Why Dolly Parton Initially Didn’t Get Along with the “Steel Magnolias” Director During Filming: ‘Told Me I Couldn’t Act’

Meredith WilshereSat, August 29, 2026 at 1:59 PM UTC

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Dolly Parton in ‘Steel Magnolias’Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock -

Dolly Parton revealed director Herbert Ross criticized her acting while filming Steel Magnolias, but they later made peace

Costar Sally Field shared that Ross was especially hard on Julia Roberts, who was a newcomer at the time

The cast, including Parton, supported Roberts and often stood up to the director’s harsh treatment

Dolly Parton could sing, but according to one movie director, she couldn’t act.

Parton, who died at 80 years old on Tuesday, Aug. 25, starred in 1989’s Steel Magnolias alongside Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah and Olympia Dukakis.

In her 1994 autobiography, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, Parton recalled working with the late Herbert Ross, and wrote about how he treated her and Roberts.

The cast of ‘Steel Magnolias’Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock

“He didn’t particularly like me or Julia Roberts at the start, and was very hard on us,” Parton wrote. “Julia Roberts was not the big star she is now, and I think Herbert Ross resented having to use her. He told me I couldn’t act. This was not news to me, and I told him so.”

“‘I’m not an actress, I’m Dolly Parton,’ ” she recalled telling Ross. “‘I’m a personality who has been hired to do this movie. You’re the director. It’s your job to make me look like I’m acting.’ By the end of the film, we had all made peace and become friends.”

It wasn’t just Parton that the director was picking on.

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In a 2024 interview with Vulture, Field, 79, revealed her costars helped Roberts when the director “picked on” the actress.

She shared that while he “pretty much” gave Field the “freedom to do whatever,” he was “very, very, very hard on Julia.”

“We would all rally around Julia, because she was the baby. She was sort of the newcomer. And she was wonderful, and he just picked on her,” she shared. “It was awful.”

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Field recalled that even Parton would also have words for the director.

“But we all came to her aid, and I remember Dolly once just turned on him — always with humor, but usually the most vulgar humor you ever heard so that it was like, you just literally don’t have a leg to stand on,” shared the Mrs. Doubtfire actress.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”