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• The West Wing
• Ms. Janney's bio
• Chumscrubber

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Tavis: I am pleased to welcome four time Emmy winner Allison Janney to this program. She, of course, stars on one of TV's best shows, 'The West Wing'. The series kicks off season number seven on September 25th. Next month, you can catch her in the new film 'The Chumscrubber.' That's right, I said it. 'The Chumscrubber.' The movie features a terrific cast, including folk like Glenn Close and Ralph Fiennes. Allison Janney, nice to have you here.

Allison Janney: Thank you, Travis. It's nice to be here.

Tavis: Nice to have you. I don't know what 'The Chumscrubber' is about because I have not yet seen it, but I love the title. Whatever it is, 'The Chumscrubber.' What is 'The Chumscrubber' about?

Janney: That's the name of the character that I play.

Tavis: Okay.

Janney: No, that would have been the only thing greater than being a part of this movie, is if I got to play the chumscrubber. But the chumscrubber is not a real character. He's sort of a pop culture icon kind of thing, sort of embodies everything that's wrong in - at least the world of this movie that Arie Posin directed. And I just love the material. I loved the script, and Arie Posin is a wonderful director.

And it's just about the dark underside of - life in suburbia and the disconnect between parents and kids, and how there's always some dark secret, even in a perfectly manicured, you know, community. And there's always some loneliness or despair underneath. And those are sort of the characters I love to, I'm drawn to. The characters that on the outside seem perfect and everything's great, but they're just falling apart inside.

Tavis: Got some dysfunction going on inside.

Janney: Oh, a lot of dysfunction.

Tavis: Yeah. Tell me about your character right quick.

Janney: Well, my character is, she's struggling for, she wants a family. She wants the perfect family life, and no one is playing their part right, you know? In her head, the way a perfect family has breakfast together, a perfect family, you know, watches television together, and everyone's off doing their own thing, and they won't be - in my world, the world that I want. And so she sort of falls apart, and she finds another family in the world of vitamins, and - new life supplement vitamins.

Tavis: 'The Chumscrubber.' I - can hear, and I sense, actually I feel the delight you had in being a part of this movie and being a part of the cast, which is fascinating for me because I've talked to so many people over the years, some of whom, after they've been on a TV show for X number of years, get this itch to wanna get out of television and to do more movies. So I know you appreciate the opportunity to do this. But I don't sense, though, that you're feeling this itch to get out of TV and to start doing the movie thing full-time.

Janney: You don't?

Tavis: Okay. (laughs) Well, I didn't feel that because if you're still on 'The West Wing' after seven seasons, I figure you must be cool at 'The West Wing.'

Janney: No, I'm cool at 'The West Wing.' I'm loving it. It's the best job I've ever had, and yet, oh, I totally feel the itch. It's sort of - it's becoming kind of an acting factory over there. We're like, "Must keep acting. Must keep acting.' You know, it's always great, but there's still, we want to do these things. I want to do the 'Chumscrubbers' out there, because it's different.

It's a different character. I don't have to -- I wanna keep playing different characters. That's what I love to do is act, and I've had a career, so far, where I haven't been pigeonholed into one sort of character. I've done the whole gamut of characters. Except for, you know, I can't play, well, I could do it. I could play an ingénue, but there'd have to be some very interesting, you know...

Tavis: (laughs) I would love to see you do that, as a matter of fact. Anybody got a script for an ingénue, please send it to PBS, and I'll forward it to Allison Janney. Yeah.

Janney: I also wanna do an action, you know, an adventure flick, be a heroine like, you know, Sigourney Weaver did. I wanna do one of those movies.

Tavis: Sigourney Weaver is really tall.

Janney: Yes, she is, like me. There are lots of tall women.

Tavis: And you are tall. How tall are you?

Janney: I'm tall enough.

Tavis: Tall enough.

Janney: Tall enough. I'm six - 5'12" is what I say.

Tavis: (laughs) I like that. 5'12". I only ask that because you mention Sigourney Weaver, number one. And number two, your lovely publicist, who shall remain nameless, I love her dearly, and she comes to see us from time to time. Hey, there, in the control room. Anyway, she walks in before we start taping, and she says, "Allison, sit up a little taller in your chair.' I'm, like, don't have her do that. Why do you wanna sit even taller than me already?

