View this image '
Chris Ritter for BuzzFeed; ABC, CBS, NBC, New Line, Dreamworks,
Allison Janney's love affair with acting began years before she ever played C.J. Cregg onThe West Wing, Ms. Perky in10 Things I Hate About You, or any of the other dynamic women who have come to define her 25-year career. “My mom was an actress. She went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, did Summer Stock, and was roommates with Eileen Brennan and Rue McClanahan,― Janney told BuzzFeed News in her dressing room on the set of her latest project, CBS'sMom. “So, growing up, we'd go see Eileen whenever she was performing in different plays. I was too young to actually go to the theater, but I remember waiting up for her to come over afterwards and romanticizing her life a lot.― While the lateBrennan may have kick-started Janney's love for performing, Janney looks at another iconic actor as her mentor: Joanne Woodward, who was married to Paul Newman for 50 years until his death in 2008. “I went to Kenyon College in Ohio and Paul Newman went to Kenyon,― Janney said. “During my freshman year they built this beautiful theater and he came back to christen it by directing the first play. I met him and Joanne when he cast me in the show and she said I had to come to New York and go to The Neighborhood Playhouse, where she went … It wasn't a guaranteed career for me. But right after college, I went to New York, went to that neighborhood playhouse, and studied acting there for two years. Then, Joanne had a theater company she very generously headed up for us and allowed us to do plays. That pretty much sealed my fate.― What followed was several years of doing, in Janney's own words, “a lot of off, off, off, off, off, off-Broadway stuff.― But she endured. “Every time I tried to leave, every time I would quit in tears when things didn't work out, something would pull me back in,― Janney said, fingers opened toward the sky. “Somebody was looking out for me up there, like, ‘Don't give up yet!'― That patience paid off in 1996 when Janney made her Broadway debut in a revival of Noel Coward'sPresent Laughter. “I was 36 years old and that was the first time I got a big break â€'and it was on Broadway!― “Better late than never― quickly became Janney's unofficial motto as one role led to
1/4
another â€' parts that eventually became her celebrated niche. “Being a character actress, I think it allows me to have those kinds of varied roles,― Janney said. “I feel like I've been skirting around the outside, showing up in a little thing here, a little thing there; never one big thing, but it's amounted to a lot of really great roles in really great movies that, over the years, have amounted to a really nice career. I'm certainly grateful to have made a living doing this, because there really was nothing else I could do.― In her own (slightly edited) words, Janney shared her memories of some of those “really great roles― that got her where she is today.
Who Shot Pat? (1989)
Castle Hill Productions
Castle Hill Productions
Janney made her screen debut in this little-seen 1950s drama that also featured a young Sandra Bullock. She played Miss Penny, a teacher at an interracial vocational high school in Brooklyn. “I know that was the first role I ever did on camera because I was so nervous I threw up in the sink in the dressing room. I've never been so nervous in my entire life. I think we were out at some school out in Queens … or Brooklyn. I don't know where we were, but we were there so early. I never saw the movie. I don't even know what I did it in it. I was just so nervous.―
Guiding Light (1993â€'1995)
CBS Television
2/4
CBS Television
CBS Television
For nearly three years, Janney recurred on the CBS soap opera as Ginger, one of the Spaulding family's maids. (Tammy Lang played Donna, the frick to Ginger's frack.) “That was the first paying job where I ever got to actually act â€' and I was thrilled. Soap operas always have a stigma for bad acting, but it was actually great training forMom in terms of how the lines come in, how they change, and the rehearsal process. You have to be fast on your feet. That was a great, great job. It was the first time I was able to pay my own rent. My father and mother were very, very pleased because I don't think they thought it was going to work out for me before this.―
Big Night (1996) View this image '
Columbia TriStar
Janney bonded withBig Night co-star, co-writer, and co-director Stanley Tucci when they were both performing in Nicky Silver's playFat Men in Skirts in 1994. And, as a result, she landed the role of Ann in this sumptuous film. “I just love that movie. Stanley just gave me that part. He just thought I would be good for it, so he didn't make me audition, which was a huge thing for me at the time. Well … I actually did a reading for the movie, so that was probably me auditioning for the movie without auditioning. But he gave me that part, which was such a really great little role. It's probably the only romantic part I've ever played.―
3/4
Primary Colors (1998) View this image '
Universal Pictures
The domino effect of Janney's performance inFat Men in Skirts soon really started to take hold. In addition toBig Night, the play led to Janney being cast as Miss Walsh in Mike Nichols' thinly veiled, politically charged filmPrimary Colors. “I started the play with a monologue, and there was this one particular performance where I had the weirdest feeling no one was looking at me. There was just this weird energy in the room. I came off stage and found out that Jackie O., John Kennedy Jr., Mike Nichols, Diane Sawyer, and Al Pacino were in the audience! To this day, I don't know why all these people were at this performance at this little theater, but it was absolutely crazy. Mike Nichols saw me in that and offered mePrimary Colors. And I swear, Aaron Sorkin saw me inPrimary Colors and decided he wanted me inThe West Wing.―
The West Wing (1999â€'2006)
4/4 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)