MY LIFE IN 10 PICTURES
Look back at Allison Janney’s varied film, TV and stage career.
“I love the act of acting and experimenting; I just have fun doing it.”
— Allison
1959 ALL IN THE FAMILY “She is probably the reason I became an actress,” noted Allison of her mother, Macy Brooks Putnam, a fellow thespian and friend of Golden Girl Rue McClanahan.
1998 FULL SPECTRUM She hit it off with co-star John Travolta in director Mike Nichols’ 1998 political pic Primary Colors. “I couldn’t get enough of him,” she’s raved about John. “He was extraordinary.” Luckily, the pair would reunite nearly a decade later for the 2007 musical Hairspray.
WITH EARLY Hollywood mentors like Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Allison Brooks Janney might seem like she was always destined for the big screen. But growing up in Dayton, Ohio, the future thespian’s first passion was actually figure skating! “I never in a million years imagined for myself that I would be in television and movies,” Allison said. Unfortunately,
a “crazy, life-changing” accident on the ice cut her skating career short and made room for her move to the stage. “My life just took a turn and I went with it.” Yet, that twist of fate led her to be a figure of consistency in an industry of ups and downs. “Acting is really healthy for me,” Allison, who turns 58 on Nov. 19,
reflected. “It’s the only time I feel really connected.”
“Aaron Sorkin wrote me one of the best female roles on television,” she enthused of playing White House press secretary and chief of staff C.J. Cregg on The West Wing — a role that earned her four Primetime Emmy Awards. “She was a great role model for women,” Allison explained. “Very human and very likable; you always wanted to root for her.”
She made quite the splash as Peach the starfish in the Pixar animated adventure Finding Nemo. “She’s very sarcastic, very dry — and that’s hard to do in an aquarium,” she joked. “It’s weird accepting your voice coming out of an animated character, but the thing that’s great about it is I can [record] without makeup. I go in my sweatpants usually!” “I felt like I was the voice for anyone who has ever had to deal with racist [people]. It was so satisfying,” she insisted about her role in The Help. What was also satisfying was the bond she built with co-stars like Emma Stone. “What I love about her is she doesn’t care about vanity — she’s a real actress.” “I never wanted to do a caricature of a lesbian,” said Allison on bringing an authenticity to
Meryl Streep’s girlfriend, Sally, in their drama The Hours. As for being intimate with her female co-star? “It was pretty epic,” she reminisced. “I mean, how many actresses can say they kissed Meryl Streep in a movie?”
“I think [writer Diablo Cody] wanted to debunk the evil stepmother myth and she took it in a whole new direction,” Allison mused of playing an unusually supportive matriarch to Ellen Page’s pregnant teenager in the indie comedy, Juno. “It was just so bold and brash and funny — I loved it and I adore [Ellen].” “I love that this show lets us go to the dark, real places,” she says of her return to TV as a recovering addict (alongside co-star Anna Faris) on the CBS sitcom Mom. “Getting to act with [Anna] is one of the greatest pleasures of my life.”
Translating the 1980 comedy
9 to 5 to a Broadway musical was “the time of my life,” she raves. “The theater is my first love; it’s something different [from film] and a challenge.” Receiving her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was “surreal and fantastic” for the actress, who still admits, “I don’t put too much importance on [awards and honors], but it feels great to be validated.”