HIT THE ROAD, CHUCK
Ais poised to win her first Golden Globe this weekend, thanks to her uncompromising performance as mother in “I, Tonya.” Maybe now people will recognize her.
Despite being 6 feet tall and having won seven Emmys during a career spanning 30 years, Janney tells us that she goes unnoticed on the street.
“I will go to a restaurant and the waitress will go, ‘I feel like I know you. Do you eat here a lot?’” she told us at the Carney Awards in Los Angeles.
Janney may be best known for her seven-year stint as C.J. Cregg on “The West Wing,” which went off the air in 2006. The 58-year-old star (photo inset) thanks being “a character actor” for her relative anonymity and tells us that even when she is recognized, people can’t put their finger on where they saw her.
“People will come up to you ask, ‘What did I see you in?’ and they want you to list your resume,” she said. “It is funny. A lot of people don’t watch TV or they know me from INVISION/AP theater. I still like I am relatively unrecognizable.”
It’s even better for Janney when she goes overseas.
“I was just in Scotland and England,” she said. “I walked around with a cloak of anonymity. It was fantastic.”
No one has ever mistaken Janney for a Mother of the Year candidate. And Golden Globe or not, she doesn’t expect to be asked for parenting tips by filmgoers who see her playing Harding’s mother,
“No, I have never been asked about stuff like that,” she said. “No one has ever come to me for tips on being a good mother. None of my characters are great mothers.”
But Janney does have a soft spot for the Bonnie Plunkett character she plays opposite on the sitcom “Mom,” which returns to CBS on Nov. 2. That role has so far led to a pair of Emmys for Janney.
“Bonnie has a big heart,” she said. Broadway’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is hitting the road on a winning note. The Willy Wonka musical, which ends its run at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Jan. 14, finished 2017 by breaking the 107-year-old theater’s one-week record for ticket sales. Cast and crew celebrated the holidays with a pot luck dinner and Secret Santa exchange. The show kicks off a national tour after wrapping things up on the Great White Way.