Allison Janney

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of maximumfun.org and is distributed by NPR.

**Jesse Thorn** (0:21)
It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn. Quick heads up, there is a little swearing and talk about sex in this next interview.
Allison Janney says that in her 20s, she was always getting cast as a 40-year-old. It makes sense, because she's just kind of elegant. In fact, she was about 40 when she got the role that would make her career as the press secretary, CJ Cregg, on The West Wing.

**Allison Janney** (0:44)
What the hell happened? I had root canal. What happened to your cheeks?
I had root canal. Why are you talking like that? I had root canal.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:55)
Yeah, I heard you the first time.

**Jesse Thorn** (0:56)
I was just amusing myself.

**Allison Janney** (0:58)
I can suggest some other things you can do with yourself.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:01)
Are you in pain?

**Jesse Thorn** (1:01)
I had root canal. You're gonna need to stop saying that, because you just look and sound so ridiculous.

**Allison Janney** (1:07)
I have to cancel the briefing. You can't cancel the briefing. Look at me.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:11)
You'll be great.

**Jesse Thorn** (1:12)
I can't do the briefing. Why not? I can't even say the briefing. You can't cancel the briefing, CJ.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:17)
You got to wrap up O'Leary.

**Jesse Thorn** (1:18)
You got to move him back to the bill sign. Yes, you are. I'm sorry. Did you just say my name? Janney won four Emmys for that part, which let her stretch her gifts. She was by turns sharp and warm, maternal and sexy. When we talked in 2014, she was starring on two TV shows, Showtime's Masters of Sex and CBS's Mom. In 2018, Janney earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her part in I, Tonya, Tonya Harding Biopic. She played Lavanya Faye Golden.
Golden was the mother of Tonya Harding, who was played by Margot Robbie. Did you?
I mean, when I was a kid, did you ever love me or anything?

**Allison Janney** (2:08)
You think Sonia Henney's mother loved her?

**Jesse Thorn** (2:11)
Poor f*** you.

**Allison Janney** (2:14)
I didn't stay home making Apple Brown Bettys.

**Jon Moe** (2:16)
No, I made you a champion.

**Allison Janney** (2:19)
Knowing you'd hate me for it, that's the sacrifice a mother makes. I wish I had a mother like me instead of nice, nice get your s***.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:27)
I didn't like my mother either, so what?

**Allison Janney** (2:29)
I f*** gave you a gift. You cursed me.
Spilled milk, baby.

**Jesse Thorn** (2:45)
Earlier this year, Allison Janney starred in Miss You, Love You. She plays Diane in the film. Diane just lost her husband and needs some help getting his affairs in order. She calls on her son, a successful globetrotting journalist, but he's too busy, so he sends his assistant, Jamie, played by Andrew Reynolds. You can watch it now on HBO Max. Anyway, this was, and I'm absolutely being for real here, one of my favorite interviews of all time.
Allison Janney, let's listen.
Welcome to Bullseye, it's great to have you on the show.

**Allison Janney** (3:26)
Thanks, Jesse, I'm happy to be here.

**Jesse Thorn** (3:28)
I want to ask you a little bit about the beginning of your career. There's not a lot of actors and actresses out there who can say that they were discovered in college by Paul Newman. That's a pretty rock solid origin story.

**Allison Janney** (3:45)
Yeah, that's a pretty cool, a very cool beginnings of a career story.

**Jon Moe** (3:50)
How did it happen?

**Allison Janney** (3:51)
Well, I went to Kenyon College, which is where Paul Newman graduated, and they built a beautiful new theater there called the Bolton Theater. To christen it, they invited Paul to come and direct the first play that would be produced in the theater. That happened to be my freshman year.
Of course, everybody was auditioning for it. Didn't matter if you were interested in the theater or not. Everyone wanted to be in something that Paul Newman directed.
There was a lot of competition for that, and they had people audition by just coming up on stage and talking to Paul for like a minute, or you had like, you know, you had a minute, and that was it, and you could get off. And I decided I would appeal to his love of driving cars. So I bragged about how in my Scirocco, I could drive from Dayton, Ohio to Gambier, Ohio, in an hour and 32 minutes if I took route 22 I just made up some, you know, of course, I really didn't drive that fast, but I kind of lied a little bit, and made the story sound very exciting. And I was like, and that's how I got to Kenyon. And I'm sure that had nothing to do with why I got it. I probably just looked the part. I was supposed to be a bunch of rag-tagged chorus girls that just, you know, and there I was, you know, six feet tall, and I probably got cast in that because of my height and my ridiculous, physicality next to the other chorus girls, and I've always thought I looked otherworldly, or 1940, you know, I could easily be from that era.