Your best memory of Dale Dickey likely comes in a brutal flash from one of your favorite shows or movies: crushing a man with an ATM in Breaking Bad. Smacking Jennifer Lawrence across the face with a mug in Winter’s Bone. Leading a heroin-smuggling ring inside a prison in Justified.

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For almost 30 years now, the Tennessee native has made memorable parts out of even the tiniest bits of screen time, often by channeling a particular harsh intensity. She finally gets a true showcase in A Love Song, a tender middle-aged romance that drew raves out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival and hits theaters this Friday. Costarring with fellow Hollywood traveler Wes Studi, Dickey plays Faye, a widow feeling out a new romantic and emotional connection. Shot and set in the Colorado mountains, it’s a simple, affecting tale of new hopes and possibilities, set against a stunning natural backdrop. (Watch an exclusive clip from A Love Song below.)

At the center of Max Walker-Silverman’s film, Dickey is a marvel: vulnerable, heartbreaking, and transfixing. The amount of screen time marks a huge change of pace for the actor; so does the tenor of the role, without the ragged edges with which she’s made her name. In a career-spanning conversation for this week’s Little Gold Men (listen below), Dickey admits she’s still getting used to the exposure brought about by a lead role—one that may just reintroduce her to an industry she’s spent nearly half her life in.

Vanity Fair: For me, you’re an actor who makes an impression in every project, no matter the size of the part, which at times can be quite small. And I saw that this film’s director, Max Walker-Silverman, wrote you a letter asking you to play the lead and describing what your work has meant to him. Is that right?

Dale Dickey: I got a letter from Max that spring, so it was my first job into COVID. I watched his two short films before this, and I knew he had a real gift. His script alone was so poetic, and simple and beautiful, that the letter was enough to just say, “I’ll do it. I don’t even need to read the script.” It was so flattering. But yeah, I lucked out. I mean, whodathunk?

As you’re someone who’s been in this business as a working actor for a long time, I’m curious what it meant to have the letter, to see the kind of impact you can have on a filmmaker and that your work has resonated in that way.

It’s a beautiful gift that I take to heart, if someone takes the time to write you a letter saying how much they admire your work and why you’re so perfect for this script. I’ve worked with more and more young filmmakers, and I’ve told my agents over the years—if I’m not missing a big money job, because I have to take money jobs when they come around—if I have the time I want to do it. I like working with young filmmakers. It makes me feel a little old, like I’ve been around a while, but it’s nice that I’ve made some kind of impression. These are our filmmakers of tomorrow. We need new writers and new voices. So yeah, it warms my heart! It makes me feel really good to be wanted, to have somebody put this faith in me that I could carry the film. I was terribly insecure about it and very nervous if I could handle it. And I wanted the challenge. When you’re scared of something, you’ve got to do it.

How did you find that experience of carrying a movie with Wes and finding the rhythms of the story and the tone? What was the experience of making the movie like for you?

It was really glorious. It was hot. We were outdoors the whole time.

It looks hot.

We filmed on Miramonte Reservoir, which is like an hour southwest of Telluride. It’s where Max grew up. We all had to quarantine in Telluride. Oh, it was so hard. [Laughs] And then we moved to this little tiny town of Norwood where the crew was in two different ranch houses. We were in big bubbles. When Wes joined us a week later, he and I shared a ranch house, but they brought everything to us. We did not go out. We each had individual cars to drive the half hour to set. We were masked entirely the whole time, and particularly difficult for the crew in the heat.

Wes and I got along just brilliantly right away. We both have the same politics. We watch Jeopardy! And we just hung out. I don’t want to ruin the movie, but there is one scene of hiking the mountain, which was our wrap night. It was the most glorious wrap night of my life. It was difficult. I was like, with 12,000 feet, you might want to take a can of oxygen for the old lady. I didn’t need it. They took good care of me. Up on that mountain we could finally relax. It was our last night. We all tore off our masks and laid down and looked at the beautiful stars and embraced this wonderful family that we had, this journey we’d taken together.

Have you found the exposure to this point new at all or perhaps intimidating?

Little bit! I think the only other time I went through this kind of media or large-scale film that has gotten this kind of press was when I did Winter’s Bone. I had that wonderful supporting role as Merab. In the beginning, Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes and I would go and do Q&As for the film to try to get the word out. We knew it was embraced at Sundance, so I had a little bit of a taste of this. Going to some of the awards things, they would always try to include me, which was lovely. And now we’re watching Jennifer spiral away. Bye-bye! Well deserved. What a wonderful actress and woman.

