15 Trivia Tidbits About Jennifer Coolidge
She’s played a horny hairdresser in Legally Blonde, a horny publicist in A Mighty Wind and a horny mom in American Pie. She’s done a string of sitcoms, and she recently starred in the black comedy series where rich people learn nothing, and everyone bones like it’s spring break for the olds. All of which is to say, Jennifer Coolidge is one of those comedic character actresses who dominates the screen in whatever she is in and has us all dangling from those pouty lips to hear what chaotic words she’ll say next.
As such, we’ve gathered some trivia tidbits about the actor who made the term “MILF” famous...
She Originally Wanted to Be a Serious Actor
20th Century Fox
In an interview with Female, Coolidge revealed that she was obsessed with Meryl Streep when she was younger and wanted to be a dramatic actor, not a comedian. Apparently, finding success in comedies was a shock: “I am very surprised because no one in my family thought I was funny. You know, they thought I was weird. But my brother was the funny one in the family, so it’s so bizarre.”
According to Coolidge, she only ended up in comedy because she’s good at imitating people. “I wasn’t a very smart kid, but when someone was condescending — whenever they would like, come over — I never said anything smart at the dinner table. But when someone left — like a guest would come to our house and they would leave — I could do that person really well, and I could say all the stupid things that they said and, you know... So I knew I had something.”
She Wants to Play a Dolphin Next
After winning the Golden Globe earlier this year for her performance as Tanya in The White Lotus, Coolidge told an interviewer that her ultimate dream would be to play a dolphin. Not an animated character — a real dolphin, like Flipper. We guess that would probably fit into her “Horny Characters” catalog. Besides, given that Reba McEntire played a magical mermaid in the 2021 comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, we could totally see this for Coolidge, joke or no joke.
The ‘Blind Nun in a Basement’ Line from ‘The White Lotus’ Was Ad-Libbed
While Coolidge came up with the line on the spot, it was one she’d heard before. “That was actually a guy at Jones on Third, that restaurant (in L.A.),” Coolidge told an Entertainment Weekly interviewer. “There was a guy behind the counter — this was before I went vegan, I was eating cheese — and he let me sample some cheeses. I liked one, and he actually had the balls to say to me, ‘Well, it’s made by a blind nun in a basement in Italy.’ He really did say that. I mean, those cheese connoisseurs are so full of s**t, you know what I mean? It was probably Borden’s or something.”
During an Unscripted interview with Catherine O’Hara, Coolidge (who didn’t want to name and shame) said that her ditzy character Whitney Taylor Brown was based on a producer she knew: “The most I took from one producer was a woman. She sort of talked in vague terms, like, ‘I’m a producer, we produce a lot of things, and we go to the… places,’ and what she meant was locations. She just didn’t know any of the lingo. So I thought that it was pretty funny that she didn’t quite know the job.”
She Wants People to Know She Can Run Really Fast
Coolidge has said on numerous occasions that she’s quite the sprinter and has been ever since she was a child. “Because of the way I look, people don’t think I can run really fast,” she told Naomi Watts during a Q&A for Buzzfeed U.K. “I don’t know why, but I can. It’s gonna come in handy one of these days.”
Her Dog Was Rescued from a Meat Factory in Korea
A big animal lover — she strongly supports veganism and cruelty-free beauty products — Coolidge’s dog Chuy was rescued from becoming a future meal by the Animal Rescue Mission. Coolidge also once rescued a dog that was tied to a tree in Hollywood. “A man standing nearby mentioned the dog was without a home,” Coolidge told the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “I instinctually felt this moment was supposed to happen, and she was supposed to come home with me. I named her Dilly.”
People Keep Singing ‘These Gays’ to Her
Coolidge told Gold Derby she’s flattered by the fact that DJs around the world are mixing that iconic line from The White Lotus Season 2 into their club sets. She also said in the clip below that people keep singing it to her whenever they see her in public.
She Was Somehow Asked to Audition for Paulette for London’s ‘Legally Blonde ’ Musical
Coolidge told Variety that, in 2011, her then-agent came to her and said a London theater wanted her to audition for a production of Legally Blonde. “I said to my agent, ‘What do you mean, audition?’” she remembers. “It’s not a straight offer? My agent said, ‘I think they just want to see if you can sing and dance.’ Look, if I got up onstage and farted, and that’s all I did, it would still be the lady from the movie!” She admitted that she was still kind of pissed about it.
She’s a Night Owl
Coolidge has, on many occasions, lamented the fact that she doesn’t have the energy other people seem to have. On working with Naomi Watts in Ryan Murphy’s The Watcher, Coolidge said that it looked so “effortless” for Watts to work. “I know she’s a big yoga girl — maybe you have more energy when you’re doing yoga?” Coolidge mused. “Some actors don’t need any recovery. I do.”
In an interview with People, she explained her predicament further: “I love nighttime, and I really feel like it’s the only time I’m really alive. The whole morning, afternoon and dusk are wretched, and I can barely function.”
The Scene in ‘Gentlemen Broncos’ That Made Her Lose It
In a Q&A with fans for Broadway.com, Coolidge said she was unable to keep it together watching Mike White do a scene with a snake around his neck that had a bad case of diarrhea. This probably explains why they had to go with close-up shots for the final cut.
She’s a Hit on TikTok
While Coolidge only has two TikTok posts so far, they’re bangers, and they feature an unexpected guest appearance from a certain Shotgun Wedding co-star:
@jennifercoolidge
’American Pie’ Got Her a Lot of Action
Apparently, people couldn’t stop asking Coolidge out on dates after seeing her play Stifler’s mom. While speaking to Ariana Grande in an interview for Entertainment Weekly, Coolidge said, “American Pie helped my dating life in a way that I can’t ever explain. If I hadn’t had that movie, I don’t think… Well, let’s just say it would’ve been a very dull decade.”
In the same interview, she also debunked her own claim that she had slept with 200 people because of the movie, saying that she exaggerated the body count. “God, you really can’t make jokes in our town,” she explained.
She Is Obsessed with Crime Shows
Or at least, she was when she did this interview for Broadway.com. And we’re not talking about the CSI varieties — Coolidge couldn’t get enough of actual true-crime documentaries like pretty much everyone else.
She Really Wanted to Do Her Own Stunts in ‘The White Lotus’
Although Season Two saw the actress’ first ever on-screen death, Coolidge was disappointed that she couldn’t perform the stunt herself. “I was upset that they wouldn’t let me do my own stunt!" she told Gold Derby. “I was furious, but you know, it was very late at night, and they were afraid that I would probably misjudge the fall, and it’d be a big huge insurance risk. But I really wanted to do it. I really wanted to die myself, to see what it would be like.”
The Line She Hates Hearing
Coolidge told Variety that she’s so, so tired of hearing people quote the line, “It makes me want a hot dog real bad,” from Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. “All day long… just so many people… saying it on a plane, for f—k sake! It’s exhausting, this hot dog story.”
