Allison Janney (Actor)

"It's hard to find someone that funny, that sexy, that skilled who has those chops. She never hits a false note." - Co-star Bradley Whitford on Janney to People, April 3, 2000

"There's something about me that says power and intelligence. All the things that I don't feel, speaking to you now. I play women who tend to be in the center of something that's whirling around them as they try to hold everybody in place." - quoted in "Alison Janney: A Towering Figure" by Frazier Moore of the Associate Press, Aug. 7, 2000

"You know what I love about having success as you get older? You appreciate it so much. It means so much more to me than to a kid who gets it right away." - Janney quoted in People, April 3, 2000

At the start of the filming of the third season of "The West Wing," Janney and co-stars John Spencer, Richard Schiff and Bradley Whitford staged a brief job action by not showing up for the first day of rehearsal. All four had hired a lawyer to renegotiate their contracts as well as sought a pay raise. Negotiations were successful and all parties arrived for work on the first day of filming.

Because of her height, Janney had trouble landing an agent. She recalled one telling her: "I don't know what to do with you - lesbians and aliens, maybe?" Janney pointed out that their are tall actresses, like Sigourney Weaver and Christine Lahti, to which another agent responded: "But those women have something in common. They're drop-dead gorgeous." - from The New York Times, Dec. 23, 1996

Janney was originally announced as part of the cast of the all-star production of "The Seagull" directed by Mike Nichols that was performed in Central Park in the summer of 2001. Because of her commitment to "The West Wing," she had to withdraw and was replaced by Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden.