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July 21, 2003
What's in and out of Allison Janney's comfort zone
BY CHRIS HEWITT
Pioneer Press
BY CHRIS HEWITT
Pioneer Press
If it weren't for the airplanes, Allison Janney would spend more time in St. Paul.
Janney, who stars in the new "How to Deal" and does a voice in the year's biggest hit, "Finding Nemo," is not above taking jobs so she can be close to her brother, Hal, who lives here. "Prairie Home Companion," for instance.
"I'm afraid of flying, and I didn't want to do it because of all the flying back and forth involved, but my being able to be with my brother pushed me over the edge, so I did the show for a while, actually," says Janney. "I love my brother very much, and I miss him, and it was a good job, too."
The other time Janney worked in Minnesota, filming a role as the wise-cracking best friend of Kirstie Alley in "Drop Dead Gorgeous," it was job first, brother second.
"Well, I was glad I got to see Hal while I was there, but that movie I just loved," Janney says.
Janney, who has won three Emmys for playing C.J. Gregg on "The West Wing" (and was just nominated for another), doesn't always make career decisions based on the proximity of siblings, though. "How to Deal," in which she plays the emotionally confused mother of a teenager played by Mandy Moore, appealed to her because she wasn't as together or authoritative as C.J.
"I liked how vulnerable the character, Liddy, was and that she still had to be strong and keep her family together, anyway. I like people trying to do two things at once," Janney says. "And I really liked the director and the things she wanted for the movie."
Some actors are reluctant to talk about what their directors contributed to their performances. Not Janney, who says Clare Kilner was a big help: "I like directors who spark my imagination and don't sidle up to me to say, 'Do it louder or faster or funnier,' you know? I wouldn't tell them to direct louder. Clare wasn't like that. She would come up to me and say, 'Your character could be alone for the rest of her life,' and it wouldn't have anything to do with my lines, but it helped put me in an emotional place so the scene had a life to it."
SMART, FUNNY, CANDID
There are some ways in which Liddy is like C.J., and Janney admits she tends to choose parts from within her comfort zone. "I should be more in the vein of wanting to be challenged and doing things I'm afraid of, but I usually go for things where I think, 'Yeah, I can do that.' But the truth is, I've always done my best work in parts where I think, 'I can't believe they hired me. This is not me.' "
One of those would seem to be the maternal starfish for whom she supplies the voice in "Finding Nemo." Not so. "I went into the meetings with the 'Nemo' people thinking I needed to have a bunch of voices prepared, but no. The reason I got the job was that (writer/director) Andrew Stanton was such a 'West Wing' fan, and he wanted to have my voice in the movie."
Janney comes across in a phone interview as smart, funny and candid. (Why didn't she read the book on which "How to Deal" is based? "To be honest, I didn't have time.") She unleashes that great guffaw easily, and she gets excited even at the end of a long day of interviews when she learns about a new record she might love, the Bad Plus' Dave Brubeck-y "These Are the Vistas."
"I love music," says the daughter and sister of musicians. "It's one of the most important things in my life, and it informs everything with me. I can't even tell you how many CDs I have. Anyway, whatever the emotional content of a scene is, I put together my IPOD play list so I have mood music to put me in the right place."
It even helped her figure out how a starfish could sound like her. For "Nemo," she listened to lots of jazz by Mose Allison and others. ("It had nothing to do with the movie but, still, it helped.") For "How to Deal," it was lots of solo guitar music ("Anything that made me feel alone. And I also listened to one of my favorites, the soundtrack to 'The Mission,' because it makes me feel full of emotion, so I can access emotions very easily").
SECOND NATURE
One job that no longer requires music is "The West Wing." Janney hasn't used music for years there because playing C.J. is second nature to her. She says the show is still fun, and she obviously likes the people — she just returned from a vacation in Italy with Janel Moloney (who plays Donna) and Melissa Fitzgerald (C.J.'s assistant, Carol). But this season, the first without creator Aaron Sorkin, who was reportedly forced out of the show because of missed deadlines, is a question mark. Especially since it comes on the heels of a fourth season in which reviews and ratings were down.
"We go back to work the 21st. I have no idea what's going to happen," says Janney. "We were all devastated that Aaron is leaving us because he's the star of the show and we could not imagine it without him, but now it's our reality that he's gone. That's what's in front of us, and we can either dread it or accept it and be excited about the new opportunities, which is what I'm choosing to do."
Janney says nothing but good things about the show, which gave her career a huge boost, but if there's a little ambivalence about going back to "The West Wing," it wouldn't be surprising since it makes it difficult for her to do other work (even her small part in "The Hours" required getting a week off from the show, the only time one of the actors has been granted that freedom).
There might be one other reason for ambivalence, too.
"The West Wing" films most of its scenes in Los Angeles, but its cast occasionally goes on location in Washington, D.C.
Which, for Janney, means flying without a brother anywhere in sight.
Posted by Jo at July 21, 2003 09:30 AM