Issue date: October 22, 2000

West Wing-ing it

Recent Emmy winner Allison Janney takes our reporter on a soul-searching journey from New York to California to D.C. and back again.

by Michele Hatty

llison Janney sees the bright side of life. This is a woman whose favorite memories include cabbing around Manhattan as a kid with her glamorous grandmother and who plays the snare drum during her family's impromptu jam sessions. This also is a woman who is finally getting noticed after 20 years of working steadily (if sometimes struggling) as an actress. But for the 6-foot-tall Janney, 39, who won the Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy last month for her role as press secretary C.J. Cregg on NBC's political drama The West Wing (Wednesdays, 9 p.m. ET), the timing for this public praise is perfect. "I'm a late bloomer. Everything comes late for me," she says.

West Wing director Tommy Schlamme says Janney, who played memorable characters on the big screen in such films as The Ice Storm, American Beauty and Nurse Betty, is not typical TV. "She brings a quality more of us can relate to. She feels very real."

In addition to chatting about her height and her attitude toward life, Janney sang into the reporter's tape recorder and in a move antithetical to the recent wave of waif-thin actresses -- finished off the reporter's blueberry pancakes. Definitely real.

Q: Was it tough to be tall growing up?

Yes. I never had a date till college. Most [guys] don't like their date to be taller than they are. My boyfriend is a good 5-11. Sometimes he wishes he were taller, and sometimes I do, too. But that's only because I have a closetful of high heels I never wear. I put them on and I go, "Ugh. I can't do that."

Q: You moved from New York to Los Angeles for The West Wing. Do you feel better about that now that the show's a hit?

I still don't feel settled. I thought I would by now. My boyfriend's in New York and just got a raise and a promotion, so he doesn't really feel like leaving his job. But I like the idea of buying a house [in Los Angeles] and having a yard and getting a dog and having a family. Which I have to do very quickly [laughs].

Q: So you want to have kids?

I had my first maternal instinct about a month ago. I started realizing I was looking at my friends' babies, not because they were cute but thinking I could be with one. Usually my maternal instincts have been toward having pets. If I could stomach the awful part of being a veterinarian, which involves sticking your hand up animals' behinds, I would be a vet.

Q: You're known to have a rockin' trailer on the set. Just what goes on in there?

I like to have a good time. I have a full bar in my trailer, which I got for my birthday last year. I love to dance. I love all kinds of music, from salsa to punk, acid rock. I always have music on, and candles. My trailer is the most fun to hang out in.

Q: I hear you're a board game fanatic.

I love them. I am convinced no one likes them as much as I do. With my family, I like to play Boggle. I like Monopoly and Parcheesi and Clue. We played Twister on my birthday.

Q: You must have an advantage in Twister!

I do. I totally do.

Q: The presidential election is in a few weeks, and The West Wing is entirely about politics ...

I know. I don't know what influence we'll have. Probably none.

Q: Are you political?

No. I vote, but I grew up in a family where we didn't discuss politics. I didn't have a high opinion of politicians. I thought they all lied, and I didn't care.

Q: Does the press want to know too much of what goes on in the White House?

Yeah. They shouldn't know everything. Because if they did, everyone else would know everything, and that's not good strategy. If you elect people and they're good people, you have to trust them to do the things they need to do to run the country.

Q: With the Emmy in your pocket, what's next for you?

New York's Shakespeare in the Park. Mike Nichols is directing The Seagull, with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. I'm playing Masha in that this summer. But if Spielberg calls and wants me? Can you imagine me calling and saying [affecting a haughty voice], 'Mike, can't do your play; Spielberg wants me.' That would be a fun problem to have."