Allison Janney Talks "Extraordinary" Oscar Nomination For 'I, Tonya' | Meet Your Nominee - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Allison Janney is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as LaVona Golden in 'I, Tonya'

Transcript

00:00Hi, this is Mariah Dello from The Hollywood Reporter, and this is Meet Your Oscar Nominee.

00:05I have Allison Janney with me today.

00:08Hi, Mariah.

00:08How does that feel?

00:10I know.

00:11It's pretty extraordinary to hear that word in front of my name, that phrase, Oscar Nominee.

00:19I'm having a special moment right now.

00:21It feels pretty exciting.

00:22Yes, yes.

00:23And you're nominated for Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya.

00:27Your character is LaVonna Golden.

00:30Stephen Rogers wrote this piece specifically for you, this character.

00:34He did.

00:35I don't think he knew that I was going to be in this movie.

00:39I think he initially just went up and wanted to write a movie about Tonya Harding and went

00:44up to Portland and started interviewing her and Jeff Galluli separately, because I don't

00:49think there's any love lost there.

00:51And then as their stories emerged, the character of LaVonna became this huge figure in their

00:57lives.

00:58And he thought, well, I've got to write about her.

01:00And then he decided it was going to be my part.

01:04And he was excited to write it for me.

01:06And at first you'd think, well, you're good friends.

01:09And he thought of you to play this pretty monstrous character.

01:12But I think he just knew that I would make it my goal to ground her and make her somehow

01:21a well-rounded person, not just a monster, but a human being who's probably had a pretty

01:28terrible childhood herself.

01:29What was Steven's reaction when he saw the final result?

01:36Of my work?

01:37Yeah.

01:38Well, he's always been such a champion of mine since our early days at the Neighborhood

01:45Playhouse together.

01:46And he's just always been very supportive of me as an actress.

01:52And he was very much there for a lot of my filming of doing this.

01:56So I would sit in my trailer with him and go over the lines and talk about the scenes

02:03and, should I try this or should I try this?

02:05And what if this happens?

02:06Can you give me something else to say here?

02:08So he was so much a part of the process for me that he knew.

02:12And he also would get the dailies on his computer.

02:15And he would call me and say, oh, my God, I can't wait to show you the scene that you

02:19did here.

02:20It was really great.

02:20He was thrilled with every part of it.

02:23So, yeah, he made me pretty confident about what I had done.

02:28He made me feel confident more than I usually do.

02:31And did you feel liberated that you were able to kind of create this character without the

02:36real life Levana being involved?

02:38I did feel a little less intimidated.

02:40I think I was a little terrified that I was going to have to meet this woman and somehow

02:45do an imitation of her or something.

02:47I didn't want to do an imitation of anybody.

02:49I wanted to make her my mine.

02:51And so I was a little bit relieved when he told me they couldn't find her.

02:56And, you know, I definitely would have asked her.

02:59I had a lot of questions to ask her.

03:02And I'm not sure her answers would have helped me in my performance.

03:05But it just would have been interesting for me to know what had happened to her.

03:09What was her childhood like?

03:10But I think not having that, I was the luxury of meeting her.

03:16I just, I created her on my own from, well, from Stephen's beautiful creation of her and

03:22me doing my work as an actor and filling her up and with her past life and whatever made

03:28me connect to her.

03:30And some amazing costume choices and props.

03:32God, Jennifer Johnson was our costume designer.

03:35And she was, I've never met someone like, she was extraordinary putting together her look.

03:40My first fitting with LaVonna, she had everything.

03:43It was, she did so much research, painstaking research on the time period and LaVonna herself

03:50and the fur coat.

03:52I had like six fur coats she had bought to find the perfect one for that, the final, with

03:58the monologue that LaVonna does to direct camera.

04:01We had to find the one that was just matted enough, just a little ratty and just, it was

04:08an extraordinary look.

04:09And I felt so, what's the word, unencumbered by vanity or anything when I, when I had,

04:14went through the three hours of makeup and had the wig on and the, I just felt liberated

04:19by that look.

04:20It made me not, I disappeared and I didn't think I was there.

04:24And I felt empowered by that look and able to really commit to that character a hundred

04:30percent.

04:30And I just, I loved, I loved it.

04:35Yeah.

04:36Yeah.

04:36Your fellow nominee, Sam Rockwell also plays a character who is unsympathetic at first,

04:42but finds redemption.

04:44Did you look to find some redemption for LaVonna?

04:47I think Stephen, Stephen thankfully gave me a scene that I think the one scene where you

04:55may have some empathy for her is the scene in the diner where she lashes out at her daughter,

05:01but you see underneath that scene, a woman who was let down by her childhood, by her mother.

05:08And I assumed that she was probably abused as a child because abuse tends to be cyclical.

05:16And, and, um, I believe she must've been abused by her father and her mother didn't step in

05:22to help her or was too nice or, or just didn't have, um, the strength of character to help her

05:29daughter in any way.

05:30So I think LaVonna very much feels that she's, and as mothers sometimes see their daughters as

05:35an extension of themselves, that she was giving her daughter the chance she never had and

05:41wanted her to take advantage of that.

05:43And her daughter threw it all away with this, you know, with the Jeff Galooly, with the mustache

05:47as she refers to him.

