Julia Stiles honored Dolly Parton with a “9 to 5” Quickstep during her “Dancing With the Stars” debut Wednesday night.
The “Save the Last Dance” actress, 44, and her professional partner, Ezra Sosa, took the ballroom floor for the second night of the Season 35 premiere, performing to Parton’s iconic 1980 anthem just weeks after the country music legend died at age 80. Stiles revealed on the show that Parton herself had signed off on the musical choice shortly before her death.
“A couple weeks before Dolly passed, she approved this song, specifically for me. I’m so honored to be dancing to her music and honoring her legacy. I wanna make her proud,” Stiles explained.
“She’s such a powerhouse and the song is so great. Like, it’s such an anthem. What a legend.”
The tribute earned high marks from the judging panel. Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli praised Stiles as “beautiful,” “graceful” and “radiant” following the routine.
“You were in character, spot on, all the way through,” Tonioli told her. “You’re a great actor and a great dancer.”
The pair scored 18 out of 30, placing them near the top of the leaderboard for the week.
The performance carried extra weight given Parton’s own history with the ABC competition series. Back in 2007, the “Jolene” singer made a guest appearance on “DWTS,” performing “9 to 5” alongside Season 5 professionals Derek Hough, Julianne Hough, Cheryl Burke and Mark Ballas.
“The fact that we got to highlight her magic on our show back in 2007, I mean, it’s really incredible,” Julianne Hough said during a “Good Morning America” appearance earlier this month.
“I think we are all so inspired by Dolly. Authenticity is a word that gets thrown out so often, but with Dolly, specifically, she never censored herself. She was always true to who she was.”
Julianne Hough drew a direct line between Parton’s approach and the spirit of the ballroom competition.
“Connecting and being real and honest and vulnerable,” she added. “Nobody does it better than Dolly.”
Parton died in Nashville, Tennessee, on Aug. 25 following what her representative described as a brief battle with cancer.
“After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life [on Aug. 25] at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” her rep said in a statement.
The same statement highlighted Parton’s far-reaching philanthropic work, noting that “whether it be the hundreds of millions of books donated through her invaluable Imagination Library or funding research that helped create a lifesaving vaccine used around the world, Dolly’s unconditional love for all people was the guiding force for her lasting impact.”
Stiles and Sosa’s performance came during the second half of a two-night premiere event. Tuesday’s episode had featured the male contestants and their partners, and concluded with the season’s first elimination: “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Conner Leavitt and pro Adele Zaikman, who had previously won the spinoff “DWTS: The Next Pro.”
A second elimination was set to close out Wednesday’s broadcast.
The “9 to 5” film that spawned Parton’s hit song was a 1980 workplace comedy directed by Colin Higgins, starring Parton alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as three female office workers who turn the tables on their sexist boss, played by Dabney Coleman. Parton wrote and recorded the title track, which became one of her signature songs and earned her Academy Award nominations for both the song and the score.
“DWTS” will move to its regular weekly schedule next Tuesday, airing at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+ with next-day streaming on Hulu.