The one movie Allison Janney wishes she was in: “Everything was worth repeating”
It’s often that an actor is so phenomenal in a certain role that it can be challenging for them to break out and do anything else without being compared to their past work, which was certainly a risk for Allison Janney, whose performance as the White House Secretary CJ Cregg became a fan-favourite on The West Wing.
However, the conclusion of the show gave Janney an opportunity to begin pursuing film roles, including I, Tonya, her dark, comical role as the mother of Margot Robbie’s titular skater, which earned her the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’.
Janney is clearly a classic film buff, and her desire to appear in interesting projects is evident from the choices that she’s been making in her post-Oscar roles. As with many performers, her love of Hollywood came at a very young age when she was introduced to many classics from the industry’s ‘Golden Age’, and when reflecting on the films that impacted her the most, she cited Joseph L Mankiewicz’s All About Eve as being among the most influential.
“I wish I’d been in this film,” she declared wistfully, “Everything that came out of Bette Davis’ mouth was a line worth repeating and memorising”.
All About Eve is one of the most beloved films of the 1950s that has stood the test of time because of its brilliant ensemble cast and sharp writing, and because, although it stands as both a critique and celebration of the ways in which both Broadway and Hollywood worked at the time of its release, the themes of celebrity, ambition, reinvention, and success are just as relevant today.
The Academy Awards aren’t always known for ‘getting it right’, but All About Eve is often cited alongside The Godfather, Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler’s List, and Amadeus as being among the most deserving films to win ‘Best Picture’.
While Janney singled out Davis’ performance as being her favourite aspect, it wasn’t a role that earned her an Oscar win, as the Academy Awards instead gave the top prize to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday. This may have been because Davis was already a two-time winner at this point in her career, having earned ‘Best Actress’ Oscars for both Dangerous and Jezebel.
Nonetheless, her performance as the iconic Broadway star Margo Channing is easily among her best, and may have even served as a work of sly casting on the part of Mankiewicz, as Channing goes through a period of distress in which she grows concerned about what future career prospects she may have, to which Davis may have related to as she faced a similar point in her own career.
All About Eve was also an early example of Hollywood creating strong female characters who were given the opportunity to be flawed, unique, and relatable, with the film also earning Academy Award nominations for Davis’ female costars Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, and Thelma Ritter. It would be ridiculous to ever attempt to remake it, given how perfect it already is, but Janney is certainly responsible for bringing the sort of depth, nuance, and personality to her roles that would have made Davis proud.
