KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — From “Winter's Bone” to “My Name is Earl,” Knoxville native Dale Dickey is known for harsh, gritty roles. But she bares a softer side in her latest film, "A Love Song."
Dickey talked about that vulnerability with 10News anchor Beth Haynes as well as other projects in the queue.
Dale Dickey’s latest film, “A Love Song,” is a love story and showcases an intimate, softer side of the Knoxville native as well as her co-star, Wes Studi.
“We both spent decades playing really violent, hard people,” Dickey said. “We've got some weathered, pockmarked faces, but he wanted to show us in a gentler light.”
The creator, 27-year-old filmmaker Max Walker Silverman, was very convincing.
“Max wrote me this beautiful love letter asking me to do his film. He wrote this role for me and had seen me in Winter's Bone and had followed my career. It's very flattering for some young artists to admire your work,” Dickey said.
The film features two childhood sweethearts both widowed, who reconnect in solitude in scenic Colorado.
“We’d drive 25 minutes to set and be in the bright sun all day. Yeah, it was pretty great,” Dickey said.
It was Dickey’s first role during the pandemic, and she can relate to her character, Fay.
“Fay is a woman who enjoys solitude and camping and lives very minimally off the grid, and I kind of enjoy that. With all the hectic pace of Los Angeles, my husband, Steve, and I go camping all the time. I could live like Fay maybe not exactly," she said.
While “A Love Story” tackles solitude and grief, country music plays a supporting role in the film.
“Country music are the songs of life," Dickey said.
The genre is second nature for this East Tennessean, but an on-screen kiss in the film was a first for Dale.
“We're both over the hill, so to speak. We were both a little nervous. We're both happily married, and we got along great, it just, it was just kind of strange," she said.
But Dickey’s vulnerability has paid off. The film is generating a lot of award buzz.
“After I saw the film, finally, some of the reviews started coming in from Sundance, I felt this sigh of relief of ugh, I didn't mess up his film. I'm so happy," she said.
But she’s definitely not like her character in Amazon Prime’s reboot of "A League of Their Own." The eight-episode series is a throwback to the '90s hit film starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis.
“I played the girls' chaperone, who, by the way, I could never do that in real life, handle those girls. But the chaperones were their everything. They did everything for them on the tours, so it's an important role," she said.
It was a fun role for Dickey complete with '40s-style hair curls.
“It's very funny. It's very moving. A lot of baseball, that's what it's about women who wanted to play baseball, but it does expand on the social issues of the time, racial issues," she said.
"A Love Song" debuted on the East and West Coast and will open in Knoxville at Downtown West Regal Cinema on August 12.
Amazon Prime's "A League of Their Own" series drops Friday, August 5.