Jane Fonda Revealed Dolly Parton Is ‘Kind of Psychic’
Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda met on the set of 9 to 5 and started a friendship that has lasted decades. While the two women seem quite different from the outside, they get along very well. Both have spoken highly of each other, and Fonda said she’d learned a great deal from Parton. She even said the country singer appeared to have some kind of psychic abilities.
Jane Fonda described Dolly Parton as psychic
Not long after Parton and Fonda met, they traveled around Appalachia together. Fonda was preparing for a role as a “hillbilly illiterate woman” in The Dollmaker.
“You’re the only hillbilly I know,” Fonda told Parton, per American Songwriter.
Fonda and Parton got to know each other well on the ten-day trip. Fonda saw the singer as “an amazing woman. She is so smart. She’s kind of psychic; she’s really profound. I’m in awe of Dolly. I love her very much.”
Her mother had visions of the future
While Fonda didn’t go into detail about Parton’s “psychic” abilities, her assertion isn’t surprising given Parton’s family history.
“Mama had premonitions — ‘visions,’ she called them,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “They could be startlingly accurate.”
Her mother once even woke up in the middle of the night, certain one of her sons was in danger. This likely saved his life.
“One night, years later, she sat up in her bed and said to Daddy, ‘Lee, get your clothes on. Denver’s had a wreck at the Cove bridge.’ By this time, Daddy knew not to take Mama’s sixth sense lightly, so he drove her to the bridge,” Parton wrote. “There was Denver’s wrecked car with the wheels still spinning. Denver had broken his neck and would not have survived if he had not been found early. In that remote area, he could easily have lain there all night.”
Parton believed the strength of her mother’s love fueled these visions.
Jane Fonda said spending time with Dolly Parton changed her forever
Fonda learned about Appalachia while traveling with Parton. She also learned about how to treat her fans.
“I never saw her not looking a hundred percent Dolly Parton —the wig, the whole thing—going to see these people. She presented herself just like they hoped she would, and I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s how to do it. You’ve got to love those people who like you,’” she said. “And oh boy, does she have fans. And she just loves them and appreciates them. She taught me a lot, [and] she didn’t say anything. She showed by example.”
Fonda said Parton’s attitude toward fame felt refreshing to her.
“I grew up with a father [actor Henry Fonda] who, if someone started approaching him to ask for an autograph, would literally run away,” she told AARP. “He couldn’t stand being reminded of his fame. But you know who taught me about the importance of fans? Dolly Parton. When we did 9 to 5, I watched how she interacted, how she listened, how she truly cared and how grateful she was, and I thought, Oh, my gosh, Dolly’s right. Our careers depend on our fans! That changed me forever.”