I tend to be a little shy. Doesn’t seem that way—I’m very gregarious, I love people—but in terms of intimacy and talking about me, it’s difficult. The more I do interviews, the easier it is. I’m so happy this film is going to be seen. Whether they like me or not, I think it’s a beautiful film. So that’s where I’m staying right now. Staying in the present. And whatever comes my way with more screenings and stuff, I’m there.

I was struck by how gentle the role was, and how gentle the story was in comparison perhaps to some of your, let’s say, harsher roles and works.

Let me count the number of harsh roles. [Laughs] Most people that see me on the street, they run from me. They think I have an ATM machine, or a chainsaw or something, and I’m going to kill them. Don’t let her near your children! So yeah, this was a real gift to play someone so vulnerable, and so quiet, and so gentle. The same with Wes as well. Max was talking about that. The two of us are very weathered, and always have played sort of violent, tough people. To show us in a gentler light was really lovely to play. I haven’t gotten to do that much. It was new and it felt different, but Max had studied acting years ago before he went to film school, studied theater and history, and so he knows how to talk to actors quietly and gently, and keep you centered. So that I don’t fall into Dale—I’m very animated, as you can tell. Faye is very concise, and routine is very important. I wanted to really make sure I could find that stillness and that quiet. It’s not hard in that environment.

You’ve done many independent films. Being top of the call sheet for this one, had you, over your career, witnessed how actors have handled being in that spot and how to be the focal point of the cast?

I’ve been so grateful and lucky to work as much as I have on a lot of different sets with a lot of different people. The number one, there’s always huge pressure because they set the tone of the film, particularly on a big budget film. Like Iron Man 3 with Robert Downey Jr. or something. This is from a smaller scale, but it was important to me. We all have our moments. I was struggling to quit smoking, and so my head can turn quickly, but I try to always work well with others and respect. Coming from theater you respect all the other disciplines. I’m only as good as the people I’m working with and they’re the ones making me look good.

I wanted to go back to Winter’s Bone for one moment. I remember the moment you won the Indie Spirit Award, which felt very deserved. What do you remember about that, really that whole flurry and that being the culmination, perhaps, for you on that campaign?

That was nervewracking for me. I remember very little about that entire evening. And I wasn’t drinking, so I was in good shape. I was so excited just to be there, and I knew the film had been embraced by Film Independent, and I knew that they liked Winter’s Bone. I never expected to win. I was really thrilled and honored to be nominated, but I did know that award was coming first and that made me terribly nervous. Plus, it was like, keep it to 30 seconds, and then all the producers just saying, “Don’t thank us. You don’t need to thank us. We know you’re thankful.” And so I get up there and I completely forget to thank Jennifer Lawrence, number one. Excuse me. And I’ll tell you what. I learned a lot from that young lady. She’s raw talent at its best and a good human being.

I remember getting up on stage and looking out into the audience and seeing so many big stars. And I landed on Jesse Eisenberg. Sweet little Jesse, with this curly hair, and he was just sitting right in the center just smiling at me. So I thought, “Dale, just keep looking at Jesse. You don’t know him, he doesn’t know you, but he’s giving you good energy and you’re nervous.” Whenever I finished, I turned to exit the stage, and I’m pretty sure it was Mark Ruffalo that had been there to give the award. I kind of collapsed into Mark’s arms crying, and laughing, and in shock. And I know he was like, “What the hell? Get her off of me and get her into the press!” Then I’d never done that whirlwind thing. I thought I just got to go back out and sit at the table. I wanted to see John Hawkes and Jennifer get their awards. But they take you through all the stuff. And I kept asking, “When can I stop and watch TV? I want to see my friends.” It was overwhelming and exciting. It was just such a new thing for me, like being the belle of the ball. I’d never experienced that before. You’ve just got to take a deep breath, and relax, and enjoy. Enjoy being there, and why you’re there, and celebrating everyone’s work.

Did it change the direction of your career at all? I know that before Winter’s Bone especially, you’d done a lot of bit parts, particularly in television shows.

Yeah, of course it did. Everybody always talks about a big break. I’m like, little breaks over the years, starting from theater in New York. And then with Winter’s Bone, when I got that audition, I knew this was a casting director I’d never met before. They did really good films. I knew I fit into that world; I had no idea Debra [Granik] would cast me as Merab, but we had a great audition. Certainly the exposure of that film, the fact that it did so well, that certainly put me at a different level in terms of my agents being able to get me into the room to meet new casting directors. So it was a turning point. One thing just leads to the other. Like Breaking Bad, believe me—when Breaking Bad came out, I was like, really? I spent three hours in the makeup chair getting lesions put on my face. But if you recognize me, that’s fine.

