The 'Get Him to the Greek' actress is so proud of 'Seriously Red' as she calls it 'independent filmmaking at its best' after successfully pitching it to the 'Jolene' singer.
- Feb 13, 2023
AceShowbiz - Rose Byrne was frightened to pitch her new movie to Dolly Parton. The 43-year-old actress leads new romcom "Seriously Red" - which follows a woman who becomes a Dolly Parton impersonator after being fired from her job as a real estate agent - but explained she was nervous to meet the country star herself because she knew if she rejected the idea then the project would not come to fruition at all.
"I was terrified. I went and met Danny Nozell, I was six months pregnant, and I drove down from Atlanta where I was shooting 'Neighbors 2' with our friend Nick Stoller. I drove to Chattanooga listening to Christian radio because it was all I could get on the radio stations," she said.
"It was sort of the unknown, it was such a different league for me, the music business. I don't know how it works, or how to even begin to penetrate that business. So it was a little bit even more unknown than just a regular pitch where you're going into an office of whomever, an executive or something. We knew without Dolly there was just no way we could do it."
However, the "Bridesmaids" star went on to add that the "Jolene" legend "really loved" the concept of the project when the script eventually made it into her hands. Rose told Collider, "We had to try to get this script in [to] her, and to get her blessing, and to see if she could help us get the music."
"If we didn't have the music, it would've been very different. I don't know what the movie would've become, but it certainly wouldn't have been a Dolly Parton impersonator. It would've become something much different."
"But thankfully, Danny Nozell, her longtime manager and champion of the movie, he got it into her hands and she was very prompt. Within a few weeks she said, 'Yeah, I really love it. I'm inspired by it. You have my blessing.' It was incredible. Then it took another five years to get the movie made. Independent filmmaking at its best."
