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.
00:09How does that feel?
00:10I know.
00:11It's pretty extraordinary to hear that word in front of my name.
00:15That phrase, Oscar Nominee.
00:19I'm having a special moment right now.
00:21It feels pretty exciting.
00:23Yes, yes.
00:24And you're nominated for Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya.
00:27Your character is LaVonna Golden.
00:30Steven 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
00:43and went up to Portland and started interviewing her and Jeff Galluli separately
00:48because I don't think there's any love lost there.
00:51And then as their stories emerged, the character of LaVonna became this huge figure in their lives.
00:58And he thought, well, I've got to write about her.
00:59And 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.
01:13But I think he just knew that I would make it my goal to ground her
01:19and make her somehow a well-rounded person.
01:24Not just a monster, but a human being who's probably had a pretty terrible childhood herself.
01:30Yes, yes.
01:31What 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 Playhouse 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?
02:04Or should I try this?
02:05And what if this happens?
02:07Can 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.
02:21He 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.
02:31Yeah.
02:31And did you feel liberated that you were able to kind of create this character without the real-life Levana
02:37being 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 do
02:46an imitation of her or something.
02:48Yeah.
02:48I didn't want to do an imitation of anybody.
02:49I wanted to make her 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, what was her childhood
03:10like.
03:11But I think not having that, the luxury of meeting her, I just created her on my own.
03:18Well, from Steven's beautiful creation of her and me doing my work as an actor and filling her up with
03:26her past life and whatever made me connect to her.
03:30And some amazing costume choices and props.
03:33God, Jennifer Johnson was our custom designer and she was, I've never met someone like, she was extraordinary putting together
03:39her look.
03:40My first fitting with Levana, she had everything.
03:43It was, she did so much research, painstaking research on the time period and Levana herself and the fur coat.
03:52I had like six fur coat she had bought to find the perfect one for that, the final, the monologue
03:59that Levana does to direct camera.
04:02We had to find the one that was just matted enough, just a little ratty and just, it was an
04:09extraordinary look.
04:09And I felt so, what's the word, unencumbered by vanity or anything.
04:13But when I went through the three hours of makeup and had the wig on, I just felt liberated by
04:19that look.
04:20It made me not, I disappeared.
04:23Wow.
04:23And I didn't think I was there and I felt empowered by that look and able to really commit to
04:29that character a hundred percent.
04:32I just, I loved, I loved it.
04:36Yeah.
04:36Your fellow nominee Sam Rockwell also plays a character who is unsympathetic at first, but finds redemption.
04:44Did you look to find some redemption for Levana?
04:48I think Steven, Steven thankfully gave me a scene that I think the one scene where you may have some
04:56empathy 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 I believe she must have been abused by her father and her mother didn't step in to help her
05:23or was too nice or just didn't have the strength of character to help her daughter in any way.
05:30So I think Levana very much feels that she's, and as mothers sometimes see their daughters as an extension of
05:36themselves, that she was giving her daughter the chance she never had and wanted her to take advantage of that.
05:43And her daughter threw it all away with this, you know, with the Jeff Galluli, with the mustache as she
05:47refers to him.
05:48And so I think you see the mother's pain in that scene and that, I was thankful that Steven wrote
05:56that.
05:57I think it came, it was a scene that came later, later on in his, his second or third draft.
06:02And 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 side
06:12of her.
06:12Yes.
06:13Yeah.
06:13You know, a lot of female athletes are having a moment where they're speaking out against 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 Nassar and that unbelievable, terrible abuse that
06:34was subjected to all those gymnasts.
06:36And it's, it's horrific.
06:38I haven't heard Tanya.
06:41I got to know a little bit after we made the film.
06:44I didn't meet her before, but she's texts me every once in a while.
06:50And I didn't ever, I never asked her about her specific, what she went through, but she did come up
06:57to me 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 do.
07:05I can't imagine growing up in that kind of environment, but I was so happy to see that she had,
07:11you know, found out a lovely man she's in love with and has a boy and has a, I think
07:15she's turned her life around.
07:17And that made me happy for her to see that she had survived.
07:23She, she survived a lot, that girl, and, and achieved a great deal in spite of what she, what she
07:28was subjected to at home and, and in the world of figure skating, not embracing her for who she was
07:34and 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 to any other athletes.
07:45I think it's interesting in this, this season that, that, um, you know, Aaron Sorkin's movie with Molly who used
07:52to 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.
08:06I, as always, I will watch the figure skating.
08:09I used to be, be a figure skater myself.
08:12So I've always been glued to the, to the winter Olympics and look forward to them, the figure skating, the,
08:18the, the skiing and the one Olympic sport.
08:22I think I could still maybe, um, participate in just the, the luge.
08:28I was just thinking, I think I could probably still do that.
08:33I used to judge how old I was.
08:34I was like, could I still, could I still be an Olympic athlete?
08:37Yes.
08:37I could.
08:38Yeah.
08:40I've always loved the ice dancers.
08:43Oh yeah.
08:43Ice dancing too.
08:44Oh my God.
08:44Torval and Dean was my, those were the, the figure skating, um, ice dancing pair that I just thought I
08:52was in love with them.
08:53Um, that's the one thing I could have maybe done though.
08:56Ice dancing.
08:57Cause I didn't, I'm too tall to have done the, all the acrobatics required to be a figure skater.
09:02Um, but ice dancing.
09:04Um, so I have a few questions for you before we wrap up.
09:09And these are related to the Oscars.
09:11Um, if Jimmy Kimmel were to crack a joke about me, he would say, he, if Jimmy Kimmel were to
09:19crack a joke about me, he would say, um, maybe he'd give me a mother of the year award.
09:28Or maybe he'd say, you know, um, yeah, maybe he'd give me a mother of the year award.
09:37Excellent.
09:38Yeah.
09:39The night wouldn't be complete unless blank happens.
09:42My dreams come true.
09:44Mmm.
09:45That's a good one.
09:47Um, the nominee I'd like to dance with at the after parties is?
09:53Sam Rockwell.
09:55Yes.
09:55Sam and I are, we, we are good dancers together.
09:58We are, yeah, we know how to cut a rug.
10:01I would 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. Steven Rogers.
10:13Excellent choice.
10:14Yep.
10:15The only choice I could, I could possibly make for what he did for me.
10:19But, uh, I wouldn't be nominated without him writing this part for me.
10:23So he's my date.
10:25Yeah.
10:26Last question for you.
10:27What was the first movie you saw that inspired you?
10:32I think one of the movies that is the most delicious to me in terms of, um, the acting and
10:39the, the role, the, the, the, the, um, the story and everything was all about Eve.
10:45Bette Davis and all about Eve.
10:47I 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, it's everything to me, that role and all about Eve.
10:58I love it.
10:59And the costumes.
11:00Well, costumes.
11:01Yeah.
11:02And Addison DeWitt.
11:03And Addison DeWitt.
11:04And the lines and the, the script was just amazing.
11:08Well, that was an excellent choice.
11:09Yeah.
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.
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