Variety reports that The West Wing and Juno actress Allison Janney has just been added to the cast of the upcoming Tonya Harding biopic I, Tonya. Janney will portray Harding’s eccentric and tough mother LaVona, who, in real life, mentally and physically abused her daughter as a youngster.
The news comes on the heels of the announcement that Sebastian Stan (Captain America: Civil War) has signed on to star alongside Margot Robbie’s Harding.
The film tells the true story of the 1994 incident in which Harding hired a man to break the right leg of her figure skating rival, Nancy Kerrigan, to prevent her from competing at the Winter Olympics.
Craig Gillespie (The Finest Hours) is set to helm the project, while Steven Rogers (Love the Coopers) has penned the script; Robbie, Rogers, Tom Ackerley and Bryan Unkeless will produce the feature.
Janney has had a busy 2016, starring in her long-running CBS show Mom, such box office hits as The Girl on the Train and Finding Dory and the Tim Burton-directed book adaptation Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
Originally published December 16, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
