Spotted you and encouraged you.

Well, they had built a beautiful new theater at Kenyon College called the Bolton Theater, and it was a beautiful thrust stage.

And for those of you who don't know what a thrust stage is, is it pushed out into the audience and surrounded three quarters by the audience.

Michael Christopher, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for writing the play Shadowbox, wrote a new play to be to christen the new theater.

And Paul was his friend and Paul went to Kenyon College.

So he came back to Kenyon to direct this play called C.C. Pyle and the Bunyan Derby.

It never went anywhere else.

different? Or how did it impact you differently?

But did C.J. ever have ambitions for elected officer? Was she just comfortable in the leave me in the communications role?

I think she was comfortable in that.

I mean, I feel like CJ was more aligned with someone like Kate Weiler.

She was good at what she did, and she wanted to be the person behind serving and doing all the things.

I don't think CJ had any ambitions to be president, but I don't know.

Maybe I don't know what Erin would have done if we kept writing.

It would have been interesting to find out, but God, no. Yeah, I've been lucky.

Well, LaVonna, what was your reaction when you finally got to meet Tanya Harding and she shared with you her thoughts on your performance? I think she said, like, you were spot on.

wanted to know for both of you, what about Todd and Grace pulled you in to go, that's something I feel like I either haven't done before or that's something I can play with?

Well, luckily, I didn't know Brad was going to come in and we were, you know, have a reunion together.

I thought I was asked to come into the end of season two.

And I was like, absolutely.

Because both Brad and I, not knowing it, we both were such fans of the first season and felt really jealous.

It was like, oh, why aren't we on that show? And then Debra asked me to come in season two and then says, Brad Whitford, what about Brad paying your husband? And I was like, Yes.

Oh, my God.

And the fans can look forward to a very special tray of shellfish.

And that was a little

difficult, but thank, you know, John Hickey has been a friend of mine for a long time.

We committed to starting to learn the lines way back in October and we didn't start rehearsals until mid February.

So, um, we started working and then, you know, we just, I just said, just jump in and do a little, I made Hickey do the mom episode with me.

I don't know if you saw one.

Um, I think it was the one before this one where I'm, he's a veterinarian and, um, So I made him come and do a mom episode while we were rehearsing so he could get a taste of what I was having to do every day, go from one thing to the other.

But it's worth it.

It's good.

Um, for you, is there a s- a film scene?

Well, you know, I, I, I s- s- thought of one film, and I thought, no, I should think of, of a classic like, um, I don't know, any Hitchcock film, but I was [laughs] thinking of the, the, the shot in, um, um...

Oh, now I've forgot [laughs] the name of the film.

How does that feel?

I think it's so...

You know, when I, when I was in New York trying to be an actor and it wasn't going so well, I thought, "What else can I do? I wanna do something important that's lasting, that, that will..." You know, and I thought, "I'm gonna be an art restaurator." I thought, "That's how I'm gonna...

I wanna do something that, that preserves art or puts...

That's something I'll be remembered for." And, and, and, uh, I don't know, I think that's why I became [laughs] an actor.

How did it happen?

Well, I went to Kenyon College, which is where Paul Newman... graduated.

And they built a beautiful new theater there called the Bolton Theater.

And to christen it, they invited Paul to come and direct the first play that would be produced in the theater.

And that happened to be my freshman year.

And of course, everybody was auditioning for it.

It didn't matter if you were interested in the theater at all.

She has to get to know her sexuality and she has to realize what a relationship with someone is.

Mom, go ahead.

Hi, it's Allison Janney from Mom calling you to ask you why you haven't called Jeremy to say happy anniversary.

It's his 13th anniversary.

name? Mom's name is Diane.

Diane, hi, it's Allison.

I don't even know if she knows she's talking to me.

Diane? Uh-huh? It's Allison Janney.

Do you watch the mom show? Uh, no.

It feels like a play, too.

And, yeah.

And that was years ago.

And then when it came to me as the screenplay, I was like, "Oh my God, this is, this is unbelievable.

This would be a real, um, a, a amazing journey to go on to, to do the-

Yeah

... she wants her son to behave the way she wants him to behave, and she wants that love to come at the time it needs to be there.

And, and she realizes that he actually still is the lovely, anxious, scared boy she w- she saw trying to come out to her as a child.

I was like, no one's

going to watch this.

It's a show about politics.

I was so wrong, thankfully.

And then I read the show Mom, and that was about recovering alcoholics, and that was important to me because I lost my brother to that disease, and I felt that that was an important thing for me to do.

It felt good to do that.

I mean, you're hard-pressed to find anybody who doesn't have somebody in their family who struggles with it.

Do you agree?

Mm-hmm

... or anything.

Reclaiming m- my center and my, my peace of mind, and my, who I am away from everything.

'Cause sometimes that gets lost in the doing-

Yeah

... of the this and doing, being this, and having to be this person, and being that person, and, and sometimes I feel like I very much lo- lost touch with, with me, and without the distraction of the phone-

Right.

We didn't talk about social issues or pol- politics, anything like that.

So I just wasn't steeped in it.

I grew up during Watergate era-

Yeah.

So I just...

I wasn't comfortable speaking, so I didn't...

But I think that he, a lot of CJ's-... humor and femininity and vulnerability was from me, and her smarts came from Aaron.

(laughs).

Just a flapper kind of on, on, on this, this foot race across the country that the play was about.

But I did get to work with him and, and Joanne was there, and Paul and Joanne were just lovely and instrumental to, to getting me to come to New York and become a member of The Actor's Studio.

And Joanne spent a lot of her time working with us young actors, creating opportunities for us to do theater and h- to have agents come see you, 'cause you couldn't get an agent unless they saw you in something, and that-

Mm-hmm.

And to do it in, in, in an office with a doctor is, it's an amazing experience.

For me, it was at a time in my life where I'd just lost my mother, it was right after COVID, and I was in such a dark place, and I, and I heard about this kind of therapy, and I went to this doctor and it was some of the best th- thing, it was the best thing I ever did for myself-