SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Allison Janney is busy right now. Season four of "The Diplomat" just dropped on Netflix. She won an Emmy - her eighth - for the series earlier this year for starring as President Grace Penn.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE DIPLOMAT")
ALLISON JANNEY: (As Grace) I'm worried that you have taken the first XX chromosome in the history of the American presidency and reduced it to a gal with a crush on her lab partner.
BRADLEY WHITFORD: (As Todd) You're making a big deal out of nothing.
JANNEY: (As Grace) I'm not, actually, because the ambassador fears the whoosh of oxytocin I get when talking to the VP has altered my nuclear policy.
DETROW: Janney is also back on Broadway, starring as Silda Grauman in a high-wattage revival of "Other Desert Cities" by Jon Robin Baitz.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JANNEY: (As Silda) See, your politics are offensive to normal people. You goad people with them.
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS: (As Polly) I like to spar.
JANNEY: (As Silda) That's what Attila the Hun said.
DETROW: Janney shares the stage with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Lily Rabe and Joe Keery. The play is all about a family's Christmas in Palm Springs. It's 2004 at the height of the Iraq War. The holiday takes a turn when daughter Brooke reveals the full scope of her new book. The show is getting a lot of attention. When we talked earlier this week, just days after its debut, Janney was taking it all in.
JANNEY: Pretty excited and thrilling, but I'm very glad this week I mostly get to rest.
DETROW: A big October for you.
JANNEY: Yeah, very big.
DETROW: I saw an image floating around of you with a little plaque noting all the Broadway shows you've done and that it's been 30 years since your first one. And I'm wondering what feels the same to you and what feels different to you going into a show like this in 2026.
JANNEY: Well, my Broadway debut was "Present Laughter" back in 1998, I think - something like that. And I remember being terrified, terrified, literally. I didn't know how I was going to get there to survive it. I kept thinking I was going to get fired. I kept thinking - I put my - through such a wringer, I think, because I'd been in, you know, in the trenches for so long, and I finally was getting my Broadway debut.
And now I feel quite comfortable and excited to be on the stage. And I didn't go through that in the rehearsal period. It was just a lot of fun getting to know these great actors that I get to work with. Finally getting to work with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who I've been, you know - she's just - I've been a fan of hers forever, and I adore her, and I'm so glad. I love her more than I even thought I would. Such great actors - it's such a great ensemble, and we have really found a nice bond together - formed, you know, our theater bond, our family bond, and it's working, and it's so fun. So very - huge difference...
DETROW: Yeah.
JANNEY: ...From the first time to now.
DETROW: You're a fictional president on "The Diplomat." Bradley Whitford, of course, is opening a show right around the same time. I saw an interview where he said there is still that feeling of terror right before the curtain goes up. You don't feel that at all, or do you just feel it in a different way at this point?
JANNEY: I don't feel the terror. I feel a little bit of nervous, but I feel mostly excited and connected to this character. So I'm - yeah, it's not a terror anymore...
DETROW: Yeah.
JANNEY: ...Thank God.
DETROW: (LAUGHTER) .
JANNEY: 'Cause I do not like to feel terrified.
DETROW: Right. That's understandable. I think there was one thing I was thinking a lot about, having seen the show last week, is that, you know, obviously, the theater - you're all in the same room together, and you can...
JANNEY: Yeah.
DETROW: ...Feel the emotion in the room. And something that happens in the show a few times, that I think a lot of people can relate to in their own family life, is the way the energy in the room can turn on a dime. Everybody's happy and joking...
JANNEY: Right.
DETROW: ...And being together, and then somebody says just one wrong thing...
JANNEY: One line. Yep.
DETROW: ...And it opens up decades of feelings, and everything changes. How do you approach that as an actor? Because it was really an electric charge at two or three points in the show when everything's suddenly different.
JANNEY: Everything changes in this play. Every character is not who you think they are when you meet them at the beginning. And then you see them at the end, and they're all different in your mind. And there are so many moments that lead up to that. And most of it has to do with secrets that family members have and keep and don't use to hurt each other. But eventually, we kind of all end up hurting each other very, very badly (laughter).
DETROW: Yeah.
JANNEY: It's like, really dark stuff.
DETROW: To the delight of the audience, but not good for the fictional characters (laughter).
JANNEY: Yeah. I mean, there's so many great lines that - I mean, I have some great ones, and Julia, too. In the middle of the darkest moments, she says something that just brings the house down. And that's what so great about Robby's (ph) play is that, yes, we go through dark stuff, but there's so much humor in it. And we were so relieved when we got in front of an audience as a company and heard those laughs. We were like, oh, thank God.
'Cause you never - I just never - I saw the play, you know, a long time ago, but I don't remember the laughs in it. I don't remember that. So when we got on stage and heard the audience's response, it's such an important part - element to this experience in performing this play is the audience's reaction, which, really, it's just perfect to have. They're a much needed, you know, element in this experience.
DETROW: You know, it's interesting when you're the president of the United States in "The Diplomat," by the definition of the character, you're the center of attention every time you're in the room.
JANNEY: Right.
DETROW: But Silda in "Other Desert Cities" is an important - very important person in the family to the story, but you go long stretches just kind of observing and just kind of watching, whether you're standing by the fireplace or just sitting in...
JANNEY: Yeah.
DETROW: ...A chair.
JANNEY: Or under a blanket (laughter).
DETROW: Or under a blanket, yeah. You do nap for part of the show. I mean, is that actually really hard to just kind of watch on stage?
JANNEY: I love it, Scott. I love it so much because, I mean, my favorite part about acting or what I learned when I went to the neighborhood playhouse here, was that listening is the key to good acting. And I love being on stage and just listening and knowing what I think or what I feel or what - it's - I just love it. I wish I could say I napped under the blanket.
DETROW: (Laughter).
JANNEY: I tend to do a mantra, my meditation mantra but underneath hearing Joe and Lily do their scene. But yeah, I don't think there's a possibility I'm ever going to fall asleep under there, although that would be really fun if I did (laughter).
DETROW: You could just play it off, I think. The night I was there, there was one guy in the audience who clearly didn't realize your character was on the couch and went, whoa. When you popped up. Did that happen every night or only once in a while?
JANNEY: Oh, my God. There's no way that some - I don't know where he was sitting...
DETROW: (Laughter).
JANNEY: ...That he couldn't see me. Maybe he was in the first row, and he couldn't see me back on the couch. I don't know. That's so funny. I didn't realize that someone (laughter)...
DETROW: He was loudly surprised. It was like, whoa. I mean...
JANNEY: I love it.
DETROW: ...I think the rest of the theater could see what was going on there.
JANNEY: Oh, my God. I love it. I love that people forget that I'm there because they're so engrossed in the scene that's going, you know, between Joe and Lily. So that's a good thing, I think.
DETROW: What's your favorite part of the show, other than napping on stage?
JANNEY: (Laughter) Oh, my God. What's my favorite part? Well, I love my entrance. It's kind of fun because it's just - you know, it's just way into the first act, and it's a fun, crazy scene to get to play and establish who Silda is. And I love doing the scene with Julia - my one scene I get to do with her, just the two of us. And like I said, I love just being on stage and listening and not saying anything, just watching. It's really fun.
DETROW: Allison Janney stars in "Other Desert Cities" on Broadway. Thank you so much.
JANNEY: Scott, thank you very much.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN MAYER SONG, "BELIEF") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
