8. DDG marked Amy Adams’ feature film debut, with the star going on to receive six Oscar nominations. And from the start, everyone on set knew Adams, who played the promiscuous cheerleader Leslie Miller, had something special.
“I remember Amy coming in, and immediately I was like, ‘Well, that’s it, she’s got that part,'” Janney told BuzzFeed. But funnily enough, Janney forgot that they were both in the movie when Adams later guest-starred on Janney’s hit TV series The West Wing. “We were filming in Pittsburgh and we went out to dinner together and she was like, ‘Do you remember I was in [Drop Dead Gorgeous]?'” Janney recalled with a laugh to VH1.
In an interview with Cinema Blend, Adams said, “That was my first movie I ever made! Everything about that movie was just so surreal to me. That was the first time I realized like, ‘I think I could go to Hollywood and at least get some commercials or something.'”
9. While she would go in to become a TV icon thanks to The West Wing and win an Oscar in 2018 for her work in I, Tonya, Janney ended up getting to audition for the movie thanks to the late Brittany Murphy, who was first cast as contestant Lisa Swenson.
“I had just done A View From the Bridge on Broadway with Brittany Murphy,” Janney told HuffPo of the Clueless star. “John Papsidera cast Drop Dead Gorgeous, because I think Brittany auditioned for the movie and told him he needed to cast me in it, if I’m not crazy.”
9. Now comfortable with ad-libbing, Janney revealed she only ad-libbed one time in Drop, Dead Gorgeous, but it’s a moment she’s rather proud of. “The one ad-lib I said that I was proud of was ‘I got some!'” she told the Huffingtong Post. “That was my one ad-lib because I don’t think I knew how to ad-lib at that point in my career.” Janney did have a hand in establishing Loretta’s look, however, including the over-the-top orange tan.
“Maybe her neck would be a different color than her face. And then we discussed that her idea of glamour might not be everyone’s,” she said. “She might wear blue eye shadow with bright red lipstick. She definitely has a confused sense of glamour, a trailer park-tinged sense of glamour.”