Yahoo News Allison Janney: "Margot Robbie changing film landscape"
Allison Janney has credited her I, Tonya co-star Margot Robbie with "changing the landscape of film" for the better by starting up her own production company to provide female-driven stories and well-written roles for women.
The actress – who won Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTA Film Awards last night – also reflected on the fact that every other actress in the category was 45 or over, suggesting a positive shift for women of all ages in Hollywood.
[Allison Janney in I, Tonya]
"Love that – that's extraordinary. I hadn't even put that together, I wish I had said something about that [in my acceptance speech]," Janney told Digital Spy backstage at the event.
On whether she thinks there's been a shift in Hollywood when it comes to roles for women, she added: "I do. For someone whose career didn't start until I was 38, I'm happy and fortunate to be cast in roles and now more than ever there are more roles for women, and more female producers."
Janney went on to commend Reese Witherspoon – who also has her own production company through which she produced Big Little Lies – and Robbie for creating well-written roles for women in TV and film.
"Reese Witherspoon doing Big Little Lies, and all those extraordinary women going to television because there's better opportunities for more complex and interesting roles.
"And Margot, I'm so excited about her becoming a really important producer. She's so young, yet she knew she wasn't getting the kind of roles she wanted to in films, so she decided to start her own production company.
"So people like Margot are going to change the landscape of the film world. And I think it's only going to get better and better."
Robbie recently spoke about how she co-founded her own production company in order to make female-driven stories, and also because she didn't think she would have been cast as Tonya Harding in the Oscar-nominated biopic had she not also served as producer.
"I don't think anyone would have given me this role unless I had gone after it, and I wasn't prepared to wait for 10 years for someone to happen to offer me a role like this," the actress told Digital Spy at the UK premiere last week.
She added that her company wasn't just "a starring vehicle" for herself, but for all actresses searching for well-written parts.
In other news, Robbie lost out to Frances McDormand for Best Actress last night, with the pair both up for a Best Actress Oscar at next month's Academy Awards.
The 2018 EE BAFTA Film Awards were hosted by Joanna Lumley and took place at the Royal Albert Hall.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.
You Might Also Like