It’s unforgettable. Breaking Bad had to have been 2009, right? Around then?

It was, it was. I think I filmed it in 2008, 2009. You know what? I had just finished filming Breaking Bad, and my agents called and said, you have a meeting with Debra Granik as soon as you get off the plane. That was that day. I had come back from Breaking Bad, and my husband picked me up at the airport and took me, and I went straight in. So maybe I was just on a high and that helped me.

You mentioned people running from you in terror. You watch a movie like A Love Song, and there is such vulnerability to your work, and it’s really affecting and sweet. And there is also a real ability on your part to play very intense, harsh characters. And that did seem like, especially in the smaller parts that you took on earlier in your career, I don’t necessarily want to call it typecasting, but I’m curious how it felt for you and how you came to start playing a lot of those kinds of parts?

Years ago when I started off in New York, because I came from theater, and I just wasn’t auditioning well. I took a casting director workshop and I was like, “I want to do my Ophelia; I’m classically trained.” And they’re like, “No, you don’t get it. You need to do Southern. You need to do Beth Henley monologues.” I was like, “No, I’ll only be typecast as Southern.” But he was basically saying, that is what you want, and that’s what you do better than anyone else. That’s what is in your soul and your heart. You may not have a thick Southern accent, but you grew up there. So I started embracing some of the Southern roles I’d been shying away from because I did need to be typecast. Hollywood, particularly when I moved to L.A., it’s like they have a very specific look that they want. I knew I was not the normal kind of look—the beautiful leading girl. One of my first auditions when I was in L.A. was for a police show—would’ve been in ’96—I walked in to read for the next door neighbor that baked pies. I literally walked in the room and the director looked at me and he went, “Can you come back tomorrow and read for the heroin addict?” This face, I learned early on, it’s a strong face. It reads hard, it reads Appalachian. I can have a little mean mouth.

Does A Love Song almost change the way you see yourself as an actor? You’ve mentioned your face a few times now, and I think the movie really has this, it’s beautifully shot, but it does really embrace your face. And it does take on a different connotation to when it’s placed in an episode of Breaking Bad, as you were saying.

Right. What I really loved about some of the reviews from Sundance were that they embraced the fact that Wes and I are older character actors, and the unapologetic closeups of my face. I got tickled because I think that they were all trying to find a nice way to say she’s wrinkled as shit. [Laughs] And instead, someone said, “gloriously grooved,” or “wonderfully weathered,” and so I need a new t-shirt. Botox is not for me. I love that I can use my weathered face and still feel beautiful.

I tell young students, “Doesn’t happen overnight.” I didn’t expect it to. I just was going to keep going. But I was 45 when I could finally quit my day job and started working. Tyne Daly told me years ago, “Embrace your face, because you’re going to work more and more as you get older.” And so thank you, Tyne. I hope this is not the end of it now. I don’t mind doing supporting roles. Look, baby. I just love to work.

You’re also in the A League of Their Own reboot that’s coming up. You’re a regular in that, correct?

Well, kind of, sort of. When we did the pilot I was recurring. I play the girls’ chaperone. The chaperone’s pretty much always there—unless they’re sneaking out at night or the privacy of their rooms, they were their everything. When they went into series, because the chaperone is there, I’m in the background every time we’re on the field. I have to be there, so I’m written into every episode, but I’m not considered a regular. But it was a wonderful job and I learned a lot. I loved doing period pieces. And the girls were terrific. We had a great time.

Between that and A Love Song, it’s two pretty substantial projects for you coming out in the same year.

They were actually originally going to be released on the same day, on July 4! Then, this was weird. I go to Tribeca for A Love Song. Our big screening was on a Monday night, [mid] June. It was the same night they premiered League of Their Own at Tribeca. Except it was two hours earlier. So I got to do both. I’m completely playing opposite characters, and wow, this won’t ever happen again. So yeah, it’s exciting. I’ve been so lucky to work as much as I have, but particularly during COVID, I’ve been shocked. I mean, it’s hard. You’ve got to follow all the rules, but we want to keep it going. We’ve got to keep it going.

Yeah. And maybe it will happen again.

Never know.

This interview has been edited and condensed.