Jennifer Coolidge has hailed her career resurgence the “surprise of a lifetime”.
Jennifer Coolidge has enjoyed a string of awards success
The 61-year-old actress scooped the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series prize at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday (15.01.23) for her portrayal of Tanya in ‘The White Lotus’, adding to the Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe awards she’s already received for the show, and she admitted her recent success has made her feel “so alive”.
She told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “I feel so alive, you know?. You go through your life, and you sort of just assume you’re used to going a certain way and you just take on whatever that baggage is and that it’s never going to change.”
Jennifer then offered further praise to creator Mike White for the way he had changed her life.
She said: “I didn’t get to, you know, I thanked him and many other things. My life was changed overnight, and I could not be more grateful.”
The ‘American Pie’ actress reflected on how she’s spent years at home during awards season, watching the shows “with a big thing of popcorn”.
She added: “I’m not saying it all has to be about winning awards for happiness, but to get another shot.
“To get to play a role like Tanya in ‘The White Lotus’, I could never have ever foreseen that moment happening.”
Jennifer joked she didn’t think she was first choice for the awards.
She quipped: “I don’t know if someone died or something, but I got in.
“I”m so happy, not that they died, but that I got in. You know what I mean.”
During the evening, the male and female supporting category awards were presented simultaneously, so Jennifer got to go on stage with Giancarlo Esposito, who won for ‘Better Call Saul’ and she thought it was an “amazing” thing to do.
She said: “I’ve never done that before, where you get to come up together.
“I usually don’t know how I’m going to go up the stairs, and so that was amazing. I love him.”
In her acceptance speech, the actress admitted things were “as good as it gets” for her right now.
She said: “I know you’ve heard a lot from me in the last month or two, but I just want to say this is such an honour.
“This is really kind of as good as it gets. The critics, not from just the west coast and the east coast but all over the country. I just want to say thank you.
“It’s not over til it’s over, it’s not over til you’re dead.”
