ALLISON JANNEY Fabulously Allison!

THE STAR WHO MASTERFULLY MORPHS INTO HER CHARACTERS HAS LEARNED TO BE VERY HAPPY AS HERSELF

- JULIE JORDAN

Allison Janney vividly recalls visiting her grandmother on Long Island as a child and watching her sashay around her beach club. "She would wear cigarette pants and have a big straw hat and her shaker of martinis with her lady friends, who were very well-appointed and definitely had money," says the actress. "I just remember thinking, 'Am I ever going to be like that?""

Janney gets her chance-and then some-with her colorful new role as a self-appointed queen bee among 1960s socialites in the Apple TV+ series Palm Royale, launching March 20. It's just another in a long line of characters the star, 64, has masterfully inhabited over the years. From films like Juno, The Help and I, Tonya-which earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar-to beloved TV series such as The West Wing and Mom, Janney has an uncanny ability to find a character's "vulnerability, what's really underneath all the bravado and the exterior shell of jewelry and makeup and hair and clothing," as she puts it. "And that's what's exciting, to find that dichotomy there to bring to life." Janney didn't become a well-known star until she was almost 40. Though she trained to be a figure skater as a teen in Dayton, an injury derailed her dreams and propelled her to follow her mother, Macy, into acting. After college, the 6-ft.-tall Janney moved to New York City and auditioned for plays before finding a recurring role on Guiding Light. She made her Broadway debut at age 38, then a year later landed her acclaimed role as White House press secretary C.J. Cregg on the hit television series West Wing. She nabbed four Emmys, and her success has been steady since.