Dolly Parton Found It Impossible to ‘Cheer Up’ a ‘Blubbering’ Burt Reynolds While Filming Together

Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds filmed The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1980. Reynolds had long been angling to work on a project with Parton. When he finally did, though, he was at an especially low point. People on set wanted to rely on Parton to cheer him up, but she said that this was nearly impossible for her at the time.

Dolly Parton said she and Burt Reynolds commiserated together on set

While filming The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Reynolds was going through a breakup with Sally Field. Parton said that because of this he was “not in a particularly good mood.” Morale on set was already low, and Reynolds’ mood did not help things.

“Burt was in pretty bad shape, emotionally and physically,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “Sometimes, he would just walk off the set, unable to deal with things, and I would be called upon to go to his dressing room and try to cheer him up.”

Unfortunately, Parton wasn’t in much of a position to help him. She was also going through a difficult time emotionally.

“That was a little like the blind leading the blind, since I was in an emotional and physical turmoil of my own,” she wrote. “We had come to love each other dearly, but neither of us was able to give the other much real support. Usually, he’d begin blubbering about his woes, and I’d just join in. We’d sit and b**** and moan and sling snot until we each felt so sorry for the other that our own troubles didn’t seem so bad.”

After crying together, they would go back to set and try to get work done before the cycle began again.

She said she did not like the experience of working on the film

Given the pain she was experiencing at the time, it’s not surprising that Parton didn’t enjoy her experience of making The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

“Whorehouse was not fun,” she told Interview Magazine. “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.”

She went on to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. Parton said that while she felt happy about the film’s success, it didn’t erase the difficulty of making it.

Dolly Parton apologized to Burt Reynolds after shooting the film

Parton noted that Reynolds was physically in “bad shape” while working on the film. She admitted that this was at least partly her fault.

“There was a scene at the end of the movie where Burt, as Sheriff Ed Earl, had to pick me up and carry me,” Parton wrote. “They waited to shoot that scene last, and it was a good thing they did. The cameras rolled, Burt picked me up, and I could hear him groan. I was a real porker at the time, probably the heaviest I have ever been. Naturally, being the movies, they had to shoot the scene a few times, and each time Burt groaned a little louder.”

She issued an apology to him for any damage she may have caused.

“The week after the shooting ended, Burt was checked into a hospital to undergo a double hernia operation,” she wrote. “I am told he had been having problems prior to that, but I still couldn’t help feeling a little responsible. So if anybody ever asks me if I broke Burt Reynolds’s heart, I have to say honestly that the damage was a little further south. Forgive me, Burt. I hope they’re still working.”