Bartlet4America News Archive

Allison Janney on Letterman

Thanks to Erica for the transcript.

DL - David Letterman
AJ - Allison Janney

DL: Welcome back to the program.
AJ: Thank you!
DL: Boy, you look, great, you have your lovely summer suit on.
AJ: Yes I do and I’m just going to make sure that I am in it. (checks to make sure not too much skin is showing)
DL: (laughs)
AJ: Good.
DL: Oh, my goodness.
AJ: Yes.
DL: Have you ever ridden in a freight elevator?
AJ: (laughs) I can’t remember the last time I rode in a freight elevator but I, I do have a -- I had an interesting encounter on a regular kind of elevator. Kind of a it was a close encounter on an elevator
DL: What happened?
AJ: Ok, I was doing this movie, it was years ago. I had a 6AM call. I got on the elevator and my co-star who I never met got on the elevator and the doors closed and we, uh—he started uh—we had a kissing kind of thing happen in the elevator.
DL: Really?
AJ: For the whole way down to the first floor and the doors open and it was like everybody could see on the set and that was it. Never spoken of again
DL: So the two of you were on the elevator and the guy was all over you? That’s what you’re saying?
AJ: Yeah it was really kind of exciting.
DL: And it’s going down to the lobby?
AJ: Yeah.
DL: And at the lobby you break into separate corners?
AJ: Doors open, and it never happened.
DL: Wow, and did you talk to him about it after that?
AJ: Nope, never mentioned it
DL: And how did you find the experience?
AJ: It was really fun. I recommend it highly (laughs)
DL: Because see, if I were to try that, I would be arrested before we got to the lobby. The security would be there waiting for me and I would be lead away in handcuffs.
AJ: I, for one, would not press charges.
DL: Thank you. You would be the only one then.
AJ: No, I don’t think so.
DL: Did you have time off with the West Wing and the movie? You don’t get time off…
AJ: I don’t get much time off but I didn’t get anything I auditioned for this summer (laughs) so I had some free time.
DL: Oh, well, good for you.
AJ: And it was nice to have because I usually am such a work-aholic but I did get to go --one of my dreams has been to go to Italy, I had never been and I thought what fun it would be to go to Italy with some girlfriends and just go crazy. And I went with Janel Moloney who plays Donna on the West Wing and Melissa Fitzgerald who plays my assistant so the three of us did a kind of Charlie’s Angels number in Italy. And it’s kind of great, exciting things happen when thee women travel in Italy.
DL: Well, I would guess so. How long were you there? What part of the country did you travel?
AJ: We first, I hooked up with them at Positano on the coast, which is absolutely unbelievable. We three would go out for dinner and get free drinks, free food, free offers for dates from the waiters and rides on motorcycles—it was crazy. And the owner of the hotel—I know this is…I kinda—they were the MVP players. I don’t what I brought but Janel has very long blonde hair and Melissa has long dark hair. And the owner of the hotel wanted to take us out on his fishing boat. And he met us at 11 AM with a huge bottle of champagne which we drank. And we got on his fishing boat and went to the Island of the Sirens and swam in the
Mediterranean and had another couple bottles of white wine and then went to a restaurant, some local restaurant on the coast that no one knows about and had more red wine and octopus and it was just an extraordinary, magical day.
DL: And is it because he knew you as actresses?
AJ: No, he had never heard of The West Wing, didn’t know who we were, didn’t care. You know we were…
DL: Just babes.
AJ: Three…
DL: Just hot babes.
AJ: Three, you know, hot babes.
DL: Well, good for you.
(audience applause)
AJ: It was just spectacular. And then we went to Rome, you know, I never thought of it this way but three girls traveling to Rome and we don’t speak the language and I thought of three women traveling to New York City who don’t speak English, and I though what, you’ve got to be crazy, it’s sort of difficult -- Rome is a huge city, and it’s a little overwhelming but then again you know, I found that, Melissa was our MVP player in Rome because the men like the dark haired ladies in Rome.
DL: Were they very touchy, trying to grab you?
AJ: With her they would do this you know (rubs Dave’s cheeks) rubbing on the cheek kind of thing, pinching her cheeks. At least those cheeks. I’ve heard stories about the others
DL: In passing this would happen?
AJ: Yes. And we this is extraordinary because I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Sistine Chapel, but you go there and you get in line and it’s like the line goes for miles, and we were like, 400th in line. And Melissa was trying to read the guide book and saying oh you’re supposed to run right to the Sistine Chapel and not look at any of the art work. And she wanted to find out from the guard or someone up front if it was, do you go up or down. And the guy fell in love with her and said “Are you with anybody?” and she said “Just my two girlfriends” and he said bring ‘em on up here. And he let us in to the Sistine chapel, we went through security, we didn’t have to check our bags, we didn’t have to pay for tickets, we went right into the Sistine Chapel and laid down on the floor and we were there for like, 10 minutes by ourselves.
DL: Well, you know, the Catholic church is trying to clean up its image.
AJ: (laughs)
DL: So it’s whatever you want. Come in lay down on the floor.
AJ: Well that’s supposed to be the best way to view it to, get down on the floor. You are not supposed to, but…
DL: No, I wouldn’t think so but I can understand that it would be the best perspective, absolutely. … Now this movie How to Deal opens on Friday, let’s take a look at a clip of the film.
AJ: Oh, sure, I think the clip is, my character has just gone through an awful divorce. Her husband leaves her and my girlfriend is going through the personal video dating service things and she’s just done hers and she wants me to do one. So I think that’s…
DL: That’s what we’re going to see here…How to Deal…opens on Friday…
[CLIP of AJ’s character being filmed by her friend, her character is
men-bashing]
DL: There you go, AJ, it was nice to see you again.
AJ: Nice to see you, too, Dave.
DL: Thank you very much, the film opens on Friday.

-transcribed by Erica-