Allison Janney supports Tonya Harding on 'Dancing with the Stars' debut

(WENN) — Allison Janney was in the audience to support Tonya Harding as she took to the dance floor for the season premiere of "Dancing with the Stars" on Monday night.

The 58-year-old actress won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Harding's mother LaVona Golden in recent movie "I, Tonya," and was more than happy to take Harding up on her invitation when she asked if she'd like to come and watch her dance.

The biopic's screenwriter Steve Rogers and Mckenna Grace, the actress who played a young Harding in the film, were also there, and Harding told "Entertainment Tonight" it was important to her to have representatives from the movie in the audience.

"I asked Allison and Steven to come, and the little young lady who played me, as well. And I was just so thankful that they were here, because without them, I probably wouldn't be here," Harding smiled.

“It was truly amazing," she added to reporters after the show. "I asked them to come and they said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ So, I was just like, ‘Yes! They can be here for my new beginning that was made from a fresh start from them.'"

Janney was seen blowing kisses to Harding following her and dance partner Sasha Farber's impressive foxtrot to Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey's duet "When You Believe," which earned them a score of 23 out of 30 from the judges.

However, the impressive score wasn't enough to keep Harding and Farber out of danger when it came to the night's double elimination. Luckily though, they just managed to scrape through -- with Olympic snowboarder Jamie Anderson and baseball star Johnny Damon the two casualties of the evening.

Now she's got the chance to dance another week, Harding is keen to show fans what she can do on the dance floor.

"People will get to see me for something new. Something they haven't seen before, or heard before," she smiled. "And I'm just hoping that I can make everybody proud."