Jennifer Coolidge: the Hollywood star breaking the mould – and the internet

The actress Jennifer Coolidge is enjoying something of a renaissance – a “Jenaissance” – becoming an internet sensation after her Emmy and Golden Globe wins.

Despite never being an actor in a leading role, Coolidge has been a cult favourite for years following her appearances in the Legally Blonde franchise and Christopher Guest films Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration.

But playing the grief-driven, insecure Tanya McQuoid in TV series White Lotus has earned Coolidge six awards in the last two years, according to the Evening Standard, including two Critics Choice Awards, an Emmy and a Golden Globe. With White Lotus, “we have officially entered the Jenaissance”, said Vogue.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The part was different from roles she’d had in the past, said Mike White, the writer and director of White Lotus who wrote the McQuoid character for Coolidge. In the past she’d been cast in “hump-the-furniture-parts”, he told Vulture, but she could do more.

The character required more emotional range than previous Coolidge roles, the actor agreed. “Some jobs, I’m sort of going, ‘Wow, this isn’t worth working for,’ she told Variety, but “what Mike wrote, I was staying up late every night.”

Who is Jennifer Coolidge?

Coolidge grew up in Norwell, Massachusetts, but as so many do who dream of becoming an actor, she moved to Los Angeles at 21.

L.A. wasn’t all she’d hoped for, she told Vulture, after living in a nursing home and being told by a casting agent that “she would never cast her in anything”, she moved to New York, where she worked in the same restaurant as another budding actor, Sandra Bullock.

New York was “​​a lot of lost years”, she told Vulture. She spent most of her time in the city going out to clubs pretending to be “Muffin Hemingway…the least-known, completely fictional daughter of the author”. She struggled with a cocaine addiction and at the age of 27 her parents sent her to rehab.

After recovery, “she found improv at Gotham City, which eventually led her back to L.A. to join the Groundlings, the comedy troupe”, according to Vulture.

At age 32, Coolidge booked her first gig on the comedy show Seinfeld. However, this was the start of many cameos and supporting roles that would encompass the “always-the-bridesmaid quality to Coolidge’s career”, added the entertainment website.

After Seinfeld she appeared in the American Pie and Legally Blonde franchises, as well as Friends, Sex in the City, A Cinderella Story and Promising Young Woman, all of which were surface-level, supporting roles.

This had an effect on her. “If I’m not getting great roles, I come to the conclusion that people think I’m incapable of that,” she told Vogue, “and then I make the decision that I am incapable of that”.

Even though the role of McQuoid was written for Coolidge, she still doubted her abilities. She was “depressed at the height of Covid and feeling unready to work”, according to Variety, “I didn’t like the way I looked,” she told the magazine.

Luckily for her, and fans of White Lotus, she was persuaded to step out of her comfort zone.

It is because of this show that doors have begun opening for Coolidge, “whatever Mike White did for me, I would wish that for every actor,” she told Variety.

What’s next for Coolidge?

The future looks bright for Coolidge. “People that I could never get in the door – all of a sudden they’re asking me to be part of their things,” she told Variety.

Currently Coolidge is single, but “she’s a romantic,” said Vulture. Her “weakness in life has always been men,” she spent a lot of time “chasing unattainable men,” and it got her nowhere, she told Variety.

To those closest to her she’s a generous, eccentric friend, who wants everyone to be happy. “She’s very paranoid about hurting anyone’s feelings, about coming off as mean or entitled,” said her friend Mike White, to Vulture.

This along with her underdog persona is why so many, especially Gen Z, have fallen in love with this actress. Her role as McQuoid showed the world what she could do, and, according to the Evening Standard, it made her “one of the hottest names in Hollywood”.