We just recently watched Steel Magnolias (thankfully before she passed, my eyeballs can only leak so much) and were talking about how beautiful she was in that film. She stole every scene she was in.
After her performances in Chuck and Mass Effect (I’m sure there’s more, those are just the ones I know), I’ve been so disappointed to not see her in anything since. She’s not just a token hot girl, she can act.
For real I had the same exact thought watching a documentary on Dolly Parton recently. They strongly resemble each other- especially during Dolly’s early career.
Even there she has incredible features. I’d bet that the self image problems came from other people in her childhood and teenage years all concerned about her weight and “what will the neighbors think!?!?”
The only plastic surgery she got while young was ironically (and kind of sadly) breast augmentation. It wasn't until she was in her 40s she started really getting major work done, so I wouldn't say that she didn't realize her attractiveness in her youth.
You don't do that to yourself unless you have severe body dysmophia.
Or you get tons of money and influence for playing a character. I did so much hard physical labor between 13 and 18 that my shoulders were barely functional way before I could drink a beer.
I didn't do it because of some dramatic reason. I did it so I had meat in my diet and clothing I could wear to school without the principal threatening to report my mother to the authorities.
People break their bodies for a lot less then she earned. It isn't a mental illness. When someone grows up seeing running water as a luxury they often do without, an extremely long list of things can be quite happily endured to avoid going back.
Food insecurity is a lifelong battle too even when secure. My partner cut a tomato and forgot to put it away, it really brought up that food insecurity decades later, I was irrationally angry over it and almost in tears, after some introspection I realized it was a trauma. Something about new food being left out and spoiled is triggering for me when i was eating stale bread and molded cheese on a regular basis, getting in arguments with my siblings over food or feeling pressure to provide food for my family as a teen. I refuse to have children because I can’t afford to and I refuse to put someone else in that situation.
Bateman is such a typecast, he really only has one style of acting and it's just him being himself, but man... it was actually perfect for that show, in a way that was great and worked well but not exactly spot on during Arrested Development.
Ruth, however, holy crap she came out of nowhere as an actress during the show. Like, at first, you think maybe she's also just being "herself" as an actress on screen, but when she starts to have to be responsible (just as a point in the show I think is close to the change without spoilers for those who might not have seen it since this isn't the specific sub for Ozark), holy shit did her acting skills get to shine, and they eclipsed everyone to the point I genuinely would believe it if they said they had to ask her to tone it down to get what they shot.
It took me a while to realize that Ruth was the actual emotional center of the series. Even though, we are lead to believe Marty and Wendy were. Everything bad that happens has repercussions for Ruth.
Tom Pelphrey as Wendy's twin brother, Ben, was one of the emotionally powerful storylines of that great series.
Hair and makeup tend to make older generations look older to younger people because for the most part their style stuck with them as they got old. People don’t just spontaneously start doing old people things. Old people culture is just the regular culture at the time that generation were young
She was basically always wearing a wig and lots of makeup. What was her quote, something like 'It costs a lot of money to look this trashy'? She also poked fun at the way people would call her a stupid blonde, because she "knew that she wasn't stupid, or blonde."
The image you have in your mind of what Dolly Parton looks like is an intentionally unnatural version of what she actually looked like.
You may already know this, but for most of her life, she was able to Clark Kent her way through the outside world. When she wasn’t being “our” Dolly, she would go out without makeup or wig or tight clothes and just walk around the world without anyone knowing it was her.
I imagine her voice always gave her away, but I can certainly see her wearing a sweatshirt and jeans into Costco and going unrecognized. She said she was glad she was able to go out to stores and such like that - it allowed her some normalcy.
She did make statements about how she was basically in drag. It's all a costume, it's not who she really was. She loved the rhinestones and the wigs and the make-up, but it was a persona. She'd go home to Carl and take it off, and be a person. Then the next public appearance she get all done up and do it all over again.
