Allison Janney | LaVona Golden, “I, Tonya”
What was different about this role for you?
The idea of playing a real-life character was a bit of a challenge and slightly scary ... and although I did not get to meet LaVona prior to filming, I was able to view footage of her online. I spent days trying to find whatever I could on the internet to help me get her speech patterns, her facial expressions and an insight into what made her tick. Then I took what I learned and filled in the rest with some intuition and creative license.
What does the nomination mean to you at this moment?
This is definitely an exciting time for me. Of course every actor dreams of this moment, and the fact that one of my closest friends [screenwriter Steven Rogers] gave me the gift of this part makes this nomination so profound. It makes it special for our whole group of friends [who] have all supported each other through the years. I’m just so grateful to everyone who went out to see “I, Tonya” and loved this movie as much as I loved making it.
When were you aware the reactions to this performance were different from your others?
Memes. There were loads of memes. And loads of stuff with my face on it. “Wait, hold on, that’s never happened with my performances before.” [laughs] I haven’t been on Instagram. It was kind of going everywhere, everyone was talking about it. I’d never had an experience on this scale. People wanted to make art out of the stuff we’d done. People taking ownership of it and making it their own.
What does the nomination mean to you at this moment?
It’s life-changing. The realms of possibility have widened. I can stand a bit straighter in terms of decisions moving forward in what I want to do.