“I’m actually a pretty shy person in real life with new people.”
― Allison Janney
“I say I’m 5 feet 12 inches. I’m definitely 6 feet. In my heels, I’m 6 feet 3 inches.”
― Allison Janney
“Every character I do has a bit of my mum in her. She’s like the doyenne of Dayton, Ohio.”
― Allison Janney
“I spent a lot of time in the trenches in New York doing a lot of off-off-off Broadway theater.”
― Allison Janney
“I really am at peace with not being a mom.”
― Allison Janney
“The only guilty pleasure I have is pasta.”
― Allison Janney
“My dream is to have a creativity barn, in my back yard, which is full of musical instruments and every kind of paint and oils and paper, and you can just go in and make something.”
― Allison Janney
“Growing up, everybody told me I was good. I was playing ping-pong with my father, and he’d say, ‘That’s a good shot,’ but I’d mess up the next one, and I’d yell, ‘Don’t tell me that! I’ll mess up! Just don’t say anything!’ You know, if someone says, ‘You can’t do that,’ then I’m going to be, ‘Yeah, you watch me.’”
― Allison Janney
“I hate auditioning so much.”
― Allison Janney
“I definitely paid my dues, and I’m grateful for everything and for my good friends.”
― Allison Janney
“I grew up with brothers. I love men. Of course it’s hard to be a woman in a man’s world.”
― Allison Janney
“One out of forty American men wears women’s clothing. We’ve had more than forty presidents. One of these guys has been dancing around the Oval Office in a prom dress.”
― Allison Janney
“I’m afraid of flying.”
― Allison Janney
“I can access emotions very easily.”
― Allison Janney
“I can tell when men are threatened by my height.”
― Allison Janney
“Everyone couldn’t be happier and more terrified.”
― Allison Janney
“Most Republicans call the show ‘The Left Wing.’”
― Allison Janney
“I like people trying to do two things at once.”
― Allison Janney
“It is a very difficult job, being the servant of two masters.”
― Allison Janney
“I’d like to make really important movies, like American Beauty. I was really proud to be a part of that movie.”
― Allison Janney
“It’s a great way to start the day, hearing you’ve been nominated for an Emmy. It’s just thrilling.”
― Allison Janney
“Great drama is all about conflict, and what’s a better conflict than Republican-Democrat?”
― Allison Janney
“I have the power of my height. Growing up, it was a total drawback. There was nothing good about it at all.”
― Allison Janney
“An agent said he didn’t know what to do with me, I wouldn’t be able to play any parts but lesbians and aliens.”
― Allison Janney
“I am lucky enough to have Aaron Sorkin write what I have to say.”
― Allison Janney
“If I could stomach the awful part of being a veterinarian, which involves sticking your hand up animals’ behinds, I would be a vet.”
― Allison Janney
“Someone said I wasn’t attractive enough. People say those things, but they make you stronger. Then you can win an Emmy and think, ha, ha, ha.”
― Allison Janney
“I never know how I’ll feel on any given day, but I’ve got to look around me and take what I got and find some inspiration, some anger.”
― Allison Janney
“I know there are a lot of tall, beautiful actresses like Uma Thurman and Nicole Kidman who are my height, but they’re still half the size of me!”
― Allison Janney
“I did Alan Ball’s ‘Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,’ and then he put me in ‘American Beauty.’ Everything started to happen from all the years I put into the theater in New York City, and working, and having great parents who supported me through that.”
― Allison Janney
“I never think of a project as just being comedy or just being drama – even with ‘Masters of Sex.’ I like being sort of messy, like life is.”
― Allison Janney
“I’ve always been a figure skater and ballet dancer. I love physical comedy, and any chance that I get to do that… that is so me.”
― Allison Janney
“The loss of my brother was a huge moment, a life-changer for me.”
― Allison Janney
“Politics scared the crap out of me because I didn’t grow up in a family where we talked about anything, really, except, ‘Pass the peas, and do this.’… We didn’t really have political discussions at the dinner table. I didn’t learn how to watch or listen to politics.”
― Allison Janney
“I felt like my career started late, and I think it was because of my height – and maybe some of my confidence issues.”
