Allison Janney Career Retrospective | SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations

Career Q&A with Allison Janney. Moderated by Debra Birnbaum, Variety.
In addition to starring in MOM, Emmy Award winner Allison Janney recently guest starred in the cable series "Masters of Sex." Her recent film credits include "Get on Up," "The Way, Way Back," "Touchy Feely," "Trust Me" and "Bad Words." She lent her voice to the animated film "Mr. Peabody & Sherman." Janney co-starred in the Academy Award-nominated film "The Help," for which the cast won ensemble awards from the Screen Actors Guild, National Board of Review and the Broadcast Film Critics. Janney appeared in the Oscar-winning ensemble hit "Juno," and in the movie version of the Tony Award-winning play "Hairspray." For her role in "Life During Wartime," she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress by the Spirit Awards. She also appeared in "Away We Go," "Strangers with Candy," and was heard as the voice of "Gladys" in the animated film "Over the Hedge," as well as "Peach" in "Finding Nemo." Janney received another Spirit Award nomination for her work in the independent feature "Our Very Own," and starred opposite Meryl Streep in "The Hours," which received a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture. Other feature credits include the Academy Award-winning film "American Beauty" (for which she won a SAG Award for Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture), "Nurse Betty," "How to Deal," "Drop Dead Gorgeous," "10 Things I Hate About You," "Primary Colors," "The Ice Storm," "Six Days Seven Nights," "The Object of My Affection" and "Big Night." Janney is perhaps best known for her starring role as White House Press Secretary CJ Cregg in the television series "The West Wing," for which she won four Emmy Awards and four SAG Awards. While she was a freshman studying acting at Kenyon College in Ohio, Janney auditioned for Paul Newman. Soon after, Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward suggested she study at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. She followed their advice and went on to make her Broadway debut in Noel Coward's "Present Laughter," for which she earned the Outer Critics Circle Award and Clarence Derwent Award. Also, she appeared in Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge," receiving her first Tony Award nomination and winning the Outer Critics Circle Award. Janney was last seen on Broadway in the musical "9 to 5," for which she earned a Tony Award nomination and won the Drama Desk Award.

[@reidrr41]

THIS INTERVIEWER IS ONE OF THE BEST EVER.SHE ASKS THE QUESTION AND THEN SHUTS UP AND LET'S JANNEY TALK. ALL THESE LATE NITE 'STARS' SHOULD STUDY HER METHOD

[@juleebailey3046]

Allison Janney is one of my favorite actresses of all time.

[@KKG51]

What a terrific and classy lady!! So refreshing to see someone so down to earth.

[@angelabluebird609]

...and she can do The Jackal !

[@BiahCrazy]

This woman is amazing. Such a classy, beautiful person

[@AhmedHasan-px1tr]

101

[@siddharthnaagar7028]

Allison Janney is the greatest actress ever

[@earlymodern2007]

Please could you improve the sound here? The audience is louder than the glorious Allison!

[@aaadj2744]

I still adored her character in American Beauty

[@lv16jismij]

Peach from Finding Nemo, 20-year-old animation, brought me here.

[@ianmatthews137]

When she laughs...I melt.

[@MultiKarola]

talluah was great

[@jordancrawford3524]

THE KAISER LADY

[@socialweb4717]

Juno is GREAT

[@EvieMatavelli]

Audio is bad :(

[@samwalters9712]

I think it's your speakers.

[@lonimeeker3979]

Allison is the best actress out there. I just watched an interview with Allison and Larry king who made her feel really at home and he was very warm and inviting and she was able to be a lot more relaxed and cute and funny and adorable. I really didn’t like this interview because the moderator just sort of sat there and smiled and poor Allison talked a mile a minuteAnd seemed very nervous. So that’s what I saw.

[@siddharthnaagar7028]

The legend

[@spammyhell6566]

Wonderful to hear ABJ speak abt her craft and her journey. She was quite nervous though, which made for some awkward moments, not at all helped by the interviewer, who took "awkward" to new heights. Maybe it's just me, but interviewer's interactions seemed to grind everything to a cringe-y halt more often than not. Still, I'm happy to have watched.

[@B4andafterbeauty12]

The “interviewer” was almost non-existent”.