Up to the Challenge--in Whatever Medium

She may not be a household name yet, but Allison Janney is certainly becoming one of the more recognizable faces in films, theater and television. Possessing the comic chops (and the height) of a Rosalind Russell, the 38-year-old Janney has added sparkle to such films as “Big Night,” “The Object of My Affection,” “The Impostors” and “Six Days Seven Nights.”

The 6-foot-tall actress turns in another comic gem of a performance in the teen beauty pageant spoof “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” the New Line comedy opening Friday. Janney plays Loretta, the trailer-park trash friend of beautician Annette (Ellen Barkin) and her daughter (Kirsten Dunst) who is a contestant in a Minnesota teen pageant.

On Broadway, Janney won raves in Noel Coward’s “Present Laughter,” as well as in last year’s acclaimed revival of Arthur Miller’s drama, “A View From the Bridge,” for which she received a Tony nomination. Janney just closed in “The Taming of the Shrew,” which ran for several weeks in Central Park in New York, where she lives.

Janney has also appeared on TV with her “View From the Bridge” and “Drop Dead Gorgeous” co-star Brittany Murphy in the ABC movie “David & Lisa,” and she has a juicy role in her first TV series, NBC’s “The West Wing.” She plays the president’s press secretary in the highly anticipated Aaron Sorkin-John Wells drama.

Selected as a talent to watch by Entertainment Weekly, the graduate of Ohio’s Kenyon College and New York’s legendary Neighborhood Playhouse recently talked about her career over the phone from New York.

Question: People must be recognizing you now.

Answer: Yes. Every since “Big Night” came out, that has been happening more and more and especially in New York with “The Taming of the Shrew.” Mostly it has been really fun.

Q: How did you get involved in “Drop Dead Gorgeous”?

A: I did “A View From the Bridge” and “David & Lisa” with Brittany Murphy. She auditioned for “Drop Dead Gorgeous” and told the casting director she had to see me. I auditioned for it and got it. I felt that Brittany and I were destined to be in every single thing together. I just loved the script so much.

Q: What did you like about the script?

A: It was genuinely really fun and the role was different too, for me. She was a total trailer-trash woman and so much fun. I hope [“Drop Dead” screenwriter] Lona Williams writes more parts for me.

Also, my brother lives in Minnesota, so I was able to see him. As it turned out, I was up there for quite a long time [shooting the movie]. But the accent was hard for me to get. So I would go out to the Mall of America [in Minneapolis] and listen to people all day long until I finally got it. Once I got it, I had a ball.

Q: Your film and theater career are going great guns. So why did you decide now was the time to do a TV series?

A: I haven’t been auditioning for [TV series], but this one came along. I thought Aaron Sorkin just wrote a beautiful pilot and I thought, “I can see doing this.” I auditioned for it and I had to test for the network for the first time and it was very scary. Now, I have to go do the series. It’s the kind of thing you don’t know if it will do well, so you don’t want to pack up and move out there [Los Angeles] permanently, so I will be in sublet city for a while.

Q: Did your interest in acting begin when you were a kid?

A: I did plays [when I was young]. My mother was an actress, but it was never my intention to become an actress. It just sort of happened that it’s where I got the most positive reinforcement. I went to Kenyon College [in Ohio], and my freshman year there, Paul Newman, who was a Kenyon College graduate, directed me in my first play.

Q: Stop right there. Here you were a freshman in college and Paul Newman was directing you. That could make anyone jealous.

A: It was so thrilling. I was the most privileged person on Earth. The way he directs, he comes over and puts his arm around you and talks to you. He’s a very private director.

Q: So did you keep telling him, “I need more help with this scene”?

A: Yes! I would purposely mess up scenes so he would come over! . . . I was just in this play with all of these kids and they said, “Who is Paul Newman?” I am like “Oh my God.”

Q: What was it like being taught by the legendary Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse?

A: It was truly an experience. Fortunately, he liked me so he told me “Don’t anyone say you are too tall to act.” Those were his parting words to me.

Q: Was it a struggle to land acting jobs in New York?

A: Joanne Woodward had a theater company. When I graduated from the playhouse, I did plays with her. I was in little theater companies off-off Broadway and went to the Williamstown Theater Festival as a non-Equity member and met a lot of people there.

I scooped ice cream in SoHo [between acting jobs] and worked as a nighttime receptionist at a recording studio and did odd jobs like that. I didn’t really start working until my 30s because I am so tall. Even in my early 20s, I was cast as 40-year-old women just because I have a very commanding presence on stage.

Q: Didn’t you get discouraged?

A: No, because there was really nothing else I knew I could do. I knew it was a waiting game, and I knew my number eventually would come up. I am like the tortoise in the race. I can’t wait to get bigger parts. I hope it happens.