Tonya Harding is primarily famous for two things: figure skating and the reason she was banned from the sport in the mid-1990s. That's enough to warrant her getting a biopic about the latter scandalous affair. Back in March, Suicide Squad actress Margot Robbie was cast as the eponymous character, and now the movie, titled I, Tonya, has added Sebastian Stan and Allison Janney to the cast.
First up, we have Sebastian Stan, best known as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to Deadline, Stan will play Jeff Gillooly, Tonya Harding's ex-husband. Then Variety dropped the news that Mom star Allison Janney is expected to play Tonya's "eccentric" mother, LaVona Fay Golden. Craig Gillespie is directing I, Tonya, while Steven Rogers writing the script. (It's ironic that a guy named Steven Rogers is working on a movie that will include Captain America star Sebastian Stan, but I digress.) Miramax also recently secured the distribution rights to the biopic.
In case you weren't near a TV on a regular basis a little over two decades ago, Tonya Harding was one of its rising stars in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Her biggest accomplishment was winning the 1991 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and she also competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics, finishing in fourth place. However, she had also built a rivalry with fellow competitor Nancy Kerrigan, and that came to a head in January 1994 when Harding's then-husband Jeff Gillooly and her bodyguard Shawn Eckhardt hired a man named Shane Stant to attack Kerrigan so she couldn't compete in that year's Winter Olympics. It later became public that Harding was involved in the planning of the assault, and it resulted in her being banned for life from competitive figure skating, among other punishments. Gillooly took a plea bargain deal to testify against Harding and served some prison time, and the couple was divorced later that year.
As the above information makes clear, Sebastian Stan will have plenty to do playing Jeff Gillooly in I, Tonya, as he was one of the main participants in this scandal. As for Allison Janney playing LaVona Fay Golden, she also won't lack for material. Harding has said that her mother was physically and mentally abusive towards her as a child, and she continued to be hard on her daughter during her figure skating career. The only thing that will be more interesting than Stan and Janney's involvement is who the movie finds to play Nancy Kerrigan. Since production is reportedly kicking off next month, surely that casting will be announced in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on I, Tonya as they come in, and let us know what you think of Sebastian Stan and Allison Janney being added to the project in the comments below.
