug. 25 Instagram tribute had already focused on many of the qualities she later described to Democracy Now. She called Parton a “loyal friend” and remembered someone who could see through appearances, understand what people needed and move easily between deep thought and practical jokes.
In the post, Fonda also emphasized Parton’s empathy and her affection for her fans, including LGBTQ+ audiences. She encouraged people to celebrate Parton’s spirit rather than reduce their memories of her to grief.
The tribute came the day Parton died at 80 in Nashville. She was buried three days later at Woodlawn Memorial Park beside her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, in a private ceremony attended by immediate family.
Fonda Still Remembers Hearing ‘9 to 5’ Before Anyone Else Did
Fonda was also the person who first imagined Parton in what became her movie debut. She told Goodman that while developing a film about women office workers, she heard Parton’s “Two Doors Down” on the radio after already deciding Lily Tomlin belonged in the project. Suddenly, she could picture the trio: Dolly, Lily and Jane.
Parton arrived on her first day of filming having memorized the entire screenplay because she assumed that was what actors were expected to do. Several weeks into production, she called Fonda and Tomlin over during lunch and told them she thought she had written a song for the movie.
Parton began singing “9 to 5” while tapping her acrylic nails as percussion. Fonda remembered looking at Tomlin and realizing immediately that, whatever happened with the movie, the song itself was going to be a hit. She described it as an anthem for the office-workers movement that had helped inspire the film. 9 to 5 became Parton’s feature-film acting debut, and its title song earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 1981 Oscars.