ALLISON TACKLES AN ICE QUEEN
The Mom star is skating for gold in her new role
Coming om off the th back of her he Golden Globe G win for Best Supporting Su Actress in I,Tonya, Allison Janney, Jan who plays the mother of infamous infamou figure skater Tonya Harding, Hardin chats to Woman’sDay Wo about her h icy new role.
What was it likelik playing LaVona GoldeGolden?
Unfortunately, Unfortunately I didn’t ever get to meet m her. Writer-producer Writer-produ Steven Rogers tried to find her but couldn’t. couldn Tonya didn’t know kno where she was, if she was alive or dead, nor did she care, which told me m a lot about that relationship relat and the trauma that still stil remains. So this is the awful, a cruel version v that Tonya To tells about LaVona. La I also had some footage of her. I’d thought Steven S had just invented this idea of her wearing a fur coat and having a bird on h her shoulder in the script, but that’s th true.
How familiar werewer you with the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan story?sto
Very familiar. Before I wanted to be an actress, I wanted to be an Olympic figure skater, so I was very much absorbed by the world of figure skating back then. I’d given it up by the time this incident happened, but I was completely riveted by the story and followed it on TV. It was the advent of the 24-hour news cycle, so everyone was fed this story and we couldn’t get enough of it. The narrative was very much that Tonya was guilty. guilty She was the bad girl and Nancy was the ice princess.
What was it like working with Margot Robbie, who plays Tonya?
She’s extraordinary. I find her incredibly brave and fearless, which are qualities that I truly admire in women, especially for someone as young as she is. To be an Australian actress and fight for this role of an iconic American sports figure, it took a lot of guts to do that. She trained for five or six months for the skating alone.
There’s a lot of Oscar buzz for your performance ...
I’m really flattered and cautiously optimistic. I’m an actress – that’s the conversation you want to be a part of and it’s the first time I’ve been in that conversation. I’m excited.