Dolly, is that you?
The cast of Peacock's new comedy series Girls5eva exclusively revealed to E! News that fans will soon be saying "Hello Dolly!" to one very convincing Dolly Parton impersonator—who is none other than executive producer Tina Fey. Leave it to the Saturday Night Live alum to bring out her inner 9 to 5 country crooner!
Co-stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Paula Pell spilled what it was really like working with an in-character Fey on set.
"You do a double take. She looked amazing," Bareilles remembered of first spotting Fey as country diva Parton. "Our hair and makeup design costuming crew did such an incredible job but then Tina just morphs into this other being. Every time she was about to go on set, she'd go, 'Y'all been stretching, trying to come to life.' She'd be getting her little Dolly on."
Bareilles admitted that she was at first a little nervous to be working alongside Fey.
"I was playing opposite one of my heroes in this very absurd and playful way and trying to just show up wholeheartedly," Bareilles continued. "She was very generous and it was just a ton of fun. She was playing drumsticks on her boobs. I'm playing one on one basketball with Tina Fey dressed as Dolly Parton, high heels, in the middle of the night in Queens."
Pell also counts Fey as "one of my oldest, dearest friends," and it was the promise of reuniting with her SNL pal that led Pell to leave quarantine to work on Girls5eva. "You can't not say yes to that. That's a dream," Pell explained. "It was an easy yes."
For Goldsberry, though, it was some of the other A-list cameos that caught her eye, including Andrew Rannells, Stephen Colbert and Vanessa Williams. "I'm huge fans of both of them. They always show up, whatever they do, and kind of blow you out of the water," Goldsberry gushed. "I think what's wonderfully unique having shot in COVID was everybody that was there was just so grateful...People that probably go through life probably doing a lot of glamorous things were just as grateful to be there as we were to have them. It was a love fest."
The series also allowed Pell to play a character that mirrored her coming out story. Both Pell and her onscreen persona Gloria publicly come out later in life. "I was just one of those people who never showed my cards with any of it," Pell explained, especially while on SNL. "It was also the '90s, it was a little bit of a weirder time of coming out. You didn't exactly watch people in our business coming out and being applauded."
Pell related to fellow "late bloomer" character Gloria—especially with a marital punchline. "The fact that she's so excited to come out and then ending up having her marriage fall apart and then being the first gay couple to divorce in New York...She can't even gay it right," Pell joked.
Check out both exclusive interviews and binge season one of Girls5eva starting today on Peacock.
(E! and Peacock are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)