Dolly Parton: Coat of Many Colors had her crying her eyes out

This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.COM.

When Dolly Parton was preparing to watch Coat of Many Colors, the upcoming TV movie about her poverty-stricken upbringing in the Smoky Mountains, she had a very Dolly-like reason to watch it in private.

“It’s too emotional to watch with a bunch of people because we lose our eyelashes – we wear a lot of makeup,” said Parton of seeing the film for the first time with her sister Stella, the day before its official screening Wednesday in Hollywood. “We cried our eyes out.”

“It brought us back together as family and made us miss mama and daddy a lot,” added Parton, 69. “They’re gone now, but we get a chance to see our brothers and sisters again and when we were little, and think of mama and daddy and all that they meant to us.”

The movie stars Jennifer Nettles as Parton’s mom Avie Lee Parton and Ricky Schroder as her dad, Robert Lee Parton. Alyvia Alyn Lind, 8, plays the part of young Dolly, and Parton couldn’t be happier with the cast, which she hand-picked.

“People get the chance to see me as a little girl,” said Parton, who remains as modest as always. “Little Aly Lind, she did so great. I never was that pretty or that cute or that special, but she did a great job.”