'I was told all I could play were lesbians and aliens' After her

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Jul 15, 2007 | by Elizabeth Mistry

"I missed a lot of family stuff, " she says.

"When Kenyon College gave me an honorary doctorate I couldn't even make it back for that. I missed the plane and my dad had to go and pick it up for me." She credits her Kenyon drama teacher Tom Turgeon for instilling in her the discipline she lacked. "He was the one who pushed me. I do have a healthy amount of fear about things. Should I do this role or that one? I still need a push sometimes."

BYher own admission, Janney came to acting quite late.

Growing up, she was a promising ice skater with dreams of going to the Olympics.

Looking at her tall frame, one can imagine her gliding on the ice. But at a teenage party, Janney tripped through a plate-glass door after someone stepped on the hem of her dress.

The resultant leg injury in which she lost "a lot of blood" meant no more skating, and her prolonged convalescence delayed her enrolment in college for a year.

When she finally went, it was to study psychology. Janney only switched to drama at the end of first term, just as Kenyon alumnus Paul Newman returned to his college to direct a play. She became friends with Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward. "They have always been a tremendous source of encouragement, pushing me to do things." But even with the support of one of Hollywood's biggest names, she knew she'd always have a hard time getting work. "A casting agent once told me that all I was good for was playing aliens and lesbians.

When I said Sigourney Weaver was tall, she said, 'Yes, well, she is drop-dead gorgeous'.

I could feel the tears brimming in my eyes." Like Weaver, Janney is statuesque. "I'm six-foot tall and it is hard to find a man to stand up to me. Right now we're trying to find someone to play Walter to my Hildy in a stage version of His Girl Friday. We've seen dozens of men and if we don't find the right one soon we can't do it." Finding the right leading man in her personal life is proving difficult too. She confirms that she has broken up with her fiance of three years, actor Richard Jenik, a fellow actor who cameo'd in the West Wing but was more recently a policeman in Desperate Housewives. Understandably, she is reluctant to go into details. "It's complicated-" is all she will say, but she admits she is pining for Chauncey, their dog, who currently lives with Jenik.

She loves the UK. When she was 25 and working with the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York, she took six months off to come to London on a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. "It was a wonderful time, going to classes every day and then to the theatre almost every night with my student ID card and then back to my tiny room, so small, the door hit the bed when I opened it." She would like to return. "To do something for the London stage, that would be perfect. Please put the word out." She'd happily come to the Edinburgh Festival too.

Stephen "Billy Elliot" Daldry and Sam Mendes, both directors she has worked with in the past, have sounded her out about possible projects which so far haven't managed to get off the ground. But film has kept her busy. She has small parts in two movies due out later this year: Juno, a comedy, and Margaret, starring Anna Paquin and Matt Damon. Janney is clearly most excited by the latter, a New York-set drama about an idealistic young woman who turns upon her friends. It's written by Kenneth Lonergan, who wrote the Oscar- nominated You Can Count On Me.