The 2005 Oscar-nominated role Allison Janney regrets turning town: “I wonder what would’ve happened”
There’s a strong chance that Allison Janney is in at least one of your favourite films or TV shows. From the start of her career in the late 1980s to more recent successes like The Diplomat, she has knocked it out of the park again and again.
As you might expect, Janney’s awards cabinet is close to bursting. She has scooped just about every gong going, from Emmys to Sags to Critics’ Choice Awards. However, for the longest time, the top prize in the acting game had eluded her, that is, until 2018.
For her role as LaVona Golden, mother of the title character in I, Tonya (played by Margot Robbie), she was awarded the Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actress’. Her turn as the abusive mother who drives her daughter to achieve figure skating glory by any means necessary also won her a Bafta, a Sag, and a Golden Globe. With this one role, she basically completed acting.
I, Tonya was the first (and thus far only) Oscar nomination in Janney’s career, but as it turns out, she could have had another one over a decade earlier. As she revealed to Interview magazine, she missed out on a highly acclaimed but very controversial role.
“I got offered that role in Transamerica that Felicity Huffman did,” she said, “That was a part that I was like, “Well, maybe I should’ve done that’. I’m at peace with it, but that is one thing that I did turn down that went on to do great things for her. I wonder what would’ve happened if I would’ve done that.”
Released in 2005, Transamerica is a showcase for the Desperate Housewives star Huffman, who plays transgender woman Sabrina ‘Bree’ Osbourne, about to undergo gender-affirming surgery, but shortly before the big day, she learns that she has a teenage son named Toby (Kevin Zegers). She travels across the country to reunite with Toby, and the two get to know the new versions of themselves for the first time.
Huffman was nominated for ‘Best Actress’ at the Oscars for her work, ultimately losing out to Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line, but she is not the only person to receive praise for playing a transgender character, as 15 years after Hilary Swank won ‘Best Actress’ for playing a transgender man in Boys Don’t Cry, Jared Leto also took home the Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for playing Rayon, a transgender woman living with Aids.
Jaye Davidson, Jeffrey Tambor, Elle Fanning, and many others have also played trans characters that were well-received by reviewers, but while Janney did initially lament missing out on Transamerica, she might have made the right choice, as public opinion on cis actors playing trans roles has changed significantly since 2005.
Even Redmayne himself has admitted that taking the part in The Danish Girl was “a mistake”. Now, and rightly so, there is a great emphasis on trans characters being accurately represented, which involves them being played by people who can genuinely identify with the community.
