Janney channels her inner toughness

THERE are two things Oscar nominee Allison Janney is asked about most when it comes to I, Tonya, in which she plays Lavona Golden, figure skater Tonya Harding’s tough-as-nails mother.

One is about all the physical abuse the fictional character directs at her daughter, who is played by Margot Robbie. The other is about the bird that sits on Janney’s shoulder, pecking at her as she re-enacts an interview in the film. (Janney sported a fake bird in part of the Golden Globes.)

While the real Golden has denied hitting or hurting her daughter, the interview with her, wearing fur and the bird, very much happened. Janney,

58, chatted to me about how she channelled her harsh inner critic for the role and why she thinks she escaped being sexually harassed during her career.

When I saw your scene with the fur jacket and the bird, I thought this was jumping the shark. But no, it was an accurate depiction.

I never in my wildest dreams would’ve imagined that that’s what she would look like. That is (an) interview that I saw of her, and that’s what she was wearing. It’s just so fantastically bizarre

Was it Tonya’s telling of the story that everyone was a competitor, that she wasn’t supposed to be friends with anybody she competed against?

This is Tonya’s version that her mother wouldn’t let her be friends, didn’t want her to have anything that would distract her from getting the gold. According to Lavona, every penny she earned went to Tonya’s skating, and she wasn’t going to let her waste a minute of it, knowing the deck was stacked against her.

You had to play somebody with such anger and maintain that anger all the way through. How did you get to that place of venom and hardness over and over?

Just coming up against somebody telling you you had to be a certain way to get something. I can immediately connect to an anger about that.

Why?

I’ve always had a very harsh critic in my head. I use it when I need to bring that out. But I’m kinder to myself these days.

So you always knew there was, to use this terrible term, a casting couch. But have you ever had to deal with it?

I never had to deal with the casting couch. I’m really grateful, but I also think that was probably because I started working in my late 30s and I’m six feet tall. I probably wasn’t someone that seemed approachable in that way. Fortunately for me, that’s where my height and age helped out. But how wonderful to think of a time when no actress will have to ever deal with that. – The New York Times

I, Tonya is on circuit.