Over salted coconut oil paleo puffs and sweet potato chips, the woman behind legendary “wows,” Legally Blonde hot dogs she swears were vegan, mothering American Pie’s Stifler, and more of a generation’s favorite iconic moments admits that, despite a lifetime’s worth of laughs, awards, and red carpet appearances, her reality was so much grittier.
“If you knew me my whole life, you would have never bet on me,” reflects 62-year-old actress and comedian Jennifer Coolidge. She had just stepped off the stage after her public commencement address for Washington University’s Class of 2024––a 30-minute anecdotal account of 30 years of failures that fueled her success. But in between her self-deprecating jokes and all-too-relatable warnings of partying too hard in your 20s was a gem of a message grounded in “radical self-acceptance” from someone who, at the end of the day, is a self-proclaimed “weirdo.”
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That raw honesty was much-needed for an undergraduate class that entered their four years in isolation, left it among campus hostility, and are yet again facing “unprecedented” economic, political, and social times at the brink of approaching the real world. Acknowledging this, Coolidge accepted the challenge of representing the oddball class of 2024 as their “odd” speaker, recalling the shocking, yet “cool” phone call she received. She respected the Commencement Committee’s decision to “not [pick] a perfect person,” says Coolidge. “I will never be the valedictorian. There’s a certain type of person they always go for.” But what’s better than being perfect, is being real, and Coolidge’s formula for her own success uniquely mirrored the Class of 2024’s: managing situations outside of your control by proactively pivoting to get ahead of them. It’s taken time, but Coolidge’s choices and maneuvers have ultimately led her to the success she’s enjoying today and the freedom to be exactly who she really is.
“Do you know how many times people come up to talk to me about the hot dog, and then do the voice, and then ask me to do the bend and snap, and then I go on a talk show and get asked again?” says Coolidge. These days, she’s ready to reject being typecast in those same kinds of roles after her award-winning stunt on White Lotus as Tanya.
“I get more and more selective as I go. I used to say yes to a lot of things,” says Coolidge. “I almost blew the White Lotus thing. It was kind of a long shot. I know Mike White, he’s a friend of mine… He saw all my weirdness and he was really alright with it,” she says. The result was an experience that has empowered her confidence in embracing new roles that highlight her dynamism as both an actress and as a person.
“I don’t know why this couldn’t have happened sooner,” she says. “It led to so many other cool things. Could I play Tanya forever? Maybe that wouldn’t be a good idea, but it was so much more interesting than a lot of roles that come my way. She was a really complicated, f***** up person, and I love to get something like that. It’s sort of given me an international perspective, because White Lotus made it around the world. It’s very nice.”
Coolidge is an unapologetic, outspoken character, and she encouraged graduates to take the same steps she has to find themselves and their happiness, to surround themselves with the people and passions that make their lives better.
“When I think about your generation and I see all the wonderful things you’re doing, and how passionate and vocal you are and engaged you are about your futures—our future actually—it makes me feel so happy, because this is progress. We need you. And we need your strength, we need your truth,” she exclaimed, alongside the audible chants of protesters outside the stadium and cheers within. “Get to know yourself, accept who you are, and love that person, because this is the moment. You already are everything you need to be.”
