Allison Janney is thanking fans for her latest successful project. Her new film Lou is currently the most popular movie on Netflix, according to the streaming service’s public ranking system. “Thank you all for watching LOU and making it the #1 Film on Netflix in 64 countries each day during its opening weekend!” Janney posted on her Twitter account on Sept. 28. The action thriller stars Jurnee Smollett and Janney as a mother who joins forces with a mysterious neighbor to save her kidnapped daughter. Lou debuted on Sept. 23 to mixed reviews from critics, who praised the acting but weren’t entirely won over by the storyline.
In a recent interview with The A.V. Club, Janney said she “left all vanity at the door” for the brutal hand-to-hand combat scenes. “I don’t know if you saw I, Tonya, but I love it when I don’t have to worry about trying to look good. It’s freeing to not have any makeup on and be muddied up to look messy and dirty and unkempt. And the training, I first talked to Daniel Bernhardt, who was our fight choreographer, and he informed me that we would be working out three hours a day, and I couldn’t wrap my mind around that. Three hours a day? I don’t even work out one hour a week. Am I going to be able to do that? And he was like, “Just trust me.’”
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“…But I loved it when I got there,” the actress continued. “I loved working out with Daniel. He has such a lovely, indefatigable quality about him that was intoxicating to be around and to learn these fight moves—almost like a dance. And I used to be a dancer, so that’s what I can relate it to. I did a lot of dancing and ballroom dancing, and figure skating, so I was just learning new moves, and it was a new language, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. I loved the challenge of it.”
When it came to finding a peer for inspiration Janney said she looked to the best. “Liam Neeson! I think of his movies and what he did, and I loved watching all of those. And Lou is different, but the same kind of genre. I know Helen Mirren has done a lot of the Red movies and she did fight sequences and she did Anna. Helen Mirren certainly played a badass before, and I don’t think she’s done fight things before, but she could, I have no doubt. But I definitely would want to do more. I really like it a lot. I like the training, and the physicality of it makes me happy. The rain and the wind machines, not so much.”
