Margot Robbie is not the only star attached to biopic I, Tonya anymore. This week it was announced that Allison Janney and Sebastian Stan will also star in the film. Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, The Finest Hours) will direct the film which is based on the real story of shamed US ice-skater Tonya Harding. Janney will portray Harding’s mother, and Stan will portray Harding’s ex-husband.
The story of Tonya Harding is one that anyone alive in the early 1990s was unable to avoid. In 1989, and the five years that followed, Harding was one of the most promising ice-skaters in the US. That all changed when in 1994, Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, hired someone to break the leg of Harding’s teammate Nancy Kerrigan. The attack, and Harding’s indirect involvement, was followed by a media frenzy, the deterioration of Harding’s promising career, and a life-time ban for Harding from competing in professional figure skating. During the controversy, Harding blamed her mother for the mental and physical abuse she allegedly put Tonya through as a young child athlete.
Allison Janney is a veteran of the entertainment industry, as an Emmy winner and a five time Golden Globe nominee. She is most known for her role on the popular TV series West Wing as C.J. Cregg, which she starred in from 1999-2006. Most recently, Janney has been featured as Detective Riley in Girl on a Train, as well as Dr. Golan in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Over the course of her career she has been in films such as 10 Things I Hate About You, Hairspray, Juno, and The Help. She has also lent her voice talent to animated features Finding Nemo, Over the Hedge, Minions, and Finding Dory.
Sebastian Stan, most well-known for his role of Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Captain America franchise, has also been featured in the ABC series Once Upon a Time as The Mad Hatter. He has also been featured in The Martian, Ricki and the Flash, and Black Swan. Expect to see him next in I’m Not Here alongside J.K. Simmons and Mandy Moore, as well as Logan Lucky alongside Adam Driver, Channing Tatum, Hilary Swank, Katherine Waterston, and Daniel Craig.
I, Tonya is expected to hit theaters in 2018.