― Allison Janney
“I was playing 40-year-old women when I was 20. I didn’t get considered for ingenue roles.”
― Allison Janney
“I love the wilder, more outlandish characters that are hard to make believable. Those are the ones I want to play.”
― Allison Janney
“I go on a hunt for things that make sense to me and that I can actively play as an actress.”
― Allison Janney
“The real trick to auditioning is just letting go of trying to please them. Make it your own. That took me a long time to learn.”
― Allison Janney
“I’m so hard on myself and a really harsh critic of my work.”
― Allison Janney
“In my career, I am so so happy and grateful for everything I’ve gotten to do. And yet, I wish I had started off earlier so I could, I don’t know… I certainly have not not gotten work because of my age, but I’m just gonna pray and hope that the roles will still keep coming as I get older.”
― Allison Janney
“I feel better when I’m working. I tend to not know who I am when I’m not working. That worries me a little bit… I’ve been fortunate to be so busy, but I haven’t developed any other skills.”
― Allison Janney
“’Talullah’ is a movie I’m really proud of. Sian Heder is the director/writer, and I think she’s extraordinarily talented. I think it was a beautiful story.”
― Allison Janney
“I know what it feels like to love and care about things, but I’ve never had that instinct to have kids.”
― Allison Janney
“I’m one of those actors who fall into the camp of never wanting to look at themselves on camera ever, thank you very much. I do not and will not, because I am my worst critic.”
― Allison Janney
“As a teenager, I played men in my first two plays.”
― Allison Janney
“My height does help me. I can hide a multitude of sins in my height.”
― Allison Janney
“I’ve never been with a group of people for that long. I mean, even my family I don’t think I know as intimately as the people I worked with on ‘West Wing.’”
― Allison Janney
“I’m an actor. I can make anyone believe anything. I don’t have to know what the hell I’m talking about.”
― Allison Janney
“I’m a big girl, but I have a delicate constitution emotionally. If I’ve been humiliated in some audition, I just cry all the way home and think, ‘Oh my God, I suck.’”
― Allison Janney
“I was a late bloomer in a lot of areas in life.”
― Allison Janney
“I want to feel sexy and pretty and young as long as I can.”
― Allison Janney
“I’m a sponge. I sometimes don’t want to go out of my house because it’s like, ‘Who’s going to make me cry today?’”
― Allison Janney
“I don’t like to lose.”
― Allison Janney
“The first job where I actually made money was on ‘Guiding Light,’ the soap opera. And I played a maid. My name was Ginger, and I had a Brooklyn accent – a really bad one, if I remember correctly.”
― Allison Janney
“Birthdays are getting harder as I get older.”
― Allison Janney
“I can sit down at the piano and make you think I know how to play the piano because I know, like, the beginnings of four songs.”
― Allison Janney
“I love arts and crafts.”
― Allison Janney
“I was a hard fit at a young age. I didn’t make sense as an ingenue or a leading love-interest lady.”
― Allison Janney
“The way you talk to yourself sometimes is terrible! I hear myself, and I go, ‘I can’t believe you’re talking to my friend Allison like that!’ It’s really terrible, the things we say to ourselves.”
― Allison Janney
“I’d love to do a James Bond-y kind of villain!”
― Allison Janney
“People are usually so disappointed with book-to-movie translations.”
― Allison Janney
“The fact that ‘Mom’ is not joke, joke, joke – and is investing in these characters and their lives, things that really happen to people – I think it’s resonating, and that’s why people are tuning into it and not just dismissing it as a multi-cam sitcom.”
― Allison Janney
“Before I even wanted to be an actor, I wanted to be a figure skater.”
― Allison Janney
“Being a figure skater myself and knowing what it took for my parents to get up at five in the morning to drive me to the rink before school and then drive me to practice after school – it’s a huge commitment for any family.”
― Allison Janney
“It’s a beautiful feeling to be out on the ice, breathing in the cold air and hearing the blades hit the ice. It’s kind of romantic.”
― Allison Janney
“At times, maybe I’m too competitive for my own good.”
― Allison Janney
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