Jennifer Coolidge On Being Hot in Hollywood: ‘People Like That I’m The Underdog’
Jennifer Coolidge speaks on stage as she is being honored by Hasty Pudding Theatricals as 2023 Woman Of The Year at Farkas Hall on February 04, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jennifer Coolidge is having the biggest year of her career. The White Lotus star kicked off 2023 with a Golden Globe, a Critics Choice Award, a Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of Year honor, a Super Bowl commercial and lots of memorable memes.
In a new interview with People, Coolidge, 61, reflects on the new interest in her acting career. “I think people liked that I was the underdog,” she said. “I played a lot of strange women, and people were amused by the comedies I’ve done. Then Mike White put me in The White Lotus. It was a drama and comedy at the same time — I never really had that.”
“Something happened this awards season. I don’t know if they just played clips of me so many times on the Internet or Instagram. But it doesn’t matter what disguise I have on. I can be wearing a frog costume with a helmet and people know it’s me,” she says. “I was recently walking in the North End in Boston, and I couldn’t make it down the street. I think it’s so interesting. I guess it’s the Internet. I don’t know — or maybe I have a weird walk.”
As for what’s next for the star, Coolidge is ready for a little break. “I just want to lie in my bed for a week with my dog,” she told the publication. “I want to absolutely not move.”
Jennifer Coolidge's 10 Best Movie and TV Roles Ranked
Jennifer Coolidge is one of Hollywood’s truly funny ladies, with a career spanning 30 years. Coolidge played supporting roles in several comedy movies and guest roles on television, making her first appearance on television in the Seinfeld episode “The Masseuse.” As a voice actress, she played Luanne’s beauty school teacher, Miss Kremzer, for a few episodes on King of the Hill. A few years later, she appeared on Nickelodeon’s As Told By Ginger as a con artist in the series finale episode and most recently, voiced an alien on Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty. At age 61, even if Coolidge isn’t on screen, we can pinpoint her voice by her airy and funny delivery.
In 1999, Coolidge got her big break playing Jeanine Stifler, or “Stifler’s mom” in American Pie, reprising the character in the subsequent sequels. A few years later, Coolidge played yet another iconic character, Paulette Bonafonté, Elle Woods’ manicurist in the Legally Blonde movies. Over the next two decades, Coolidge played other supporting characters in film and television including 2000’s Best In Show, 2004’s A Cinderella Story, 2006’s Date Movie, the 2 Broke Girls series and Netflix’s The Watcher.
Coolidge really made waves when she starred in the first two seasons of HBO’s The White Lotus as Tanya McQuoid. Her insanely rich, totally oblivious and troubled character earned her critical acclaim and recently won her a Golden Globe for the role. Though her character was ultimately killed off in the second season, we can’t wait to see what the future has to hold for Coolidge. Her latest work is in the Amazon Prime rom-com Shotgun Wedding alongside Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel and Lenny Kravitz. Darcy (Lopez) and Tom (Duhamel) gather their families for a destination wedding, but the ceremony gets put on hold when the entire wedding party gets taken hostage. In the film, Coolidge plays Tom’s mother. Shotgun Wedding is available to stream on Prime on January 27.
Take a look at Jennifer Coolidge’s best movie and tv roles below:
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
