Jennifer Coolidge returns to 'The White Lotus', the series with which she has found late triumph

When on September 12 the name of Jennifer Coolidge (Boston, 61) was announced as the Emmy winner for best supporting actress in a miniseries for

came up in the room with the melody of

the 90s

: “It finally happened to me”, says the refrain that accompanied the actress at the moment that certified her belated consecration.

Thanks to the dark comedy of HBO Max and a character that her friend Mike White, creator of the fiction, conceived expressly for her, the American has become crowned in the industry that for decades has ignored her presence.

Her absurd award acceptance speech, in which she was unable to manage time, confessed to taking a lavender bath to get into her dress, and ended with a dance on stage, won over the audience.

The viral moment contributes to blurring the line between fiction and reality with respect to Tanya McQuoid, the delusional millionaire that she plays in the series and that resumes on October 31 in its second season.

Here's Jennifer Coolidge's hilarious #Emmys acceptance speech.

https://t.co/h3GrtHDmKy pic.twitter.com/BgDn0Ct0my

– Variety (@Variety) September 13, 2022

“Two years ago I was about to buy a flower shop because I really thought I wasn't going to be able to pursue acting.

And look where we are now”, said the actress in April in Taormina (Sicily), during the filming of the new chapters of

, without knowing that the Emmy would arrive five months later.

His career was marked by his role in

(2000), where he seduced one of his college son's friends.

But she feels like she was typecast almost from the start, in the early 1990s, when she debuted with an episodic role on the hit show of the day,

.

“So, there was a certain type of woman with, let's say, non-standard beauty that she always played the crazy best friend of the protagonists, from weird high school.

I told my agent that I was no longer interested in doing that, that I wanted to do stand-up comedy.

And I spent four years trying to make a living from it.

Until I returned to those characters”, she told her from Italy while she resumed the role with which she has managed to vindicate herself.

After those purely food jobs and public interventions not unlike the Emmys, Coolidge became a charming disaster, an aesthetic reference based on tacky haute couture, a woman always sweet and often clumsy and out of place.

They are qualities of hers that make her the queer that every gay would like to have by her side.

But White kept it for himself.

From left to right: Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharpe, Theo James and Meghann Fahey in the second season of 'The White Lotus.

A small participation a few years ago, in the celebrated

, changed things somewhat, but, says the actress, everything took a great qualitative leap when her friend brought out

: "Nobody had asked me to be the protagonist of his story until he came.

It's like he gave the rest of the industry permission to give me those kinds of roles."

Coolidge is already preparing projects with leading roles alongside David Harbor (

), Anthony Mackie (the new Captain America) and Reese Witherspoon.

Ryan Murphy is counting on her for one of her Netflix premieres,

, and will coincide with Jennifer Lopez in

.

She and Mike White met while playing a wedding couple in the independent comedy

(2009), from

director Jared Hess.

And they have been close friends ever since.

They travel together and live together for months on end.

“He has me hooked.

I think she finds it hilarious that she can continue to live as I am, ”says the actress.

For 15 years, he was promising the actress that he was going to write a series or a movie exclusively for her, so that he could shine.

He completed a script in 2018 and pitched it to as many networks as possible, but no one was interested in the pitch.

When

, White reserved a role for her, to compensate for not having kept her promise, not knowing that this kind of consolation prize was the one that was going to give them the triumph that until now they had only grazed.

In the first season of the comedy, the interpreter embodies a woman with a good background.

She encourages Natasha, one of the

of luxury in which he is on vacation to set up his own business, with your financial help.

After filling her with illusions, Tanya meets a man and gets distracted from that initial purpose, which was to help her new friend.

In the new chapters, the millionaire gets what she wants, she has high expectations regarding her love life, but she discovers that maybe that doesn't give her happiness.

“When you have a lot of money it is much more disappointing not to do the right thing.

It is in your hand to change other lives for the better.

But there are also times when people tend to think that if you are in a privileged position, you can do anything.

They have asked me many times for help to enter a film or television project and, when I have not succeeded, they have stopped talking to me, ”she confesses.

Jennifer Coolidge in 'The White Lotus'.

The actress is aware of being the muse of someone special in the Hollywood industry.

Someone who, in her own way, is loyal to her.

White was an unsuccessful actor who decided to spend his many spare moments as an unemployed person writing his own stories.

He created

, a comedy that played with the bipolarity of its protagonist.

He achieved a moderate triumph with that story on HBO between 2011 and 2013. Then his career took a dip again until

arrived on the same platform.

As his face is not well known among the general public, a couple of years ago the writer and director decided to participate in the reality show

, which in the United States is reserved for anonymous contestants, because he likes to watch it as a spectator.

It happened not long before he also received the highest awards in the television industry a few weeks ago.

"Mike always knew she was a star who hadn't found the right material yet," says David Bernad, executive producer of the comedy they work on together and one of the first people to whom they both dedicated their Emmys.

Coolidge is faced with the responsibility of playing a character that White writes expressly for her.

And that, in addition, they are openly inspired by it.

The actress, instead of talking about guts, refers to the humility that this situation generates in her.

When she tells it, she can't help but make even the serious things she talks about funny: “Sometimes it's painful.

You see how a person who is really smart can see you.

And it is not always in an attractive or attractive way.

It is a difficult mirror to look at.

When I read what she writes sometimes I think: 'Oh, God,

Mike has seen me in situations where I've been ridiculous.

And on top of that, the guy leaves it registered through a character'.

But one of these days I'm going to write about him and what he's like…” she jokes, making it sound like he's serious.

Coolidge understands his friend's sense of humor—"uncomfortable situations are funny to him," he explains.

Sometimes she adds embarrassing aspects to Tanya that they know he will like.

At other times, she declares herself a puppet in White's hands.

In a somewhat tragic scene in the first season, during a funeral aboard a ship, Coolidge improvised, out of necessity, part of his speech, while his co-stars tried not to laugh so as not to spoil the shot.

“I don't remember very well what I did because I was terribly ill.

Mike knows that he hates boats.

He has seen it with his own eyes.

That's why he decided to do such a dramatic sequence in one of them.

He was filling an entire bucket of vomit inches from my companions.

He was disgusting and had no privacy,

because the boat was much smaller than what was promised.

But he found it all very funny, ”she comments, feigning indignation.

"She knew she didn't like to go by boat... Well, it's true that sometimes I torture her a bit for the sake of comedy," he admits with a laugh.

“Mike has a memory like an elephant for all those embarrassing situations I go through, but he also pays close attention to my longings.

That is also in my character.

With him, I don't feel like I'm interpreting.

He has a broad and compassionate look, he sees the good and the bad in people.

He forgives his characters, whatever they may be.

I guess that's why I forgive him, "admits the new queen of comedy.

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