05:48And so I think you see the mother's pain in that scene and that I was thankful that Stephen

05:55wrote that.

05:56I think it came, it was a scene that came later, later on in his, his second or third draft.

06:01And he decided, when he decided he was going to let me play her, that he wanted me to play

06:05her, he wanted her to have that, that scene where you, where she was, you got to see another

06:11side of her.

06:12Yes.

06:13Yeah.

06:13I, you know, a lot of, uh, female athletes are having a moment where they're speaking out

06:17against abuse.

06:18Have you heard from any athletes about this movie?

06:21I have not.

06:22Of course, I've watched all the, all the, everything in the news about, um, um, Nassar

06:29and that unbelievable, terrible, um, abuse that was subjected to all those gymnasts.

06:36And it's, it's horrific.

06:38Um, I haven't heard Tanya.

06:40Um, I got to know a little bit after we made the film.

06:44I didn't meet her before, but, um, she's texts me every once in a while and, and I didn't

06:51ever, I never asked her, um, about her specific, what she went through, but she did come up to

06:57me after seeing the movie and said, that was, you nailed it.

07:00That's my mother to a T and I just hugged her.

07:03I didn't know what else to, to do.

07:04I can't imagine growing up in that kind of environment, but I was so happy to see that

07:10she had, you know, found a lovely man she's in love with and has a boy and has a, I think

07:15she's turned her life around and that made me happy for her to see that she had survived.

07:22She, she survived a lot, that girl, and then achieved a great deal in spite of what she,

07:27what she was subjected to, um, at home and, and in the world of figure skating, not embracing

07:33her for who she was and what her, what she could do, her skills, her undeniable skills.

07:37And they just didn't want her to be, um, embraced, but, but I haven't personally spoken

07:43to any other athletes.

07:45I think it's interesting in this, this season that, that, um, you know, Aaron Sorkin's movie

07:50with, uh, who is used to be, I guess she was an Olympic, um, skier or something.

07:56Um, and, uh, I can't wait to watch the Olympics.

08:00They're going to be on in a minute.

08:01I was going to ask you that.

08:02Yeah.

08:03Is there something you're looking forward to particularly?

08:05Of course, I, as always, I will watch the figure skating.

08:09I used to be a, be a figure skater myself, so I've always been glued to the, to the

08:14winter Olympics and look forward to them, the figure skating, the, the, the skiing and

08:20the one Olympic sport I think I could still maybe, um, participate in just the, the luge.

08:27I was just thinking, I think I could probably still do that.

08:32I used to judge how old I was.

08:34I was like, could I still, could I still be an Olympic athlete?

08:37Yes, I could.

08:37Yeah.

08:39I've always loved the ice dancers.

08:42Oh yeah.

08:43Ice dancing too.

08:43Oh my God.

08:44Torval and Dean.

08:45Torval and Dean was my, those were the, the figure skating, um, ice dancing pair that

08:50I just thought I was in love with them.

08:53That's the one thing I could have maybe done though, ice dancing.

08:56Cause I didn't, I'm too tall to have done the, all the acrobatics required to be a figure

09:01skater, um, but ice dancing.

09:04Let's do that.

09:06Um, so I have a few questions for you before we wrap up and these are related to the Oscars.

09:11Um, if Jimmy Kimmel were to crack a joke about me, he would say.

09:15Um, he, if Jimmy Kimmel were to crack a joke about me, he would say, um, maybe he'd give

09:26me a mother of the year award or maybe he'd say, you know, um, yeah, maybe he'd give me

09:34a mother of the year award.

09:36Excellent.

09:37Yeah.

09:38The night wouldn't be complete unless blank happens.

09:42My dreams come true.

09:44Hmm.

09:45That's a good one.

09:46Um, the nominee I'd like to dance with at the after parties is?

09:53Sam Rockwell.

09:55Sam and I are, we've, we are good dancers together.

09:58We are, yeah, we know how to cut a rug and we have fun dancing with Sam.

10:03And who's your date for the Oscars this year?

10:05My date for the Oscars is the man who made all of this possible for me, uh, Mr. Stephen Rogers.

10:12Excellent choice.

10:14Yeah, the only choice I could, I could possibly make for what he did for me, but, uh, I wouldn't

10:20be nominated without him writing this part for me.

10:23So he's my date.

10:25Yeah.

10:25Last question for you.

10:27What was the first movie you saw that inspired you?

10:29Um, I think one of the movies that is the most delicious to me in terms of, um, the acting

10:38and the, the role, the, the, the, the, um, the story and everything was all about Eve.

10:45Bette Davis and all about Eve.

10:46I watched that and I go, my God, that's a role I would have, I would love to have played.

10:52It's just everything.

10:53It's everything.

10:54It's, it's, it's, it's everything to me, that role and all about Eve.

10:58I love it.

10:59And the costumes.

11:00Well, costumes, yeah.

11:01And Addison DeWitt and the lines and the script was just amazing.

11:08Well, that is an excellent choice.

11:09Alison Janney, thank you so much for being here today.

11:11You're so welcome.

11:12Thank you for having me.

11:13We're going to see you in March on Oscar night.

11:16March 4th.

11:17I look forward to it.

11:18All right.

Allison Janney Talks "Extraordinary" Oscar Nomination For 'I, Tonya' | Meet Your Nominee

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