Janney: It's always my instinct to kind of slouch in chairs anyway, 'cause I like to be really comfortable. And it's not, I mean, you know, sitting up straight is - it's just better for us to sit up straight. Sit up straight.

Tavis: All right. I'm still not as tall as you, even sitting up straight, but that's okay.

Janney: How tall are you?

Tavis: 5'12". Yeah. (laughs)

Janney: Good. Good. I like that. I like a tall man. And every man, it's so funny with men, too. Men say they're 5'12", and that means they're 5'10". Ladies say they're 5'10", that means they're six feet. It just works out that way.

Tavis: No, I really am six feet, so I'm cool with that. I haven't had an issue with my height. You have an issue with yours ever?

Janney: Oh, my God. I didn't have a date until I was in college. I, you know, was taller than everyone. I hated it. Hated it. Could not have hated it more. You know, it was just, it was very difficult.

Tavis: Did it stop you from getting work, or did it aid in your getting work?

Janney: I think it surely did a little of both. I think it helped me at times. I mean, I was cast as 40-year-old women when I was, you know, 15. My first role that I played was a man. You know, so I mean, I think that it definitely put me in a category that, you know, beyond my years when I was younger. And it's helped me and hurt me, I think, equally.

Tavis: So I'm fascinating. Now, what did you learn about men at 15, playing a man?

Janney: Not - well, I had two brothers. I grew up with two brothers.

Tavis: So you already knew anyway.

Janney: So I knew about the boy, and I knew about the boy thing. And so it was actually pretty easy. I had short hair and a little cap, and I was an instant man.

Tavis: Yeah. That's all it takes, you know? Short hair and a cap, and you're a man. Doesn't take a whole lot. (laughs) Did I read somewhere that Paul Newman kind of helped you get started?

Janney: Oh, yes, he did. Paul Newman.

Tavis: Not a bad mentor to have.

Janney: Not at all. And Joanne Woodward, too, his lovely wife. 'Cause I went to Kenyon College, where Paul Newman went, as well as did Jonathan Winters, and me now.

Tavis: Rah, rah, rah for Kenyon.

Janney: Rah, rah for Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Wonderful, wonderful college. And they had built this beautiful new theater with a thrust stage, and just gorgeous. And they asked Paul Newman to come back and christen the theater by directing the first production there. And Michael Cristofer, who is a Pulitzer-prize winning playwright, wrote a play called 'CC Pyle and the Bunion Derby,' another play title you might have fun saying, but maybe not now.

Tavis: Right now, I'll stick with 'The Chumscrubber' for the moment, yeah.

Janney: And Paul Newman directed it, and I, you know, all the whole entire school came out to audition for it, even people who weren't actors. Science majors, everyone came out. So I was like, "I'm up - I have a lot of competition.' So he would have you come up on the stage and just talk a little bit about yourself. And I decided to talk about the fact that I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and I could drive from Dayton, Ohio to Gambier, Ohio in under two hours. And it's supposed to take three, but because I was such a fast speedy driver, and I knew that he was this racecar driver...

Tavis: He drives racecars, yes...

Janney: ...and I was like, "I'll get him.' And it worked. I was cast in the play, and then it was, you know, driving in his Datsun 280Z, playing poker, ping-pong with him, meeting Joanne. And they took me to New York and said come to the Neighborhood Playhouse to act. And so it just, it was a natural course. It was the least resistant, the path of least resistance for me.

Tavis: But - on a serious note, though, that was brilliant strategic thinking about how to maximize that moment, that opportunity you had. Somebody just said to me earlier today that you only have once to make a first impression. So that was a brilliant strategy on your part to get his attention.

Janney: I know. It was. I didn't think, I mean, who knew? I - didn't know it was gonna really work, and it did. It might've been something else. I don't know, but I was so, I stood up all night and stared at his poster on my dorm room closet door, saying, "You want me. You want me. You want me. You want me.' And it worked.

Tavis: Yeah. So - he and Joanne must be, like I know them, Paul and Joanne. Mr. Newman and Miss Woodward must be really proud of you these days.