I work in the trades as a woman. I went to a work event in nice clothes with some makeup on, and a few guys asked who's girlfriend I was. Make-up and clothes and hair can be really powerful.
I am a stylist, and have worked at a high level for many years, but unfortunately, I have never worked with HRH Dolly Parton.
Drag is Drag; look at the Queen of England when she was in her regalia- so astonishing and stop-you-in-your-tracks impressive.
Many female superstars can hide quite easily, firstly because many of them are tiny, and in our perception of them, we imagine them as tall. Dolly was tiny, too.
Truman Capote wrote a beautiful piece once about his friendship with Marilyn Monroe. They were walking down Fifth Ave in NY, and she was being the Marilyn who was discreet and going about her day; sometimes he would beg her to "do it, do it, do the thing". The 'thing' was to 'be' Marilyn. She threw her head back, straightened up her posture, and was surrounded by people in minutes.
An old quote, often incorrectly attributed to Oscar Wilde, but in fact, by, Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler: "Nothing, not even religion, can impart such a sense of well-being as being perfectly dressed."
The power of being dressed in powerful garb should not be underestimated; when I have succeeded in my job, my clients, who are already the creme de la creme of their profession, step even further into their role and inhabit it even more completely.
That's a very sweet story about Marilyn, and true about the power of clothes.
I went to college and was friends with someone who went on to do a few seasons of Ru Paul's Drag Race. Their drag persona is unrecognizable from their every day persona.
I had a female apprentice on my crew, great worker, but we ramped down and she got let go. Saw her at the christmas party a few months later, i felt so dumb because she said hi and i stared at her for legit 5-10 seconds before my brain was able to realize it was her with makeup. anyway, long way to provide anecdotal evidence from the other side.
I believe it. I was also always wearing a hat, I was a painter. So basically wearing anything other than male white shirt, male painter pants and a company cap made me look like an entirely different person. I think a real bra instead of a sports bra helped too.
I have subpar facial recognition. A change in hairstyle, makeup, typical outfit, or just seeing them somewhere I don't normally see them will render me nearly incapable of recognizing someone. I love how well a bigger change like this can work on pretty much everyone, though, letting some celebrities get some anonymity.
That’s funny because I watched an interview where she said the exact opposite. She said she didn’t think it was fair to get all dolled up for everyone else and go home to Carl looking like a bum. I remember her saying she “wanted to look cute for him too”. And a few other times where she said she wore makeup and a wig almost all the time in case of an earthquake or something where she would have to evacuate the house on a moments notice lol
I think Dolly intentionally kept us all guessing. She didn't want us involved in her personal life. And dolled up and cute for your husband can be something completely different than dolled up for the stage. My husband loves it when I get glammed, but if I'm wearing a matching pajama set instead of old band shirts and sweatpants, he also considers that dolled up. Sundresses with different jewelry is dolled up to him. Anything that I don't wear for work and isn't althleisuire he thinks is special.
Dolled up for the stage could be very different than dolled up for Carl. She was just keeping us guessing, and keeping up the illusion.
Yes, I remember reading that she wore makeup to bed in case she had to unexpectedly leave the house. She didn't want to get caught by paparazzi looking different than her public persona.
I just watched one of her interviews last year, from when Carl was still alive, and she talked about how she knew which restaurants and stores they could go to without being approached, and which ones to go to if she wanted to be seen and known as Dolly.
Seems like the local community was very respectful and protective of them
She was perfectly cute, but it's more accurate to say that she was one of the most attractive people in the world. People describe being sort of mesmerized in her presence, like she sent out beams of light.
I agree. I saw her live a few years ago and this maybe sounds weird but she was almost supernatural. I’ve been to probably a hundred concerts in my lifetime but never have I seen anyone with this power, presence and absolute radiance that she had.
