I tended to believe that Allison Janney was the most “shoo-in” nominee of the entire Oscar season. For one moment, last fall, I thought Laurie Metcalf would be a contender, but Allison Janney ended up sweeping every major award during Oscar season. Was her performance in I, Tonya really that extraordinary? I think it was. I, Tonya was excellent and Allison’s role – as Tonya Harding’s abusive mother – seemed like perfect Oscar bait. She had all the best lines and she got to chew through every scene. Allison could have done that in her sleep. But mostly, I think Janney won this year because she’s worked with everybody and everyone loves her in Hollywood. Am I little bit sad for Metcalf and Mary J. Blige? For sure. But I’m thrilled for Janney.
When Allison won her Best Supporting Oscar, she jokes: “I did it all by myself!” A great line. She thanked all of the other women in her category – Mary J Blige and Laurie Metcalf looked rather heartbroken, to be honest – and then she thanked everyone involved with the film, and everyone involved with her career. Interestingly, she thanked Joanne Woodward for giving her encouragement to pursue an acting career – who even knew that Woodward and Janney knew each other??
Anyway, congrats to Allison Janney! This isn’t said enough, but she won the right award for the right performance: she was the stand-out SUPPORTING performance. This was not category fraud, and she stole every scene she was in. YAY to OG CJ Cregg!!
Photos courtesy of WENN, ‘I, Tonya’.
I love her, but this was definitely given to her to recognize her body of work. I personally thought her role was flat and one note, while Laurie’s had far more depth and nuance.
I love her and I’m happy she won. It’s very well deserved
Me too! I’ve been rooting for her since I, Tonya came out.
I mean we all knew she was going to win.
She looks amazing… everything about her is perfect tonite!
I absolutely love her and think she is wonderful. I’m so happy for her! For me it was a tossup between her and Laurie Metcalf, which makes me sad for Laurie, but also super excited for Allison Jannette.
Yes. Both ladies are my top choices for Supporting role so either one of them winning was fine for me.
I haven’t seen Ladybird yet (will tonight) but the whole time I kept seeing ads, I thought the mother was the mother from Malcolm in the Middle. Lol woops!
Now I see it was Jackie from Roseanne, yeah?
She was fantastic in this role.
Also, I loved her dress tonight.
Alison Janney went to Kenyon College. I also attended Kenyon for undergrad, a number of years behind her. Paul Newman is also an alum and heavily involved in the school, I suspect she meet Joanne Woodward through that connection.
Yes, she did. Paul Newman directed a student play there which Allison was in. He encouraged her as did Joanne Woodward in really substantial ways after she graduated and in the early years of her career.
There were really strong contenders in this category. As a longtime fan of her work in The West Wing, I was thrilled that Allison won. Everything she touches turns to gold because she works hard; she has a reputation of being incredibly professional, well-prepared and everyone likes her. It’s no small thing that her WW colleagues are still great friends and admire her greatly. Check out Richard Schiff’s talk when Allison got her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It’s hilarious but heartfelt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLj1uDZL1Ok
That said, Laurie Metcalf is a treasure and again, has a great body of work. But I take heart in that she won a Tony a year or so back and Janney missed out at some point. They all win because they had such great roles and imbued them with their intelligence and experience. Great to see mature women being recognised.
Those errors in my poster speech to text errors. You think I would learn better than to use that but I keep using it!
I agree Janney made I, Tonya. But I also agree it didn’t feel like it was a stretch for her.
Laurie >>>>>
I love her but I was incredibly disappointed that she stopped to speak to Ryan Seacrest. It took the shine off the win for me. I have no forgiveness for those who claim to support Time’s Up and then spoke to him. Oh do we only support actresses? Not stylists with witnesses?
I have worked in media with Talent with a capital T – and this is local Talent, nowhere near as famous and powerful as Seacrest. I was sexually harassed at a Christmas party by one of the Talent who went on to sexually harass and grope every woman under 30 at that party. Since the audience and money is based on the Talent in media, they can do pretty much anything. The response from Managment was beyond appalling. We also had an even more famous and powerful star who was the meanest bully I have ever seen in a workplace and nothing was done. I enjoy telling fans of these despicable men all about the real them when the fans gush about them.
All of this is to point out that the normal people who work with and under Stars and Talent are devalued constantly. They are of little value compared to the Stars/Talent so when they make a complaint about those people it is almost always ignored, buried, or there’s a backlash against the complainant. What is appalling to me is that in this particular moment people like Allison, Taraji P. Henson, Mary J. Blige, Tiffany Haddish, Whoopi Goldberg, Diane Warren, Andra Day, Common, Donald Sutherland, Christopher Plummer, Andy Serkis, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Rita Moren, Eiza Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Lil Rey Howery and Betty Gabriel stopped to speak to him.
You are right about this. As sad as it is, everyone around these ‘stars’ is there to serve them, and the image they are projecting. And THAT makes the money for studios, agents etc. I honestly believe these people in their majority do NOT think that deeply about sexual harassment, and when they see a camera, it’s all about THEM again. I don’t think they consider their own actions and behaviour, or adjust it accordingly. Impressive speeches are relatively easily made, to question your own behaviour seems rather difficult.
I dunno if every person can be expected to be up-to-date with every assault accusation because there have been a damn lot of them unfortunately and these celebrities have been on non-stop red carpets for weeks.
Nope. Sorry. Mary J Blige was my favorite and when AG stopped to talk to Seacrest I was not happy at all.
I have loved her in everything I’ve seen her in. She is a scene stealer! I’m so happy for her!