The Australian actor and star of the hilarious new comedy Seriously Red, Krew Boylan, describes the inspiring women in her life.
Dolly Parton
My earliest memory of Dolly was in the [1989] film Steel Magnolias. I fell in love with that movie. It was my first introduction to the world of Dolly. I love that she manages to be a creative genius and also make money from it. I went to Dollywood [Parton’s theme park in the US] and it was hilarious.
I loved all the clothing, the Dolly-isms, the records, her wigs, the photographs and her shoes. I could’ve stayed there all day. By the end of filming Seriously Red [in which Boylan plays a Dolly impersonator] I was pretty well researched, so it cracks me up when someone says, “Did you know Dolly Parton wrote ‘I Will Always Love You?’” It’s a challenge to tell me something I don’t know about Dolly.
I watched all those people try to bring her down, but she just kept things positive and would make a joke. She would control [it], whether it was about her boobs or her wigs. [If someone asked,] “How long does it take you to do your hair?” She’d reply, “I don’t know because I’m never there.” I’ve never seen anyone do that. In terms of the way she talks about the way she looks, I thought
she was smart and funny and therefore successful. That was everything to me, because all I wanted was to be successful. But I didn’t know how to and I didn’t know what that would look like until I discovered Dolly.
Gail Whetters (Mum)
Mum shaped me, just from her pure grace and patience. She certainly passed the patient stick on to me, which is a blessing, but I also learnt to curb it. Sometimes patience really doesn’t help you or the people around you. My mum is really open and she accepts the world in this great, open way and I love that she’s not at all jaded. She always takes people in the most positive manner. And she’s also very calm.
She was the parent who was like, “If you’re going to do dancing, you’re going to stick to it.” She was very persistent. She gave me those tools to keep going, which is certainly what I needed for filming my new movie, Seriously Red. My mum’s like The Brady Bunch mum but at the same time she has this undercurrent of craziness. I remember saying to her, “Mum, what do you want to do?” and she said, “I want to have a pie fight.” So she came home with all these pie bases from Woolies with shaving cream and weird decorations and we made all these pies. Then we went out in the backyard and we had a pie fight. I remember thinking that this is my true mum.
Jodi Boylan
She’s my older sister so I always wanted her to do everything first. I would say, “Can you go and wax your armpits first and show me how that’s done?” or “Can you go out into the waves first?” And that’s almost the metaphor for our lives so far: she’ll go in to test the waters before coming to tell me it’s safe.
Jodi’s a force to be reckoned with and a boss in the best possible way. She is an AACTA Award winner and nominee for her television shows, and an executive producer, director, writer on the [documentary series] War on Waste.
Through doing the work she does and the documentaries she makes, it was the first time I’d ever seen anyone close to me actually change the headspace of Australia. She’s always been determined, focused and persistent. I love that she’s forever inspirational. Jodi taught me that you can’t be halfway in; you’ve got to be all the way in to make a difference.
We have a relationship where we are pretty honest with each other, and in that sense we have become each other’s touchstones. We’re sort of always mapping each other throughout our lives and we just stick together. If I could borrow a trait from my sister, it would be her strength. I’d like to be a little stronger – like her.
Boylan’s film ‘Seriously Red’ is in cinemas from November 24.
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