Will Tonya Harding Be Appearing in the Tonya Harding Biopic?

On Thursday night’s episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, actress Allison Janney played “Spill the Tonya-Tea,” during which host Andy Cohen had her give all the deets on the upcoming Tonya Harding biopic I, Tonya. In the film, Allison plays Tonya’s mother, LaVona, whom Allison describes as “one cruel bitch.”

During the game, Allison described the film as a “very dark” comedy. That makes sense, as Tonya is best known for her vicious competition in the skating world against Nancy Kerrigan. In 1994, Nancy was attacked in Detroit. Her assailant had been hired to break her leg by Tonya’s ex and her bodyguard, but the attacker wasn’t great at what he was doing. Nancy was injured, but her leg wasn’t broken. They both ended up on the Olympic team, and Nancy did much better than Tonya in future competitions, and Tonya was eventually exposed for her involvement in Nancy’s attack.

You’d think that Tonya wouldn’t want to be involved in a project rehashing all this history, but Allison says, “Tonya has been in contact with the writer for the whole thing.”

But she won’t be making an appearance. “She chose not to be in the film but I think people will feel a lot more sympathy for her,” Allison adds.

Margot Robbie will be starring as this new, more sympathetic Tonya, and Andy asked what Margot’s skating skill levels were on a scale of one to ten. “They started at a zero and went to a ten,” says Allison. Hmm, Margot must be a skating prodigy!

And finally, if you’re wondering if the iconic “Why, why, why?” moment will be making an appearance, Allison says, “Yes, yes, yes.”