When it comes to Hollywood stars, many are adept at presenting as the self-deprecating, earnest, and reticent artiste whose own success has come somewhat as a surprise, even to them.
It's a well-trodden interview technique that conveniently promotes their "everyman/everywoman" persona, and primarily, people see through it for what it is.
Then there's Jennifer Coolidge.
For starters, Coolidge doesn't give a damn about her public persona. At 63, the vivacious star has her cards firmly on the table and is too long in the game to pander to such frivolities.
Secondly, there isn't an insincere bone in the actress's curvaceous 5'10 body; so when she candidly admits to being blown away by the accolades and attention bestowed upon her the recent success of HBO's The White Lotus, the award-winning HBO black comedy about the privileged impulses of many guests and employees of a fictional hotel chain, in which she plays Tanya McQuoid, a wealthy but somewhat tragic holidaymaker, you know she means it, in much the same way she was openly distraught when not being called back for season three.
That rejection stunned fans of the star, albeit in the process, made her "woman about to save herself from murder ends up drowning instead" overboard exit at the end of season two, arguably the most perfectly flawed way to end a period of absolute success. It's fitting that having got to the point where the tides had turned, after years of feeling she had not enjoyed the career she perhaps deserved, it was to be the tide that again pulled her out to sea.
Regardless of all that, Coolidge can still claim to have had decades as a mainstay in popular culture. Her first significant role was as one of Jerry Seinfeld's girlfriends in his eponymous sitcom. Following the massive success of the American Pie franchise, she was always unmistakable when featuring in one-off parts of iconic shows of that era, including Friends and Sex and the City.
There was also her turn as loveable manicurist Paulette Bonafonté, opposite Reese Witherspoon's wannabe lawyer Elle Woods, in Legally Blonde, a film adored by ambitious young women everywhere, including, it seems, Ariana Grande, who asked Coolidge to reprise the role in her 2018 music video for the hit song thank u, next.
Yet extended periods without the prestige of lead roles have made Coolidge one of Hollywood's more applaudable and belated success stories. As one door closes, another invariably opens, after all.
STRIPLV: So let's start with the elephant in the room, the return of The White Lotus, albeit without you? COOLIDGE: It was a marvelous thing to be a part of, and I haven't pretended that I'm not disappointed to have been taken away from it, but the way season two ended for Tanya, that failed jump into a lifeboat, I think, is really a metaphor of so much. To be so close to salvation and peace, and have it taken away from you, is really my life experience, and the fact I'm no longer a part of it that makes me thirsty and hungry and all those other emotions that mean I'm looking forward to finding out what the next big thing is. I'll just go after that instead. (Laughs) STRIPLV: And surely you will look back and be so thrilled at how it went? COOLIDGE: Oh, of course. Listen, I am never greedy. It happened to me, and I'm absolutely thrilled about that, as you say. And if I were doing Season 3, then I probably wouldn't have been able to do The Minecraft Movie, which has been a lot of fun and something we are all very excited about. STRIPLV: Yes, Jack Black and Jason Momoa. It doesn't get much bigger than that. COOLIDGE: The best thing was the working environment. It's a big film, a big budget, and comes with the pressure of trying to do the game justice, but despite that, we have so much fun shooting the film. And that's the way it should be. I have always worked hard to open doors and build opportunities, and it has often felt like someone had sealed me away from all of the possibilities in life, and I wasn't allowed out unless it was totally certain that I wouldn't make a scene. Well, I didn't make a scene, and I am proud of everything that I've achieved. STRIPLV: Yet making a scene is precisely what everyone wants you to do, going right the way back to seducing your teenage son's friends as the iconic Stifler's Mom in the American Pie franchise. It must be a lot of fun to be that person, right? COOLIDGE: I get that I have a presence, and clearly I'm glad of that, or I wouldn't have had the success I have, but none of that comes from ego. I really don't tap into the whole ego thing, and I never have. STRIPLV: How is it you've managed to keep your feet on the ground then? COOLIDGE: I think a lot of that comes from being my own biggest critic. The fact that my career hasn't always been rocket propelled has led me to scrutinise and be self-inspecting, and I've never felt it's bad to be like that. STRIPLV: When was it toughest? COOLIDGE: It's usually always toughest at the start. I moved to Los Angeles from my native Massachusetts to attend acting school at the age of 21, and those early years were particularly challenging. I mean, I was prepared for some level of rejection, but the knockbacks often felt relentless. There was one time when a casting agent summoned me into her office to tell me that she didn't intend to put me forward for anything, as she "only cast beautiful people." That stuff is brutal and so utterly pointless. It serves no one any purpose whatsoever. The demoralizing part is when you realize you are going through the same cycle again and again, the script, the audition, the phone call. After a while, you wonder if someone has blackballed you somewhere along the line. Of course, that's just the life of 99 per cent of actors, and we all know that, but when it's you, it's still difficult. As an actor, you know that the better the work you have now, the further it will reverberate