Jennifer Coolidge Can’t and Won’t Pretend She Isn’t Salty About Being Left Out of ‘White Lotus’ Season Three
Major spoilers ahead for those who haven’t watched the entirety of The White Lotus Season Two, as well as a revealing word of warning — don’t get too attached to Tanya.
Jennifer Coolidge has been one of the most consistent comedic actresses of the last few decades. After breaking through as Steve Stifler’s sultry, cradle-robbing cougar mom in the American Pie series, Coolidge carved out her niche in entertainment by playing airy, eccentric and entirely unhinged women with active libidos and inactive filters. Coolidge has been working consistently since the turn of the millennium, but no role earned more acclaim than her performance as the wealthy, lonely heiress Tanya McQuoid in the first two seasons of The White Lotus. The show earned Coolidge two Emmy awards, a Golden Globe, a number of Netflix deals to continue her momentum and a massive fanbase of female and gay followers, evil or otherwise.
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However, neither Tanya nor Coolidge will appear in the upcoming third season of The White Lotus following the events of the Season Two finale, a point that’s caused plenty of disappointment among the actress’ adoring fans — but not as much as it upsets Coolidge herself. In a recent interview with TODAY, Coolidge admitted that, when it comes to her omission the next entry in Mike White’s hit HBO series, which will begin filming in Thailand this month, “I’m jealous of everyone that’s going. I just want to stress (that) I’m not a good sport about it.” If there’s a single international luxury vacation that shouldn't inspire FOMO, it’s probably the one with killer gays.
“There’s nothing I can do,” Coolidge said, resigning herself to the early demise that White chose for her character in which Tanya took down an entire yacht's worth of homicidal homosexuals before accidentally falling to her death in the most recent White Lotus season finale. "When they kill you, you have to accept it. Because it means they’re not calling for your costume sizes or anything,” Coolidge continued, “It’s over! I have to get another thing. I have to make another thing happen, I guess.”
Though White, the series creator and showrunner, has teased that a White Lotus prequel series starring Tanya before the events of the first season could be a possibility down the line, Coolidge says that she hasn't been apart of any talks about reprising her biggest role. “I think I’m dead. I think I’m dead right now and may be dead forever,” Coolidge said of the character.
"I just want to say in all honesty, I’m very sad I’m not in it,” Coolidge lamented of White Lotus Season Three, though she implored fans of the show to keep watching when the series goes on without her. “I think it’s going to be good. There’s going to be all sorts of good stuff in it, probably great sex stuff. You know how Mike White writes — it’s never, never a dull moment. I think he’s going to slay with this one.”
Based on the track record for White Lotus, slaying is the baseline, and the "sex stuff" is more of a given than another weirdo, mind-numbing opening theme song.
