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- Entertainment
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‘What's next?': Allison Janney on playing a ‘badass' on ‘The Diplomat,' ‘West Wing' 25 years later
'At that time, I never dreamed that it would go where it's gone,' says Allison Janney of her acting career, when she's told it has been 25 years since she won her first Emmy Award. In 2000, she won in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as C.J. Cregg on The West Wing (she'd also win the following year in the same category, as well as two more times in 2002 and 2004 as Lead Actress). She'd later add three more trophies — two for Mom and one for Masters of Sex. 'I feel pretty damn lucky that I've been able to work as much as I have and in my career,' she says. "I love the community it creates for me. With each project, you have a whole new group of people and relationships and camaraderie. I felt so lucky to be on two shows last year working on Palm Royale and The Diplomat, both completely different. It's been an embarrassment of riches this past year." More from GoldDerby 2025 Tony Awards: Complete list of winners (updating live) 'Ran' turns 40: How a clerical error and bad blood cost Akira Kurosawa an Oscar 'Sinners' bonus feature, 'Good Night' live, Sabrina's song of the summer, 'Fantastic Four' theme, and what to stream this weekend Here, Janney talks to Gold Derby about stepping into The Diplomat in the role of Vice President Grace Penn after being a fan of its freshman season. She also offers up a few teases about the upcoming third season of the Netflix drama, when Penn will be the president after sitting POTUS, William Rayburn (Michael McKean), died unexpectedly in the season finale. SEEAllison Janney enters Emmy race as a supporting actress for 'The Diplomat' (exclusive) Gold Derby: When you first heard about Grace Penn, what were your impressions of her and how you would take her on? Allison Janney: My first conversation was with Debora Cahn [creator and executive producer], who I knew from my West Wing days. I didn't really have to think hard about it because I loved her writing, and I also was a huge fan of the first season of The Diplomat. She said, "You might be a bad guy." She was giving me a hint to what my character would be, and I just was up for any challenge she wanted to throw my way. Then when I read it, I thought, "OK, I see how you might see her as a bad guy." But I see her as a badass. I see her as someone who makes difficult decisions and knows that in the balance, some lives could be lost, but in the long run, many lives will be saved. She's a woman who is up for making the hard decisions, and that excited me about her. Also, the way she wrote my relationship with Keri Russell's character, Kate. It was so much fun to want to come and hate this woman but then end up sort of admiring her. I think Grace sees a younger version of herself in Kate. I mean, that scene where I got to dress her down and tell her, 'Well, you need to get a bra, you need to change your hair…' It was cold the way she delivered it, but she was really helping her. The dynamics between the two of us were always fun. Grace and Kate do actually form a nice bond that quickly goes off the rails as events evolve. Do you see Grace as lonely in her role as VP? I think they do [form a bond]. They could be great friends in any other situation, but in their friendship, they have to be cautious with each other and can't trust each other completely because, of course, Kate was supposed to take Grace's job. And that's always on the back burner of that possibility happening. And then you learn a lot more in season three about Grace's private life. But I would imagine for any woman at the top in that arena, it's gotta be a little lonely to be someone who's always underestimated, someone who's always second-guessed for being a woman. Grace is someone who's found a way to use that to her advantage. SEE'It just worked out really perfectly': 'The Diplomat' casting director on landing Allison Janney as the vice president You said we find out more about her in season three. Did you know a lot of this already in shooting the second season or did you just trust Debora's writing? I trusted Debora. Then she came to me at some point and said, "How would you feel about Brad Whitford playing your husband?" I was like, "Well, this just keeps getting better!' And the stuff that goes on, the brilliance between the private-facing Grace and the public-facing Grace, her relationship with her husband and that new dynamic with me being the president and he now being the first gentleman, it's kind of wild. The genius of the show is also seeing that dynamic go on between Kate and Hal [Rufus Sewell] and seeing them behind the doors. It's endlessly fascinating and fun. You've said you threw the script when you read the season two finale. Have any season three scripts caused you to throw anything across the room? I'm excited to act every page that Debora's written, but that one was just so shocking — I just did not see that coming at all! It was just a crazy moment for me. It was so wild. I didn't throw the script for season three but I loved every single page I read. You've also mentioned Hillary Clinton as an inspiration for Grace. Did you hear from her or any real politicians about the show? I didn't reach out to Hillary. I don't know her, and I didn't really need to. I just wanted to look at women who have spent their life in public service and grown up in it and what that must have been like to be a woman in those arenas and just be the only woman in the room and prove that you can be in the room. It's always having to prove yourself, and I just imagine that would be difficult. Also in West Wing, C.J. was the only woman in the room a lot of times, so I felt like I knew what that was to play. The show is so tense pretty much every scene, every moment. How is that to be on that set and do those scenes that have that kind of non-stop tension? Well, fortunately, as I like to say about this whole cast, we take our work seriously but we don't take ourselves too seriously. We had to play those scenes and play that tension and that's just fun for this cast. And then when we cut, we can laugh about something and it's not as tense. We know how to jump into that and turn it on and turn it off. Like that scene with Hal and Kate with me at the dinner [in the season two finale] and how insulting he was to Grace, and just having to listen to him and take it and not react. That's