Allison Janney has recalled once being told by an agent that her height would limit her to playing only aliens and lesbians.
The Emmy-nominated Diplomat star, 66, who is six feet tall, reflected on the discouraging advice she received early in her career on the debut episode of CNN’s new interview series Coming Up.
“I remember when I was very young trying to find an agent and I had a meeting with one — she said, ‘What can you play? Aliens and lesbians,’” Janney recounted.
“That’s what she said to me because I’m so tall. I’ve played lesbians. I haven’t played an alien yet. So maybe I’ll play an alien! Yeah, why not,” she quipped.
“People think because I’m so tall and imposing that must be the way I feel inside, and it never has been,” Janney continued, adding that she has always struggled with her confidence.
“I’ve always been very shy and not totally comfortable speaking as myself. I think that’s why I love acting so much,” she explained. “I don’t have to be myself. I get to jump into Grace [in The Diplomat] or whoever I’m playing. But just as me now, I feel just not as confident as my characters are.”
Janney is one of the most awarded actors in Emmys history. She is best known for playing White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg on the NBC political drama The West Wing, a role for which she earned four Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama. The hit series ran from 1999 to 2006.
She later earned three more Emmys, one for her guest-starring role in Masters of Sex and the other two for her supporting performance in the sitcom Mom.
She is currently up for Outstanding Supporting Actress at next month’s ceremony for her portrayal of President Grace Penn on Netflix’s thriller series The Diplomat.
Janney also has an Oscar win under her belt for her supporting role in the Margot Robbie-led sports comedy I, Tonya (2017).
The Juno actor is not the only one whose talent has been overlooked because of her height. Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham recently revealed she was repeatedly rejected for roles in her early career because of her towering stature.
“I would constantly get, ‘We’d love to use her, but we’ve already cast the man,’” the British actor told The New York Times earlier this month.
Waddingham, who naturally stands at 5 feet 11 inches tall and reaches 6 feet 2 inches in heels, questioned, “Why can’t a woman who’s 6 feet 2 inches have all the same vulnerabilities and misgivings about herself, wobble as much, as somebody who’s 5 feet 2 inches?”
