diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d1305894..b022ac46 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,15 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/), and this
 project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
+## [Unreleased]
+
+### Added
+
+- Add support to use a custom dict instead of os.environ for variable
+  interpolating when calling `dotenv_values` (by [@johnbergvall])
+- Add override-flag to `dotenv_values` to allow for more advanced
+  chaining of env-files (#73 #186 by [@johnbergvall])
+
 ## [0.19.0] - 2021-07-24
 
 ### Changed
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9b56b546..88bbb0e9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -98,6 +98,28 @@ config = {
 }
 ```
 
+Further advanced use by overriding os.environ with a user defined dict:
+
+```python
+import os
+import subprocess
+from dotenv import dotenv_values
+
+deploy_env = {
+  'FALLBACK_DOMAIN': 'example.org',
+  'VERSION': '1.5',
+}
+env = dotenv_values('.env.deployment01', base_env={
+    # override=False to ignore local file overrides in interpolations:
+    **dotenv_values('.env.base', override=False, base_env=deploy_env),
+    **deploy_env,
+})
+subprocess.call(
+  ['/usr/bin/docker', 'stack', 'deploy', '-c', 'docker-compose.yml', 'myproject'],
+  env={**deploy_env, **env},
+)
+```
+
 ### Parse configuration as a stream
 
 `load_dotenv` and `dotenv_values` accept [streams][python_streams] via their `stream`
diff --git a/src/dotenv/main.py b/src/dotenv/main.py
index b8d0a4e0..08b6ae2b 100644
--- a/src/dotenv/main.py
+++ b/src/dotenv/main.py
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ def __init__(
         encoding: Union[None, str] = None,
         interpolate: bool = True,
         override: bool = True,
+        base_env: Mapping[str, Optional[str]] = os.environ
     ) -> None:
         self.dotenv_path = dotenv_path  # type: Optional[Union[str, _PathLike]]
         self.stream = stream  # type: Optional[IO[str]]
@@ -47,6 +48,7 @@ def __init__(
         self.encoding = encoding  # type: Union[None, str]
         self.interpolate = interpolate  # type: bool
         self.override = override  # type: bool
+        self.base_env = base_env  # type: Mapping[str, Optional[str]]
 
     @contextmanager
     def _get_stream(self) -> Iterator[IO[str]]:
@@ -71,7 +73,9 @@ def dict(self) -> Dict[str, Optional[str]]:
         raw_values = self.parse()
 
         if self.interpolate:
-            self._dict = OrderedDict(resolve_variables(raw_values, override=self.override))
+            self._dict = OrderedDict(
+                resolve_variables(raw_values, override=self.override, base_env=self.base_env)
+            )
         else:
             self._dict = OrderedDict(raw_values)
 
@@ -212,6 +216,7 @@ def unset_key(
 def resolve_variables(
     values: Iterable[Tuple[str, Optional[str]]],
     override: bool,
+    base_env: Mapping[str, Optional[str]] = os.environ,
 ) -> Mapping[str, Optional[str]]:
     new_values = {}  # type: Dict[str, Optional[str]]
 
@@ -222,11 +227,11 @@ def resolve_variables(
             atoms = parse_variables(value)
             env = {}  # type: Dict[str, Optional[str]]
             if override:
-                env.update(os.environ)  # type: ignore
+                env.update(base_env)  # type: ignore
                 env.update(new_values)
             else:
                 env.update(new_values)
-                env.update(os.environ)  # type: ignore
+                env.update(base_env)  # type: ignore
             result = "".join(atom.resolve(env) for atom in atoms)
 
         new_values[name] = result
@@ -332,8 +337,10 @@ def dotenv_values(
     dotenv_path: Union[str, _PathLike, None] = None,
     stream: Optional[IO[str]] = None,
     verbose: bool = False,
+    override: bool = True,
     interpolate: bool = True,
     encoding: Optional[str] = "utf-8",
+    base_env: Mapping[str, Optional[str]] = os.environ,
 ) -> Dict[str, Optional[str]]:
     """
     Parse a .env file and return its content as a dict.
@@ -342,8 +349,10 @@ def dotenv_values(
     - *stream*: `StringIO` object with .env content, used if `dotenv_path` is `None`.
     - *verbose*: whether to output a warning the .env file is missing. Defaults to
       `False`.
-      in `.env` file.  Defaults to `False`.
+    - *override*: whether to override the system environment/`base_env` variables with
+      the variables in `.env` file. Defaults to `True` as opposed to `load_dotenv`.
     - *encoding*: encoding to be used to read the file.
+    - *base_env*: dict with initial environment. Defaults to os.environ
 
     If both `dotenv_path` and `stream`, `find_dotenv()` is used to find the .env file.
     """
@@ -355,6 +364,7 @@ def dotenv_values(
         stream=stream,
         verbose=verbose,
         interpolate=interpolate,
-        override=True,
+        override=override,
         encoding=encoding,
+        base_env=base_env,
     ).dict()
diff --git a/tests/test_main.py b/tests/test_main.py
index 13e2791c..0c534925 100644
--- a/tests/test_main.py
+++ b/tests/test_main.py
@@ -325,6 +325,15 @@ def test_dotenv_values_file(dotenv_file):
     assert result == {"a": "b"}
 
 
+def test_dotenv_values_file_base_env(dotenv_file):
+    with open(dotenv_file, "w") as f:
+        f.write("a=${var}")
+
+    result = dotenv.dotenv_values(dotenv_file, base_env={'var': 'b'})
+
+    assert result == {"a": "b"}
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "env,string,interpolate,expected",
     [