Cool as you like
Jennifer Coolidge is finally having her moment in the sun and loving it
A staff writer speaks with the actress about her hard-earned recognition
When it comes to Hollywood stars, many are very clever at presenting themselves as self-deprecating, earnest and reticent artistes whose success has come as something of a surprise even to them.
Then there’s Jennifer Coolidge…
For starters, she doesn’t give a damn about her public persona. At 63, this vivacious star has her cards firmly laid on the table; she’s been too long in the game to pander to such frivolities.
Secondly, there isn’t an insincere bone in her body.
So when she candidly admits to having been blown away by the accolades and attention bestowed upon her by the success of The White Lotus, you know she really means it.
The award-winning HBO black comedy is about the privileged impulses of a number of guests and employees in a fictional hotel chain in which Coolidge plays Tanya McQuoid, a wealthy but somewhat tragic holidaymaker.
In spite of her joy, there is also a tinge of sadness that her time with the HBO drama has come to an end.
“It was a marvellous 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, who failed to 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,” Jennifer says with a laugh.
Coolidge continues: “The fact that I’m no longer a part of it makes me thirsty and hungry; it means I’m looking forward to finding out what the next big thing is – and I’ll simply go after that instead.”
And making a splash is precisely what everyone wants the actress to do.
It’s the exact thing that has proven to be a firm tenet of Jennifer’s onscreen identity, whether it was seducing her teenage son’s friends as Stifler’s mom in the American Pie franchise, preening her prized blue ribbon poodle as trophy wife Sheri Ann Cabot in Best in Show or irreverently yelling ‘But what about me?’ during a tense meeting over the creative direction of a film she is producing – For Your Consideration.
In other words, Coolidge often bursts out of the screen, brimming over in the same manner that her characters spill out of their tight frocks or as champagne overflows in a tower of coupe glasses.
She has presence, beauty and pizzazz – and yet, very little ego.
“I think a lot of that comes from being my own biggest critic,” she confides, when confronted with the perception. “The fact that my career hasn’t always been rocket propelled has led me to scrutinise and be introspective, and I’ve never felt that it’s bad to be like that,” the actress adds.
Of course, many fans of The White Lotus are wondering why on earth Jennifer is getting the recognition she truly deserves only now. After all, it’s not as if she hasn’t been on the scene for the past few decades, having moved to acting school in Los Angeles from her native Massachusetts at the age of 21.
“To be so close to salvation and peace, and have it taken away from you,
is really my life experience”
Those early years in her career were particularly brutal; and while the young ingénue was naturally prepared for some level of rejection, Coolidge says the knock backs often felt relentless.
There was the time when a casting agent summoned Jennifer into her office simply to tell her that she didn’t intend to put her forward for anything as she only cast beautiful people.
“The demoralising part is when you realise that 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,” she says, exhibiting that sly humour that her fans know so well.
Jennifer adds: “Of course, that’s the life of 99 percent of actors and we all know that. But when it’s you, it’s still difficult. As an actor, you know the better work you have now, the further it will reverberate over time – it’s all a long process.”
This wisdom is earned and not inherited; and it gives her the ability to add so much depth to characters that in other hands might feel merely skin deep. In her youth, Coolidge has confessed to being so steeped in a cocaine habit that she lost years of her life and eventually ended up in rehab at 27.
“The fact that my career hasn’t always been rocket propelled has led me to scrutinise and be introspective”
Though her wild days may be behind her, Jennifer remains anything but mainstream. She resides in a capacious 19th century house in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans with her two rescue dogs Chewy (short for Chewbacca) and Bagpipes.
Noticeably absent in her life is a significant other however – and having never married, Coolidge comes across appropriately noncommittal about the subject of long-term love.