a lot of the great thing I love about Grace is how still she is and she's doesn't overreact to anything. She's learned to just not react but she'll remember. I can't say more, but there's so many fun things that are coming. You had watched the first season of the show and then came in during Season 2. As an actor, how do you prepare for that? You know, for someone who watched the show and immediately loved it, I was a little starstruck when I got on the set. I knew all these characters from watching them and loving them. And I felt a little like, "Oh my God, this is Kate and Hal!" It took me a while just to get past that because I'm just like anybody else. Definitely having [director] Alex Graves and Debora there to encourage me, I felt immediately comfortable. And also this group of actors is so incredibly lovely and welcoming and just embraced me. It also felt nice to be in that world of politics again, especially international politics. It's sexy and fun and dangerous and I love it. It's been 25 years since you won your first Emmy for C.J. That's wild. What was your vision for your career at the time and where you wanted to go? I was so thrilled to win that Emmy. That was an extraordinary night for me winning that. I was so happy to be on The West Wing. I loved that group of people. I would stop and go, "This is amazing. Just remember this." I did that so many times during that job. And it was all consuming. It was 18-hour days and we didn't have cellphones then so I lost track with people. My family was so furious with me. I spent more time with these people than I spent with my family. And I just loved what that show did for me. When it ended, I thought, "I have no idea what's going to happen now. I'm terrified." I think every actor always feels that when you finish a job, you go, "Is that it? Am I going to work again?" And then I went right into 9 to 5, the musical [on Broadway]. I thought, "Well, let's do something completely different than West Wing" so that fit that bill. I find it always a little scary because it doesn't always guarantee that you're going to get the next job or the next job. I feel pretty damn lucky that I've been able to work as much as I have in my career. I'm very grateful. And I can't see retiring anytime soon either. I just want to keep doing it and keep being challenged. I can't wait to see what's next. As Bartlett would say, "What's next?" But I can't wait for people to see season three of The Diplomat. I don't even know when it's coming out, but it's going to be fantastic. Best of GoldDerby 'Say Nothing' star Anthony Boyle on playing IRA activist Brendan Hughes: We 'get to the humanity as opposed to the mythology' The Making of 'The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day': PBS variety special 'comes from the heart' From 'Hot Rod' to 'Eastbound' to 'Gemstones,' Danny McBride breaks down his most righteous roles: 'It's been an absolute blast' Click here to read the full article.
Daily Mail
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Oscar-winning actress looks unrecognizable during rare outing in LA... can you guess who she is?
An Oscar-winning actress had fans doing a double take as she stepped out for a rare outing in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The 65-year-old icon — who earned Academy Award gold for playing Tonya Harding's tough-as-nails mother in 2017's I, Tonya — kept a low profile in sunglasses and a baseball cap as she picked up some pastries at a coffee shop in upscale Santa Monica. Dressed in a simple white shirt and faded jeans, the Boston-born beauty looked a far cry from her red carpet days—where she famously took home four Emmys for her role as C.J. Cregg on The West Wing. It was also a stark contrast from her turn as a sexually repressed 1950s housewife on Showtime's Masters of Sex. And later, as recovering addict Bonnie Plunkett on CBS's long-running sitcom Mom (2013–2021), she scored two more Emmys for her unforgettable performance. Can you guess the fabulous actress? The 65-year-old icon — who earned Academy Award gold for playing Tonya Harding's tough-as-nails mother in 2017's I, Tonya — kept a low profile in sunglasses and a baseball cap as she picked up some pastries at a coffee shop in upscale Santa Monica Dressed in a simple white shirt and faded jeans, the Boston-born beauty looked a far cry from her red carpet days—where she famously took home four Emmys for her role as C.J. Cregg on The West Win If you said Allison Janney, you're right! The superstar took home Oscar gold for her chilling turn as LaVona Golden—Harding's chain-smoking, bird-on-the-shoulder, no-nonsense mother in I, Tonya. Screenwriter Steven Rogers wrote the role with her in mind and famously refused to sell the script unless Janney was cast. She later described the part as one of the most demanding of her career. Critics raved, with The Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan declaring, 'Janney steals every scene she's in, playing LaVona, a harridan whose nodding goes beyond tough love.' In 2017, Janney revealed that the role resonated with her in more ways than one. 'I used to have dreams of wanting to be an Olympic figure skater myself,' she said to NPR. 'I was very graceful, but I'm six feet tall, and it turned out I couldn't really do the acrobatics required to be a figure skater. 'So when this happened with Tonya Harding, I was already hooked—I always watched figure skating. It was always part of my life.' Screenwriter Steven Rogers wrote the role with her in mind and famously refused to sell the script unless Janney was cast Born Allison Brooks Janney on November 19, 1959, in Boston and raised in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, the future star didn't rise overnight. Her earliest roles included a black-and-white faux-1940s comedy (Morton & Hayes) and a stint on soap operas like As the World Turns and Guiding Light, where she played one of the Spaulding maids for nearly two years. Her big break came when Aaron Sorkin spotted her in Primary Colors and cast her as White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg in NBC's The West Wing, a role that would cement her as one of the small screen's most formidable talents. Janney has never married and has no children, something she's spoken about openly. 'I've never had that instinct to have kids,' she once said. 'I'm at peace with it.' These days, she's still going strong—currently appearing alongside Blake Lively in Another Simple Favor, the twisty follow-up to the 2018 cult hit.
