From 9 to 5 to Steel Magnolias: Dolly Parton’s cinematic legacy

In one of Dolly Parton’s most memorable scenes in the film 9 to 5 , secretary Doralee Rhodes flips the script on her handsy boss Mr Hart (Dabney Coleman) and puts him in his place.

“Look, I’ve got a gun out there in my purse and up to now I’ve been forgiving and forgetting because of the way I was brought up,” she says. “But if you ever say another word about me or make another indecent proposal, I’m gonna get that gun of mine and I’m gonna change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot.”

That line, like many, has echoed in cinema history. Like 9 to 5 itself, it is a call to arms in the war against workplace sexual harassment. And for fans of Dolly Parton, it is one of her many, many memorable scenes in film and television.

This week, under the headlines, you will have read essay after essay on the legacy of Dolly Parton. One of the world’s most beloved cultural icons, she was a legendary country singer, who cut an extraordinary path from the fringes to the mainstream, allowing many, including Taylor Swift and Orville Peck, to follow her path.

Perhaps just as well known – depending on your age – is Parton’s other life, as a movie star and a television personality. There was The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) and Steel Magnolias (1989). And on television, in Hannah Montana (2006-2011), she was Aunt Dolly to Miley Cyrus’ Miley Stewart, a middle school student who leads a secret life as a pop star known as Hannah Montana. That guest role was also a nod to the fact that Parton was, in real life, Cyrus’ godmother.

In the Dolly Parton cinematic canon, one role stands above all others: that of secretary Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5 , who, with colleagues Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin) and Judy Bernly (Jane Fonda), takes on their oppressive, harassing boss and transforms their workplace.

Dolly’s character Doralee was a caricature on paper – a busty secretary ostensibly hired by a sleazy boss because of her looks – but she was given great humanity and dimension by Parton’s nuanced performance.

“I’m as nice as I know how to be to every single person in that office,” she says in one scene. “Everyone treats me like a bastard at a family reunion.” Later, when Mr Hart’s corruption is exposed, she has this to say: “We keep underrating you, fella. We always knew you were an obnoxious, philandering, sexist backstabber ... but we didn’t realise you were a crook to boot.”

What makes Doralee so perfect a reflection of Parton is that while the role itself was a step outside her real world, many of the smaller touches drew inspiration from Parton’s life.

That iconic scene – the “rooster to a hen with one shot” scene – actually comes from Parton’s own encounter with a stranger in New York as a young woman. Parton told the story to Fonda, the film’s producer, and writer/director Colin Higgins, and it ended up in the scene.

“We walked around ... and we ended up on 42nd street,” Parton told interviewer Conan O’Brien in 2005. “We didn’t know where we were. I was a country girl from the mountains, and I had a gun in my purse. This guy wouldn’t leave me alone because he was sure I was playing hard to get.