How Jennifer Coolidge went from ‘Stifler’s mom’ to cult icon

“Someone said they loved the girl I played on an episode of Friends, and I forgot I did Friends,” Jennifer Coolidge said in an interview way back in 2010, mid-way through discussing the roles she was most frequently recognised for in public.

The throwaway comment perfectly encapsulates Coolidge’s energy — sedate and eccentric (one journalist called it “zany camp”, which you can’t beat, really) — but also shows just how much things have changed for the Boston-born actress in the 13 years since.

The 61-year-old has claimed six awards over the past two years for her role as the bereaved and more-than-a-little unhinged Tanya McQuoid in HBO’s The White Lotus, including her first ever Golden Globe earlier this week. The succession of recent wins is a striking comparison to the smattering of accolades Coolidge earned in the earlier portion of her career — including an award for “Most Annoying Fake Accent – Female” for 2006’s Date Movie and the “Choice Movie Sleazebag” Teen Choice Award for A Cinderella Story in 2005.

But come 2021, the sexagenarian was everywhere, splashed across magazine after magazine as frequently as any rising young starlet set for the award circuit, in photoshoots ranging from the polished (clad in a patent black trench coat and sunglasses for Vogue) to the ridiculous (churning butter dressed as a milkmaid for Paper Magazine).

“My friends are all surprised that this fluky thing happened,” Coolidge told Variety in August, ahead of her 2022 Emmy win. “My life was going a certain way for a very long time. I’m afraid if I analyze it too much I’ll ruin it.”

They’re calling it a “comeback”, but Coolidge never had anything to come back from, rather, the industry has finally taken notice. As celebrity commentator and media expert Dr Kirsty Fairclough explains, “The nexus of her fame has shifted [...] Coolidge has been in the industry for 30 years and has only recently become taken seriously as an actress of a wider range.”

So how did the 2020s become the decade of the big JC, and how did Coolidge herself go from Stifler’s mom and resident “butt of the joke” to revered character actress? Let’s take a look.

Like any budding actress, Coolidge began her career with bit parts in TV series and low budget films. But even back in the mid 90s her trademark spacey sexiness was already dictating the roles she landed — for better or for worse. She played a “hottie cop” in Night at the Roxbury, a sexy nun in Plump Fiction, a Pulp Fiction parody film, and a role simply titled “Stupid Girl” in a budget 1995 TV movie called Bucket of Blood.

Apart from her role voicing Miss Kremzer in King of the Hill for two years in the late 90s, the roles Coolidge inhabited were typically small and non-recurring. Speaking about her earlier roles, Coolidge told The Guardian, “People assumed I could only do certain kinds of role. That lady who comes in, opens a door, says something funny, then closes it. You get put in a box as comic relief.”

Then came 1999, when Coolidge played a part in a film that would reach cult status and make her a star in the process: “Woman at football game” in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. I’m kidding — it was obviously Stifler’s mom in American Pie. (This may be a British publication, reader, but it feels almost sacrilege to write “Stifler’s mum.”)

After achieving stardom as Stifler’s mom, Coolidge reprised the role three times throughout the 2000s (for American Pie 2, American Wedding and American Reunion). She’s credited it with helping her sleep with 200 people — a claim which made headlines in just about every news outlet at the time — but also helping her break into the wider film industry. “People that I could never get in the door,” she told Variety, “all of a sudden they’re asking me to be part of their things.”

At this point, Coolidge was a mainstream sex symbol — the mother of all MILFs, worshipped by heterosexual men everywhere. The reality of Coolidge being just 30 years old and playing the mother of an 18-year-old boy didn’t bother her at the time. In fact, Coolidge once told UsWeekly: “I’ve always looked old for my age. I bought a case of beer when I was 11 with my neighbor’s wig.”

Then came Coolidge’s chick flick era, and suddenly she had an entirely different fan base. “Coolidge often chooses parts which resonate with the gay community,” Dr Fairclough explains, “particularly after appearing in several films which can often be read as camp including the Legally Blonde franchise, A Cinderella Story and Best in Show.”

In fact, within the space of three years, Coolidge appeared in Legally Blonde, A Cinderella Story, Friends, Sex and the City, and who can possibly forget, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. All roles which helped to cement her as a gay icon.

Her close knit relationship with the gay community translates to real life, too. Coolidge is good friends with drag queen Juno Birch, and even owns some of Birch’s ceramic art work (bottom left of this strange Instagram video, seen below). “[Jennifer Coolidge] is the sweetest and kindest person,” Birch told the Evening Standard. “She's so funny in real life and has always supported my drag.”

As well as the gay community, Coolidge is widely beloved by women. “This may lie in the fact that she represents the Hollywood outsider,” Dr Fairclough says, “in that she doesn’t conform to normative body ideals that we see so often in mainstream screen cultures. And her position as an older woman who’s often considered sexual is one that’s still sadly all too rare in Hollywood.”

