Donna Moss
Donnatella "Donna" Moss is a fictional character played by Janel Moloney on the television serial drama The West Wing. Although Donna is a recurring character during the first season, she appears in every episode of that season. The disconnect was due to uncertainty about the role from production staff throughout the first season, but by the second season her role was certain and Janel Moloney is credited as a regular cast member from the beginning of the second season.[2]
| Donna Moss | |
|---|---|
| The West Wing character | |
 Janel Moloney as Donna Moss | |
| First appearance | "Pilot" |
| Last appearance | "Tomorrow" |
| Created by | Aaron Sorkin |
| Portrayed by | Janel Moloney |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Donnatella Moss |
| Gender | Female |
| Title | Chief of Staff to the First Lady |
| Occupation | Senior Assistant to the White House Deputy Chief of Staff (seasons 1-6), Russell Campaign Senior Aide (season 6), Santos Campaign Spokeswoman (season 7), Chief of Staff to the First Lady (end of season 7) |
| Family | Unnamed mother, unnamed father. |
| Spouse | Josh Lyman (boyfriend) |
| Religion | Protestant, denomination unspecified |
| Nationality | American/Canadian[1] |
During most of the series, Donna works as the senior assistant to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (or, as she jokingly calls herself in one episode, the "deputy deputy chief of staff"). Although all the senior staffs' assistants are continuing characters with personal backgrounds, Donna is the best defined and most often featured staff member on the assistant level, and her difficult, semi-romantic relationship with Josh is a major plot device during later seasons.
Character biography
Donna's early life is mostly known from the season two episode "Dead Irish Writers," in which Donna was told to have been in Warroad, Minnesota. After the border is clarified and Warroad is shown to be in Canada, Donna has to reclaim United States citizenship through a grandfather clause. Donna was born to an Irish-American father and an Italian-American mother. Josh identifies Donna as a Protestant.
Donna moved to Wisconsin, where she attended University of Wisconsin–Madison and dropped out halfway through to support her boyfriend as he went through medical school. After her boyfriend graduated, he dumped Donna.
At the beginning of season two, the story of Donna's introduction to the Bartlet campaign and ultimately the White House is told from the vantage point of Josh Lyman's flashback, who is in surgery due to a gunshot wound. The flashback is set in the early stages of Jed Bartlet's campaign for president, between the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary. Donna is found in Josh's campaign office New Hampshire, pretending to have been hired as Josh's assistant. Josh discovers the deception but is somewhat amused by it, proceeding to hire her as his actual assistant. Towards the end of the season, Donna recounts to Josh why she left afterwards - she says that she left the campaign to go back to her boyfriend, but she got into a car accident, and on the way to the hospital, her boyfriend stopped for a beer. Donna tells the story to get him to stop making fun of her for going back to her boyfriend, because Josh incorrectly assumes the boyfriend dumped her both times, contrary to Donna's story.
Donna remains Josh's assistant during the first six seasons, set between 1999 and 2005. The show uses her time as Josh's secretary to express skepticism with various policies of the show's Democratic Party. Her political debates with Josh, which are often left unresolved, are one of the show's trademark methods of exploring multiple sides of an issue. Aside from this, however, Donna is mostly shown as a secretary (although the environment she's set in is unusually challenging). Her desires to advance are mostly ignored by Josh, because, as another character puts it, "If he [Josh] was giving you every opportunity, you would have grown out of this job three years ago. You can't blame him. He's never gonna find anybody else as capable." The context of that quote, however, was that Josh assigned Donna to a Congressional Delegation trip to Gaza. The storyline of the next season begins when Donna's convoy in Gaza sustains a terrorist attack at the end of the fifth season, causing serious injuries to Donna. She gradually recovers, while the attack is used as a plot point to drive peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, brokered by President Bartlet.
Donna finishes recovering after season six's opening storyline, and is shown re-entering the White House in a wheelchair. She continues working for Josh for about half a season, but she quits due to Josh's portrayed neglect of her desire to be treated like a serious contributor. She takes a job in then-Vice President Bob Russell's campaign for president as senior aide to the campaign manager, Will Bailey. The show uses this to prolong Donna's conflict with Josh, as Josh subsequently leaves the White House to run the campaign of Matt Santos for president. After the season six finale shows Matt Santos winning the Democratic nomination for president, Donna applies to work for Josh at the Santos campaign. Josh, portrayed as motivated by both personal and professional feelings, rejects Donna's application, reading out attacks Donna made on Matt Santos while working as press secretary for Bob Russell. Josh also tells Donna that he misses her "every day," at which point Donna walks out of the interview.
The beginning of the last season, season seven, is focused mostly on Matt Santos's general election campaign for president. A new character, Lou Thornton, hires Donna as a campaign spokeswoman. Josh is upset with Lou, but Lou forces Josh to reconcile with Donna for the good of the campaign. In the middle of the season, Donna enters into a relationship with Josh. Matt Santos wins the general election a few episodes later, in "Election Day Part II." Donna rejects an offer to be deputy White House press secretary, saying that she can't work for Josh while they're dating. She accepts another offer from the incoming Santos administration to be chief of staff to the first lady, Helen Santos. Her large office, which she is shocked to see, symbolizes her growth since the beginning of the series, when her workplace was a cubicle in Josh's bullpen.
Relationship with Josh Lyman
The chemistry between Janel Moloney and Bradley Whitford, who portrayed Josh Lyman, caught producers' attention early in the series. After seeing Moloney and Whitford perform together in the pilot, Aaron Sorkin added a scene in which Donna argues with Josh to change his shirt before attending a meeting, eventually convincing him by saying, "All the girls think you look really hot in this shirt". Although Mandy Hampton was originally intended to be Josh's romantic interest, by the end of the show's first season the character was written out and the role taken over by Donna.
During the first four seasons, the relationship remains in stasis, with neither daring to make any real romantic move on the other. Sorkin admits that he was more inclined to move the relationship forward, but, every time he discussed the possibility, fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme would shout, "No! Wait another year!" "Besides", adds Sorkin, "Sexual and romantic tension is, to me, much more fun than taking the tension away by having the sex and romance".[3]
References
- Writer: Aaron Sorkin & Paul Redford Director: Alex Graves (March 6, 2002). "Dead Irish Writers". The West Wing. Season 3. Episode 15.
- How Janel Moloney Found Donna Moss In 'The West Wing'.
- Moore, Frazier (February 12, 2001). West Wing Lovers Are in Limbo Archived May 10, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Associated Press. Retrieved on December 15, 2007.