Seriously Red is a love letter to Dolly Parton and Dolly loves it right back

When Dolly Parton speaks, millions listen. And the grand dame of country music and just life in general has only nice things to say about Seriously Red.

Convincing Dolly Parton wasn’t the hard part.

When filmmaker and actor Krew Boylan conceived of Seriously Red, a new Australian dramedy film, she always knew it was going to need the country music legend’s blessing.

After all, what was a movie about a Dolly Parton impersonator going to be if the grand dame herself wasn’t on board?

“It was such a love letter to Dolly, we really had to get her blessing but also her music,” Boylan told news.com.au.

Seriously Red stars Boylan as Red, a young(ish) woman who decides to throw her boring life in and become a Parton impersonator. It’s a coming-of-age story about finding your people when you’ve always been told you’re too out-there or strange, and discovering who you are through the lens of someone else.

Taking on the persona of Parton gives Red the confidence and outlet she’s looking for, and she falls into an esoteric world of impersonators, teaming up with Kenny (Daniel Webber), the premier Kenny Rogers impersonator, and striking up a strange rivalry with EP (Rose Byrne), an Elvis impressionist. It also stars Celeste Barber, Jean Kittson and Bobby Cannavale.

Krew Boylan and Rose Byrne as Dolly Parton and Elvis impersonators. Photo: Kane Skennar/Roadshow

Boylan wrote the script as well as starring in the title role, and she produced it with Byrne through their production company, Dollhouse Pictures.

And no, it wasn’t going to work without Parton, and it was both an ordeal and a breeze to get her blessing. Byrnes was pregnant and shooting in Atlanta when she drove across two states to physically hand the script to Dolly’s manager, Danny Nozell, Boylan recalled.

“She went, ‘We’ve got five cents, this is a love letter to Dolly, this is our first project as Dollhouse Pictures, this is a prayer, can you please read it, and can we start talking about it?’

“To his word and generosity, he did, he read it. And Dolly read it twice that evening and we got a phone call going, ‘Yep, we’re on board, we’ll support it, we’ll help, lets us know what else we can do.’”

Dolly Parton gave her blessing to Australian movie Seriously Red. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Boylan said that even though the team persuaded Parton easily, it took another eight years to convince everyone else.

“She’s been behind it and supporting it and she’s loved and watched it, and tweeted about it,” Boylan said. “We’re all kind of blown away and really grateful that she is who she is.”

Parton tweeted just before the film’s premiere at South by Southwest in March, “I just loved #SeriouslyRed! The film is a wonderful tribute to being the best version of yourself.”

When Boylan finally met Parton, the interaction drove her to tears, happy tears.

“It was so important it was Dolly – what Dolly represents and who she is and why I adore her and how I affiliate myself with some of her attributes, which is kind of silly but truthful. I really wanted it to be Dolly.

“When I met her, I was really in my body, which was weird. I felt so grounded. I thought I was going to be like kissing her too much and getting a bit stupid but we just met each other’s energy and she grabbed my hands and jumped up and down and said, ‘You played me, you played me!’ And I started to cry.”

Bobby Cannavale and Krew Boylan in Seriously Red. Picture: Roadshow

Directed by Gracie Otto, Seriously Red is riotously fun – a loose, sometimes chaotic but always big-hearted movie.

On a December afternoon in 2020, the crew was sprawled over the Twin Towers entertainment complex in Tweed Heads. The scene being filmed on that day exemplified the film’s outlandish and joyous spirit.

A stunt double for Boylan was decked out in Red’s bedazzled threads, a mass of blonde wig piled on her head. She burst out of a toilet cubicle door, the wig alight, flames licking the ceiling, the stuntwoman thrusting about until it’s finally out - all controlled, of course.

The shot that immediately preceded it featured Boylan costumed in the same outfit, sitting atop a toilet in one of Twin Towers’ bathrooms. Red’s head starts to loll backwards in those jerky movements we’ve all done when we’re about to fall asleep on a bus or on a plane.

But most of us don’t roll our flammable wigs back into the path of a candle, catching it alight. And most of us then don’t have to go out on stage for a Kenny Rogers duet of “Islands in the Stream” with half our wig flattened and singed, but smile still plastered on.

Krew Boylan cried when she met Dolly Parton. Picture: David Clark

For a movie called Seriously Red, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The point is to have fun with it.

Boylan loves to dance and sing, so when she wrote her script, she made sure it was all over the pages.

“I loved all that stuff. I grew up going to a [renowned performing arts] school called Brent Street, which is in Sydney. So, I grew up dancing and acting and doing acrobatics and singing. That’s why I wrote all of that stuff in, it’s very much a part of my world and what I find juicy and interesting, but also cool to look at.

“I like keeping things a bit bright and a bit lush versus the Australian outback of tumbleweeds, dark music, heaviness and someone driving a s**t car. I prefer to play in this world.”

Boylan wants Seriously Red to bring joy into a world that needs it, and maybe along the way, audiences will find a little something extra in the same way that Red does through exploring a different side to herself.

And to remember how much we all love Parton.

“Dolly is getting better and better. I love that Dolly is the only person that we can all agree on. She will never be cancelled.”

Seriously Red is in cinemas now

The writer travelled to Tweed Heads as a guest of Roadshow Films