Coolidge’s status as a gay icon has also ensured her continued popularity by appealing to the ever-discerning Gen Z. According to pop culture commentator and Gen Zer Harrison Brocklehurst, a change in attitudes means her campiness goes down a treat. “Over the last 10 years or so, I feel like attitudes towards being camp or having an affinity for camp have completely changed,” he says, “so there’s a way more of an appetite for a character like [Jennifer Coolidge].”

The other key to the hearts of Gen Z, Brocklehurst explains, is Coolidge’s authenticity. “There isn’t a surefire way to attain cult status within Gen Z, because something Gen Z are really wise to is people who are forcing it or trying to be an icon. Most of the people Gen Z love never intended to become an icon,” he says, citing Instagram accounts like “Love Of Huns”, which celebrates the ordinary, older and more off-kilter TV stars as icons.

If you’ve ever read an interview with Coolidge, you will be aware of this authenticity. She’s incredibly candid: Once, when speaking about being offered an audition for the Legally Blonde musical — as Paulette, the character she had already played in the film — she recalled, “I said to my agent, what do you mean, audition? It’s not a straight offer? Look, if I got up onstage and farted, and that’s all I did, it would still be the lady from the movie!”

But for the unenlightened, many came to realise Coolidge’s real-life similarity to the airy, outlandish characters she plays following her Emmy win speech last September, where she responded to being played off after acceptance monologue by simply dancing along to the music.

The other way to ensure longevity as a cultural icon? Be good. And Coolidge was always great, in the sense that she was loved and people found her hilarious, on and off-screen, but then came The White Lotus, and she stole every scene she appeared in. In the first season alone, Coolidge’s performance as the entitled and insecure Tanya McQuoid was already being described by critics as “exceptional” and a “raw triumph.”

It was far from her first crack at a serious role — she appeared as Carey Mulligan’s muted mother in critical success Promising Young Woman just the year before — but Coolidge just kept going until something stuck. “[Jennifer Coolidge] is definitely aware of where she was told she fits into the industry,” says Dr Kirsty Fairclough, “but she’s pushed her way through.”

This push wasn’t one of sheer confidence, though. Much like Tanya, Coolidge is insecure, and doesn’t mind telling people about it. When talking about her role in Promising Young Woman, she said: “I felt like a novice by comparison [to Carey Mulligan and director Emerald Fennell.] At times I was like: ‘Oh my God, she thinks I suck.’”

Then The White Lotus came around, and Coolidge revealed a new layer. It didn’t hurt that the role of Tanya McQuoid was written specifically for her by actor, screenwriter and close friend Mike White. “White has known Coolidge for years and knew exactly what she was capable of,” Dr Fairclough says. “In many ways her recent success was all about timing — there has long been a lack of ‘good’ parts for woman over 50 and only recently has that shifted.”

With all the buzz around Coolidge’s inate understanding of her character and gleaming performance, you’d assume she knew what she was doing was magic. You would be wrong. Much like Promising Young Woman, Coolidge doubted herself during filming for The White Lotus’ first season. “Did I feel like I was nailing it on any level? No,” she told The Guardian last year.

Luckily, she said the similarities between her and Tanya are what saved her. “I’d been incredibly depressed during the pandemic. I lost my own mother at an early age. A family member passed away during Covid and we couldn’t hold a proper memorial. So I had all that going for me.”

Of all The White Lotus’ shining season one cast, Coolidge was the only main cast member asked to return for its second season, reprising her role as Tanya McQuoid. Her storyline this time around (spoiler ahead) focused less on grief and insecurity, and more on murderous, thieving ‘high end gays’ and insecurity. Despite the bar having been set high from the season prior, Coolidge’s second inning as Tanya was even more well recieved than the last, earning her another round of award nominations for 2023.

This has been partly attributed to the natural connection between Coolidge and Mike White, which shone through even brighter in season two, gifting us with lines such as “These are some high end gays” and “Did you knit your little cap?”, all delivered with classic Coolidge panache.

JC has consistently expressed her gratitude for White, who she thanked in her Golden Globes speech on Tuesday when she ascended the stage in head to toe Dolce & Gabbana black sequins to accept the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series/Motion Picture. “You changed my life in a million different ways,” she said as a second camera focused in on White crying and laughing in the audience. But having your fate controlled by your best mate can be a double edged sword, as Coolidge also noted in her speech: “You gave me a new beginning, even if this is the end because you did kill me off,” to which the audience roared with laughter.

Sadly, JC’s run as the beloved, maddening Tanya McQuoid is up, but Mike White hasn’t sealed Coolidge’s fate. If anything, he’s set her free. With the 62-year-old actress now certified as one of the hottest names in Hollywood and open for other projects, there’s no shortage of options in front of her, and those doors she once saw as closed will be swinging open left, right and centre.

Coolidge is a tour de force - and now everybody knows it.