Allison Janney’s career-long quest to avoid typecasting: “I’ve played so many motherfuckers”
Typecasting has tainted the careers of plenty of outstanding actors, those who often find themselves unable to break free from the mould that has been carved out for them.
But if you’re a truly great actor, you can bring something different to each performance, even if the archetype you’re playing is similar. This is certainly the case for Allison Janney, who has played a fair few mother roles. Yet no two are the same, which is what has allowed her to find success as an Oscar-winning (yet, still, I’d argue, underrated) star.
No matter what Janney is doing, she does it spectacularly, and with roles spanning American Beauty and Juno to Hairspray and I, Tonya, the actor has become a stalwart Hollywood star. The actor admits to AV Club that she has “played so many motherfuckers, I can’t believe it,” but she accepts any challenge that is thrown her way.
Janney has played the mother of a leading character in quite a few movies throughout her career, as well as appearing in the sitcom Mom between 2013 and 2021, playing a dysfunctional mother, who is also a recovering addict, across 170 goddamn episodes.
“Someone said, ‘Aren’t you tired of being typecast as a mother?’ And I was like, ‘There are a lot of different mothers out there, let me tell you,’” Janney explained. Clearly, the actor welcomes the chance to portray the multitude of female characters out there who, like countless women in the world, are also mothers.
Just because Janney often accepts the chance to play a mum doesn’t mean that this is the character’s only definable trait. “There are so many different kinds out there. ‘Bring ’em on,’ that’s what I say. I will tackle all different kinds, and I will play a different one every time. I love ’em,” she added.
Funnily enough, in real life, Janney has no interest in having children, continuing, “And it’s ironic that I’m not one, but at least I get to play one on TV!” She still knows how to play the many different kinds of mothers out there – the idea of actually raising a child has just never interested her.
“I know what it feels like to love and care about things, but I’ve never had that instinct to have kids. There’s a friend of mine who just graduated from high school, and I was at her party with all these little kids, and she was like, ‘I can’t wait to have kids!’ At her age, I was thinking, I can’t wait to have a dog. I really am at peace with not being a mom,” she once told The New York Times.
So, while Janney might often find herself at risk of being typecast, the actor refuses to play the same character with each role. Just like in real life, every woman is different, and Janney knows that there are no bounds to the way you can approach a character, because while some mothers are understanding and kind, others are absolutely unhinged.
It’s not like being a mother means any one thing, and Janney has brought plenty of variety to these roles as a result.
