On My Screen: ‘White Lotus’ Star Jennifer Coolidge On Her Most-Quoted Role, The Part She Didn’t Get To Play & Why “Character Is Fate”

Jennifer Coolidge is fresh from shooting Season 2 of The White Lotus and she’s on a high. Having made such an indelible mark in Season 1 of Mike White’s limited series set in a luxury Hawaiian resort, she’s the only main character returning for a second shot. For now, she’s having to keep plot details under wraps, but she’s positive that it will be another hit: “It would be impossible to not like it,” she says.

All we know is that Season 2 will see Coolidge, Emmy-nominated for her role, back as the tortured and grieving Tanya McQuoid alongside her terminally ill boyfriend Greg (Jon Gries). This time the setting is a Sicilian White Lotus resort, where they’ll be joined by such new cast members as Aubrey Plaza, F. Murray Abraham, Adam DiMarco and Tom Hollander.

Here, she reminisces on a career that’s seen her stealing scenes in classic modern comedies such as American Pie and Legally Blonde . Related Story 20 Questions On Deadline Podcast: Sydney Sweeney Wants ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 To Continue Cassie’s “Craziness”, Is “Loving It” On ‘Madame Web’ Jennifer Coolidge with Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde . MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection My First Film Lesson The first most depressing lesson I ever learned on a set was when I went to do Legally Blonde , and there was an actor — a television actor that I’d seen on TV, a funny guy­ — and he was the parking attendant [for the studio].

And I remember thinking, we have to be grateful . I was thinking, I could do this movie here, and then it could be back to waitressing. Nothing is written in stone.

So, I remember thinking what a privilege it was to get this job. I was thinking, God, you really have to have gratitude in this business. It’s quite a rollercoaster ride being an actor and we have to be thrilled about getting these jobs, because sometimes they don’t come around again for a long time.

Or ever. The Best Advice I Ever Received My father used to always say to me — and he used to say it more than any other little phrase — “Jennifer, you have to remember that character is fate. ” And I think he’s right.

Who you are forms your ending , and you have the power to be good or rotten. The Part I Always Wanted There was a very cool thing that Mike White wrote for HBO, which didn’t get made, but it was called The Tears of St. Patsy .

That was really cool. But I have to say, it’s not like Tanya McQuoid was a disappointment. So, either one is good for me.

Coolidge, as Stifler’s mom, with Eddie Kaye Thomas in American Pie . University Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection My Toughest Role I don’t know if there’s any film footage of it, but I did this movie with Adam Sandler. It was called Click and his character was married to Kate Beckinsale’s.

My love interest was the lead in Baywatch , David Hasselhoff. I remember they were going to do these reunions where we aged. And I was in the old-age makeup for a very long time, but somehow when I showed up on set to film, everyone else had less old-age makeup.

Kate looked like she could have been my daughter. I mean, it was very funny. She had very little of it on, but I remember with my face that’s sort of chubby, with the old-age prosthetics, I just looked like a space monster .

I was thinking, How is this possible that everybody else looks like the same age and yet somehow it just looked like I was Godzilla or something. I remember going home thinking, Wow, I don’t know, maybe it’s about time I should quit the movie business. The TV Shows and Films That Make Me Cry I can’t handle any movie with something sad that happens to an animal.

And then there are some movies that are just so overwhelmingly devastating, you can’t recover from them. Cinema Paradiso , I remember crying so hard at the end of that movie. I do like sad music, but sad movies are really hard to handle sometimes.

The Most Fun I’ve Had On Set With Michael Angarano in Gentlemen Broncos . Fox Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection. I did a movie called Gentlemen Broncos with Jared Hess, and I had an incredible time.

That was when I met Mike White. We actually hung out because he played my boyfriend in the movie. Then I really hit it off with [Jared’s] wife.

I really liked his wife, Jerusha Hess, and then I got to go do Austenland with her. That was another incredible time on a set, where it was the English countryside. I have to say those two experiences were maybe a pinnacle.

The Character That’s Most Like Me There are a lot of things about Tanya McQuoid that are similar. Mike stole a lot of those things because he witnessed me on a trip to Africa and I know he collected a lot of my eccentric ways and put them into the show. I’m like, “Oh my God, am I really that bad?” But as far as who am I most like? I don’t know, but I would’ve liked to have been as confident as Stifler’s mom [from American Pie ] in real life.

I would like to have channeled her in my real life because I think I could have had a much more successful love life. She had it going on and she really didn’t give a shit. What a great thing where you’re not really worried about what people think.

My Most Quoted Role With Bob Newhart in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde . MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection You know, it’s so weird because there’s something about the Fourth of July line from Legally Blonde 2 . I get so many DMs and texts and people leaving things in my mailbox.

And if I’m out on that day, people just go nuts. I don’t know, it’s probably that line Paulette said, where she goes, “You look like the Forth of July. That makes me want a hot dog real bad .

” I hear that the most. [The ‘bend and snap’, also from from Legally Blonde ] is a moment in moviemaking I would just totally disagree with. I’ve never had bending over work for me like it did in that movie.

I think that the bend and snap is misleading. But I’d have to say when I did do the bend and snap, I was wearing my underwear and I feel like in real life you have to leave it off. My Guilty Pleasure I like to buy a big bag of bubble gum and chew it for two seconds and then put it on my nightstand.

I can go through the whole bag. I don’t know, it’s like it’s something really decadent. Double Bubble or whatever it is.

Read the digital edition of Deadline’s Emmy Nominees magazine here . Who’d Play Me In My Biopic There are two different things, who would play you and who would you choose? If I could choose someone to play me, I think I’d have Jennifer Lawrence . I mean, I don’t know if she’d like it — she’d probably refuse it — but I really like her.

What’s the weirdest job you’ve ever done? When I was in Florida, I got a job as an undercover pregnant woman , looking for shoplifters at a maternity store. The irony of the story is that I caught the cashier stealing, not one of the shoppers. .