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Allison Janney’s all-time favorite films

ICE QUEEN
Janney in her Oscar-nominated role as LaVona, skater Tonya Harding's mother, in ‘I Tonya’
Lifestyle

As awards season heats up, all eyes are on Allison Janney as she prepares to line up with the other Best Supporting Actress nominees on March 4. Playing Tonya Harding’s pitiless mother LaVona in the ice-skating biopic I, Tonya (opposite Margot Robbie as Tonya), Janney delivers a performance that is at once monstrous, tragic and hilarious. Those oversized glasses. That pudding-bowl haircut. Those withering glares. Oscars have been won for far less. Here, the actress shares the films and actresses that inspire her – and what a brilliant, very Janney-worthy list it is.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s ‘All About Eve’ (1950)
“I wish I’d been in this film. Everything that came out of Bette Davis’ mouth was a line worth repeating and memorizing.”
Mike Nichols’ ‘The Graduate’ (1967)
“This is the movie I have watched the most – it made me fall in love with director Mike Nichols and everything he did. I even have the soundtrack and play it at parties because it’s brilliant.”
Woody Allen’s ‘Annie Hall’ (1977)
“This film made me want to be an actress. I fell in love with Diane Keaton and decided I wanted not only to act like her but have a career and be like her.”
Michael Apted’s ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ (1980)
“Sissy Spacek’s performance in this film is probably the one by a woman that I envy the most. It is incredible because she really sings in it.”
James L. Brooks’ ‘Terms of Endearment’ (1983)
“Debra Winger is absolutely heartbreaking in this movie, and Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson are hilarious together – it makes me cry and laugh at the same time.”
Rob Reiner’s ‘The American President’ (1995)
“The writer Aaron Sorkin definitely owns the White House. He wrote the screenplay for this, the best film about the President, played by Michael Douglas, with Martin Sheen as his chief of staff – kind of cool seeing as I did ‘The West Wing’ with Martin Sheen as my president.”
Shekhar Kapur’s ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’ (2007)
“Every woman should see this film. Cate Blanchett’s performance, as a woman navigating a world of men as Queen Elizabeth I, is extraordinary.”
Damien Chazelle’s ‘La La Land’ (2016)
“I thought this was a great movie about what it’s like to be an actor or artist in Hollywood, the choices that you have to make and the things that you have to sacrifice along the way.”

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