over time; it's all a long process. STRIPLV: Yet you've often talked about finding positives from rejection. COOLIDGE: Yes, that's true. And when you do start landing work, I will say that the wisdom, earned and not inherited, is the same thing that gives you the ability to add so much depth to characters that in other hands might otherwise feel merely skin-deep. STRIPLV: And you've had other battles, too. COOLIDGE: Yes, addiction, all the cool stuff. I always wanted to be a bit controversial and edgy in those early days, and frankly, I needed to be because it was the only way to get spotted, sometimes. STRIPLV: You've never married. Is that something that still might come along? COOLIDGE: I don't know, it's complicated. The past has never held much encouragement for the future, and as far as those past transgressions regarding men and relationships go, I could justifiably castigate myself for chasing after the affections of those who didn't want me for who I was. I would be here all day and most of the night if I were to list the many times where I have neglected my own career and distracted myself from where I should have been focusing. Maybe that's the reason why it could have taken a bit longer for me to get the chances I am getting now; I don't really know. What I do know is you should never feel in your life that good times can't happen for you if you are single. Nothing could be further from the truth. Being yourself is wonderful, it really is, and you still get to surround yourself with good people, positive people, just ensure they are realistic people also. STRIPLV: You are always one to offer great credit to those who help you along the way – it must be nice when others do the same? COOLIDGE: Of course. If I can give anyone a push in the right direction by putting in a word or just helping them showcase their work better, then I always will. How could I not? I'm probably the best person to realize how important that sort of interaction can be. At the end of the day, I was the ultimate jobbing actress for three decades, surviving on a lot of supporting roles and never really feeling as though I had the appeal to be taken seriously as a lead name in a few projects back-to-back. I wouldn't say I was surviving on scraps, but it was certainly a case of not feeling as though I was getting the recognition for my efforts. The fact that all changed so dramatically, and at a time in my career when I might have legitimately felt my best days were behind me, was down to my long-term friend and filmmaker Mike White, after he championed me in his White Lotus pitches to TV network executives. STRIPLV: He said your casting was "non-negotiable", right? COOLIDGE: Yes. And of course, I would deem such a statement to be admirable and also totally foolish. (Laughs) But as I said in my Golden Globes speech for "Best Supporting Actor," he really did give me hope and a new beginning. I also thank Ariana (Grande) for giving me the role she did in the music video for thank u, next. It shows how sometimes the most dramatic turnarounds can come from the smallest of projects. And it's crazy how something like that can prove a springboard when three decades on screen cannot, but these are the realities of how the industry is, and how the world is today. It's fickle at times, but even fickle can feel incredible. My friendship with Ariana also re-cemented the notion of not giving a damn, and this was something that had patterned much of her early career. I'd forgotten the immense surge of power that feeling brings, and I missed it. In fact, I didn't truly realize that I'd lost it, but as soon as you do realize something like that, you know you need to get it back pretty quickly. STRIPLV: Why do you think you lost that nihilistic approach to your craft? COOLIDGE: I think age does that to you, and in many ways, you need it to. We can't live at 31, 41, or 51 in the same way we did when we were 21. We are different people with different responsibilities, and there's a maturity to live you need to present. However, there are many aspects of young people and young adults that we should look to preserve. It's very easy to get beaten down by convention and etiquette, and these are intensified with all those feelings of insecurity. The older you get, the more you realise you looked better in the past, or the next flourish of beautiful things are taking your place. Yet you don't need to bow down to all that stuff. Firstly, don't listen to or rate the opinions of others. People will always judge, and the best thing you can arm yourself with against those types is a smile; they absolutely fucking hate it, let me tell you straight! Secondly, rate, appreciate, and love yourself. And of course, thirdly, never ever give up.
COOLIDGE'S COMEDY CAPERS
MOMENTS WHEN JENNIFER HAS PROVED SHE'S A COMEDY ICON
ONE "I'm taking the dog, dumbass!" One of the most iconic lines in Legally Blonde, proving that no one delivers sass quite like Jennifer Coolidge.
TWO The White Lotus' chaotic brilliance, as Tanya McQuoid, gave us one of TV's most meme-worthy moments: "These gays, they're trying to murder me!"
She almost passed on the series at the time, as she was too busy redecorating her house. Thankfully, she changed her mind.
THREE Uninvited wedding guest, Coolidge once admitted to crashing a wedding just for fun. "I had a great time! No one even noticed," she claimed.
FOUR Jennifer adores her dogs, Bagpipes and Chuy, so much that she once turned down a film role because she couldn't bear to leave them.
FIVE Many of her best moments in Best in Show and A Mighty Wind were unscripted. Christopher Guest's films rely on improv, and Coolidge excelled at it.
SIX Finally, what most love about Coolidge is the way her hilarious acceptance speeches, whether it's at the Emmys or the Golden Globes, are a mix of gratitude, self-deprecating humor, and pure chaos.