13. Because Stark insisted on filming on location, the actors went to Louisiana. “It helps that Natchitoches is great,” Harling said. “Wherever you point the camera, you can take a good photo.”
But the delivery of the necessary equipment and rental of housing for big-name stars turned the production into an extravaganza. As Harling put it, “The circus has come to town.”
14. Every night, Parton and her team (an assistant, a bodyguard and a hair stylist) ate dinner at the same place: “a restaurant called Mariner's on Sibley Lake,” a resident Tom Whitehead recalled to Garden and gun. As a result, the seafood restaurant remained sold out throughout filming as “people packed it to see Dolly Parton eating in the back corner.”
15. Louisiana presented some challenges in the summer. But while MacLaine admitted that most of the actors were “always complaining” about the heat, Parton never squeaked.
“There was Dolly with a waist of no more than 16 inches, heels about two feet high and a wig that must have weighed 23 pounds,” the star said. “And she's the only one who didn't break a sweat.”
Even when she had to swelter in a cashmere sweater in the Christmas scene. “Julia said: “Dolly, we are dying, and you don’t say a word. Why don't you let it out?” Harling recalls. “Dolly smiled very calmly and said: “When I was young and had nothing, I wanted to be rich and famous, and now I am. So I'm not going to complain about anything.”