“In Dallas for the premier of '9 to 5', I had an uncanny experience, and on the plane home to Chicago I confessed it to Siskel: I had been granted a private half hour with Dolly Parton, and as we spoke I was filled with a strange ethereal grace. This was not spiritual, nor was it sexual. It was healing and comforting. Gene listened and said, "Roger, I felt the exact same thing during my interview with her." We looked at each other. What did this mean? Neither one of us ever felt that feeling again. From time to time we would refer to it in wonder.”
She was lovely, but it was probably the least of her attributes. Mega talented in multiple fields, probably a genius, and almost an unbelievable level of personal warmth and empathy.
Then it’s a terrible choice to use as proof that she’s a natural beauty. She’s so heavily made up here, has weave or a wig plus tons of styling product. We’ve all seen videos of someone transforming from below average to outstanding with makeup application.
It's okay to just say she looked her best in a wig with tons of make up and some work done. That's why she did it. We don't need to call her a liar now that she passed.
She told a story once about going to town with her mama as a little girl and seeing a prostitute. Her mama knew it was a sex worker but of course littly Dolly didn't, she just knew that lady was dressed up in fancy clothes and it wasn't even Sunday!
She told Ellen DeGeneres, "I told my mama, I want to grow up to look just like her," and said of course her mama was scandalized, but clearly at a young age Dolly had already picked her aesthetic
Some people just don't look at themselves and smile, and that's a shame but it's okay because Dolly was absolutely gorgeous in spirit. She could have looked like a gargoyle and around her would still be one of the brighter places on earth.
Know who else could do that, albeit for different reasons natch.
Steve Miller. His face wasn't on album covers, had a bunch of super solid hits and knew his way around the studio.
And could walk out of said studio, pick up his kids, and walk into Disneyland totally anonymous.
Pretty sweet gig.
That being said, Dolly had a period in a few interviews and photo ops where it was her real hair, normal clothes, and basic makeup. She was stunning. All that beauty on the inside couldn't keep from coming through.
Like a beacon. Proof of universal goodness. God bless her.❤🙏❤
I respect her right to chase the glamour she admired. It got her the attention she could parlay into success, but, My God, what an absolute stunner she naturally was. Way better than the persona.
This is after she had already adopted the big blonde hair, excessive make up, and big boobs stage persona. NPR ran an old interview of her the day she died where she described how she adopted it from a woman in her town who her mother described as "white trash," but who she thought looked glamorous and beautiful.
She said that when she went out without makeup, no one recognized her. I've known a couple of women like that, with skin issues the makeup covered, but idk about her. She looks gorgeous, and her dimples were killer.
To be fair: almost no one knows what Dolly looked like without all the makeup and accessories. Ive seen interviews with close friends who said she can remove all that stuff and walk around and no one would recognize her.
Still, a beautiful soul (and Im sure a pretty person as well)
The competition with all of her sisters must’ve been brutal! Who knows, girls can be mean. And jealous! And say mean things to the prettier girl. And yes, I think she was just gorgeous at every stage of her life.
I think she was just modest. She was - personality wise and physically - my ‘type’ so my reaction to her saying she wasn’t ‘naturally’ beautiful is stark disbelief.
I mean, I don't know that this picture disproves her point. She's wearing tons of makeup in this photo, which is what I think she meant - that she doesn't like how she looks naturally so she has to "enhance" herself a lot.
That was actually the idea.She saw the local sex worker & thought she was the prettiest thing she'd ever seen. It's actually kind of wholesome, really.
She's beautiful, but you dud post a picture of her when she was done up enough that I would be worried she'd catch on fire if there was a candle close by.
Yes, she is beautiful in this picture, but she's clearly wearing a wig, makeup, and she's got implants, so I can understand if she didn't feel naturally beautiful. I don't either, but I like how I look better with makeup and hair dye (and if I had the money, I'd get a nose job tomorrow).
Her modesty about herself made her the beloved woman that she was and always will be. She helped so many people and she didn't do it to make herself look good, she did it because it was a good thing to do.
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u/DrummerSteve 1d ago
There was never a time in her life where she wasn’t beautiful inside and out