Janney: I hope they are. I'm sure they are. Joanne has been trying to get me to come back to Westport, Connecticut to do a play in her theater there, and I...

Tavis: I - think you kind of owe her. I hate to say that.

Janney: I do, don't I?

Tavis: I think you owe her.

Janney: I do.

Tavis: Get your behind to Westport.

Janney: I'm going. I'm gonna get to Westport. Next year.

Tavis: Next year, after 'The Chumscrubber.'

Janney: Well, after 'The West Wing' and 'The Chumscrubber' come out, and then, you know.

Tavis: Okay. So, back to 'The West Wing.' So, C.J., your character, of course, got a nice promotion from press secretary to chief of staff.

Janney: Chief of staff.

Tavis: Just between the two of us, did that come with a pay raise? I mean, on screen, off screen, both?

Janney: No. (laughs)

Tavis: That's - a nice jump up.

Janney: It's a really nice jump up. It surprised the hell out of me. I was just - John Wells called me and said this was happening, and I was like, "What? Are you - are you sure?' I was terrified. I thought, "Wait, I don't..." 'Cause I'm so, I mean, this was Allison reacting, because I'm so used to - I'm much more comfortable as part of the team. I don't like to be the one out front having to delegate and lead, 'cause then you can't be everyone's favorite, you know? You're sort of in power.

Tavis: Somebody ain't gonna like you.

Janney: So it changes the dynamic of the relationships, and boy, did it. I mean, then all the characters start - but they had to. They had to shake things up. It's the sixth season of 'West Wing.' They had to start doing that, so they did it. And it's been a real challenge to fill those shoes of, you know, John Spencer, and the relationship, just the relationship that he had with Martin Sheen's character, with, you know, President Bartlet. And it's just, it's been really interesting.

Tavis: When John Wells calls you and says, "Allison, this is what we want to do this season," did you alongside, or certainly after you processed - after you picked yourself up off the floor and got over this trepidation you had about playing the character, did you think at all in terms of what this would mean for women?

Janney: Yes. I thought how wonderful to project that image on TV, and have a woman, C.J., who's such a wonderful character, and so many people have fallen in love with her, myself included.

Tavis: Geena Davis owes you.

Janney: She does.

Tavis: Geena Davis owes you.

Janney: I'm telling you what, right? I paved the way for Geena Davis to be President of the United States.

Tavis: Exactly. Yeah.

Janney: Yeah, it's the - even as press secretary, too, she was a great role model, and now as chief of staff, it's just, the next step is the presidency.

Tavis: Dee Dee Myers, who was Bill Clinton's, the first woman to do...

Janney: Yes.

Tavis: Dee Dee and I used to work together in the mayor's office here in L.A.

Janney: Oh, you did? She's such...

Tavis: We used to be office mates here in L.A. And when she got that position in real life, I was so pleased for her. And when I saw you play the character, I said, "Wow, that's like Dee Dee.'

Janney: Yeah. She, I had many nights with Dee Dee, dinners, and she would just tell me about what her experience was like as a woman in that position, which is very...

Tavis: Daunting.

Janney: Yeah, very daunting.

Tavis: Yeah. What's - I know you ain't gonna tell me, and - this is a wasted question 'cause I know you ain't gonna tell me jack about what I want to know.

Janney: What do you want to know?

Tavis: But, okay. Watch - how this works. Where am I, Jonathan? There you go. Watch how this works. I'm gonna ask Allison a question about what's gonna happen this season on 'The West Wing.' She's gonna walk all around this and waste good TV time in the 30 seconds I have left. But I'm gonna ask it anyway. So, just watch this. So, Allison, there's a presidential race happening on 'The West Wing.'

Janney: That's right. Would you like to know who wins?

Tavis: Yeah. What can you tell me about what's gonna happen there?

Janney: I tell you what, come here. (whispers)

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. (laughs)

Janney: It's good, right?

Tavis: Yes, it's very good. Nice to have you on the program.

Janney: Thank you, Tavis. It was nice to be here.

Tavis: All the best to you. That's our show for tonight, seriously. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching, and, as always, keep the faith.