Allison Janney: Life on 'The West Wing'

By Bonnie Churchill

February 7, 2000
Web posted at: 2:25 p.m. EST (1925 GMT)

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HOLLYWOOD -- Allison Janney, who plays the President's press secretary, C.J. Cregg, in the critically acclaimed NBC-TV series, "The West Wing," is a woman who is always noticed. "That's because I'm 6 feet tall," she'll tell you.

Janney, along with cast members Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Bradley Whitford, Moira Kelly, John Spencer and Richard Schiff, traveled to Washington, D.C., to film scenes for the hour-long White House drama. She reported: "I also went on a tour of the White House, visited the tourist's spots, including all the monuments, then went to New York to have lunch with former press secretary, Dede Myers."

Is she always this thorough in investigating a role? "I'm afraid so," she said. "It's my training."

Janney was referring to her mother, who was a budding actress in New York, attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and roomed with Eileen Brennan and Rue McClanahan. "She was a great one to research a role, and write a backstory for her character. She never believed in phoning it in," her proud daughter said.

"Her acting career went on the back burner when she met my dad. She decided to get married and have a family. In those days, she didn't think you could do both. She may be right.

"I really didn't make a commitment to be an actress until I went to college," the actress continued. "It was my freshman year at Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio. Paul Newman had graduated from the school and built a wonderful theater on campus. When it opened, he came back to direct the first play in the new edifice. It was Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer Prize play, 'Shadow Box.'"

Both Newman and his Oscar-winning wife, Joanne Woodward, who accompanied him to the college, took an interest in the young student. "I suddenly realized how a director could make a role come to life," Janney said. "I couldn't wait to go to rehearsals. I'd literally run to the theater.

"Mrs. Newman was so supportive. She had attended the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and suggested that I train there. I said, 'OK, I'll do that.' I didn't realize how many great performers had gone there. She helped me to get into the Playhouse without too much fuss. What was really wonderful was I was enrolled in the theater company at the time she was directing there."

Theirs was not a short-lived friendship. The Newmans come to see all of Janney's opening nights, including her first on Broadway. According to the actress, "I knew they were going to be there, for they sent flowers and a note. I also knew my mom and her girlfriend were in that first-night audience. The play was a revival of Noel Coward's 'Present Laughter.'

"I'll never forget it. During the last week of rehearsals, I'd awake each night from a nightmare. It wouldn't be the usual worry about forgetting my lines. I had much too much imagination for that. I'd fancy myself falling into the orchestra pit or collapsing on stage.

"When opening night finally came," she remembered, "minutes before I was to go on, I started sobbing. I'd fashioned my part after my grandmother, and it had so much meaning for me. (But) no matter how nervous or uncomfortable I felt, the minute I stepped on stage, I became calm. I told myself, 'OK, here I am, and I can do this.'

"I never looked at the faces in the audience, but I could feel their warmth and anticipation. It gave me strength."

Janney's second Broadway part was in Arthur Miller's "View From the Bridge," and again she came through with flying colors. She received a Tony nomination, the Outer Critics Circle award and the Drama Desk award for Best Supporting Actress of 1998.

All the attention to her theatrical work -- both before and after these awards -- led to several movie roles, including "Primary Colors," "Drop Dead Gorgeous" and "American Beauty." She described her role in the latter, playing the browbeaten wife of Chris Cooper, as "the most depressed woman on the face of the Earth, straightened hair, circles painted under her eyes and as much spirit as a mackerel." She told her agent, "Don't send any film from this movie to 'The West Wing' producers, for it's light years different from their image of a press secretary!"

She recalled: "I was in Hollywood doing a film when my agent sent me the script for 'The West Wing,' which he described as the best-written script he'd ever seen. I read it and immediately thought it was wonderful. The role of the press secretary got my attention, and I told my agent I wanted it.

"When I did get the role, and the network put it on the schedule, my life completely changed. My apartment, my boyfriend, my everything is in New York. It was just like opening night; but like the Newmans told me, 'Go for it!'"

She added, "I often think of my career as a race, like the tortoise and the hare. I'm the tortoise, I'm slow and steady. My motto is, 'Easy does it.' I've always known, deep inside, that I would find work. I tell myself, just be patient and have a good sense of humor."

How has success in the TV series, rated by many critics as the best of the season, changed her? "I've always been a shopaholic. Some day I'd like to buy a house and have a trip around the world. That's a dream. The reality is, I was going shopping for a dress for an awards ceremony. The wardrobe department said I could borrow one of the pretty gowns I wear on the show. So I put away my credit card and wore the dress."

Her one real extravagance? She has apartments on both coasts. "No matter how much I work in Hollywood," the actress said, "New York is my home, and Vermont is my place to unwind."

Allison Janney could have added, "and the stage is my first love." She's hoping to spend her summer hiatus from "The West Wing" doing Shakespeare at the New York Public Theater in Central Park. Last summer she starred in its production of "The Taming of the Shrew." In effect, she's doing a Hillary -- going from the White House to New York -- and loving it.

Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate

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