It took him 30 years to get there. American actress Jennifer Coolige, star of forced marriageThis Friday on Amazon Prime, he finally knows public recognition, after decades of more or less memorable small roles.
The Serie the white lotus, and the role that his friend Mike White made for him, allow him, at 61 years old, access to honors and sets of “Late shows.” Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel roll out the red carpet for her and praise her performance. She also collects awards.
Thanks to the character of Tanya McQuoid, a rich heiress as touching as it is ridiculous, wrapped in whispery outfits and dreaming of being Monica Vitti, Jennifer Coolidge has indeed won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award.
“Dreams So Big”
Relishing her belated recognition, the actress delighted audiences at the Emmy Awards in September 2022 and at the Golden Globes in early January. Full of self-mockery, she made the audience laugh with a speech probably less improvised than it seemed. Not forgetting to mention her less glorious years and this unexpected “fresh start”.
“When I was younger, I had such big dreams and such high hopes, but what happened was that life destroyed them. I thought I was going to be Queen of Monaco, even if someone else did. I think, ‘Oh, what’s going on? to pass?
“Mike White, you gave me hope. You gave me a fresh start… You changed my life in a million different ways.”
In her speech, she also mentioned the few people in the community who helped her get through “20 years of odd jobs.” As Ryan Murphy, who she offered him a role last year in her thriller series The vigilant.
“The revival is perhaps due to the fact that two series arrived almost at the same time,” he analyzed in the magazine. Rolling Stone in November 2022. “The Ryan Murphy series, The vigilantpreceded white lotus season 2. In a way, that created some momentum.”
For over a year now, the media have been watching this surprising career change, at an age when actresses are rather locked in the broom closet.
“The Beginning of Many Great Things”
His first impulse, he attributes it to Ariana Grande, in 2018. The young singer then delivers an imitation of the actress on the set of Jimmy Fallon. Moved by her, Jennifer Coolidge contacted her on social media. Ariana Grande then recruits her in the clip of Thank you next.
“Yes, I was able to do ‘White Lotus,’ but I think it really started when you asked me to be in the ‘Thank U, Next’ video,” he explained in an interview on entertainment weeklyresponding to a question from the singer.
“My career was stagnating and you made things happen to me. (…) After that, I had [un rôle dans] promising young [d’Emerald Fennell, en 2020]and then all that.”
“It was the start of a lot of wonderful things that happened to me afterward,” he explained on the set of the Tonight Show.
Because if his small roles in series and in the cinema were not lacking, his career was summed up before the 2020s for the general public in two roles, “Stifler’s mother” and “Paulette Bonafonté the beautician”. It is this last character that he plays in the Ariana Grande clip.
“Fans generally don’t recognize Jennifer Coolidge as Jennifer Coolidge,” he wrote like this. The New York Times in 2003. “Teens look to her as Stifler’s sex-starved mother, Mrs. Robinson, in the movies american foot. Teenage girls know her as Paulette, the beautician drenched in revenge of a blonde“.
“Stifler’s Mother”
View in all four panesamerican foot and the two legally blonde (A Blonde’s Revenge), Jennifer Coolidge has long had to settle for being just a teenage fantasy.
Her first role, in 1993, was that of a short-lived Seinfeld girlfriend in the cult comedy, the time of an episode. One role came after a decade of trying to break into the profession, doing a lot of cocaine, partying a lot, while she worked as a waitress in a New York restaurant with Sandra Bullock.
She then went on to do some insignificant roles in television series, until 1999 and the famous role of Jeanine Stifler, Stifler’s sexy mother in american foot. In 2003, she appeared in an episode of Friendsin the role of the obnoxious and clumsy ex-comrade of Monica and Phoebe, and the same year, in the other cult series of the moment, sex and the city.
But there’s still no big role on the horizon. Jennifer Coolidge’s career continues to be peppered with minor roles and missed opportunities. She therefore, she almost had her own series, and she almost played in Desperate housewivesthe role of Lynette ultimately fell to Felicity Huffman.
TikTok and the Ariana Grande generation
Subscribed to the roles of bimbos or sexy mother,american foot a bronco knightsJennifer Coolidge is camping in forced marriage, the mother of Josh Duhamel, when she was only 11 years older than him. She also marked the American public in the film. best in show (Beasts of the Stage), “mockumentary” about the world of dog shows.
At the same time as the public, who acclaims him on Instagram and TikTok, the press is delighted with this discovery. “Hollywood didn’t know what to do with Jennifer Coolidge, and then the role of her life came along. She ended up with The White Lotus,” he titled. variety. “How Jennifer Coolidge became an icon at 61,” asks the guardian. “Welcome to ‘Jenaissance'”, title fashion.
Jennifer Coolidge’s new life is just beginning. Named “Woman of the Year” by Harvard University in her hometown of Boston, the actress also made a sensational arrival on TikTok, where the first video of her was viewed nearly 8 million times.
His comedic genius also touches a new generation of fans. “Everybody knows me now,” she said in an interview with Rolling Stone, explaining that she was no longer known simply as “Stifler’s mother.”
“I feel like this new generation, Ariana Grande’s generation, loves me more than the first one,” she adds. “Maybe it’s because of social media, but they’re impersonating me on TikTok, and a lot of those impersonations are really, really good.”
Source: BFM TV
