5 lesser-known facts about Emmys 2022 winner Jennifer Coolidge

Jennifer Coolidge has won the Emmys for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology series for her role as Tanya McQuoid in The White Lotus. The series has been making headlines for being an amazing and popular series. Initially created to run for limited episodes, the series came back after popular demand made HBO renew it as an anthology series.

Created by Mike White, the first season has actors like Alexandra Daddario, Jennifer Coolidge, Sydney Sweeney, Murray Bartlett, Jake Lacy, and others. The series is set in the fictional resort of White Lotus, where vacationers come for a week of relaxation in paradise.

But their complexities and baggage are far more than average and affect the staff, other vacationers, and their own stay. The beautiful beaches of Hawaii stay witness to their idiosyncrasies as their bid for calm and peace turns into a whirlwind of drama.

The series was released on HBO on July 11, 2021, and was well received by the audience and critics alike. Jennifer Coolidge also gave a spectacular performance and has received multiple awards for her supporting role as the unique character of Tanya McQuoid, a woman who recently lost her abusive mother.

With her latest win at the Emmys and her making headlines once again for her acceptance speech, let us explore some interesting facts about the actor who single-handedly popularized an acronym in the 1990s, Jennifer Coolidge.

Her dream, her fictitious identity and more - 5 things you may not have known about Jennifer Coolidge

1) Coolidge has done improv and stand up comedy

Jennifer Coolidge has made a name in the industry as a woman with an impeccable sense of humor and an undeniable appeal. Her talent for comedic timing and affinity for these roles has won hearts worldwide, making her one of the funniest actors. While she does have an innate talent for it, she has also had ample time working on it.

In the years leading to her big break on screen, Coolidge found herself doing improv comedy with Gotham City Improv in New York. In the meantime, she worked as a waitress at Canastels in New York alongside Sandra Bullock.

After her time with the Gotham City Improv, she got into The Groundlings, a legendary improv group based out of Los Angeles, where she worked with the likes of Will Ferrell, Chris Parnell, Chris Kattan, and Cheri Oteri. After being spotted by a casting agent among the audience, she got her first appearance on screen as a guest role in the television series Seinfeld.

She resumed her career in live standup later in her career during the 2010s and did performances across the country. As she pointed out in an interview with Quad City Times, she felt bored with her stint in Hollywood and was looking to liven things up.

2) She always dreamt of becoming a dramatic actor

Meryl Streep and Jennifer Coolidge (Images via 20th Century Fox/ Getty)

One of the actors Jennifer Coolidge looked up to while growing up was Meryl Streep. She dreamt of one day becoming like her, a strong woman in the industry who played dramatic roles. Coolidge was obsessed with Streep and never thought she would get into comedy.

As she pointed out, it was a surprise for her and her family, as she was never the "funny" one, albeit the weird one. She even went to the American Academy of Fine Arts to get trained in the art form. But a friend of hers, John Williams, told her that comedy would suit her better and drove her to an audition for The Groundlings.

3) She once lived in a nursing home

The acting industry is not easy to enter, and aspiring actors generally need to spend a lot of time looking for their break before making it big in the industry. Jennifer Coolidge was no different in that aspect. At 21, Coolidge first moved to Los Angeles for acting school.

She did not have much to spend and found herself an interesting accommodation, to say the least. She rented a room in a nursing home and shared it with another aspiring actor during her first time in Los Angeles.

4) Jennifer Coolidge pretended to be Ernest Hemingway's grand-daughter

Jennifer Coolidge at Soho House, New York City, 2010 (Image via Getty)

Jennifer Coolidge liked to party and often found herself at party hotspots in New York, like Area and Limelight. Being premiere clubs for uber-exclusive personalities and celebrities, they were quite selective in who they allowed inside.

Ernest Hemingway, one of the most celebrated American novelist, 1952 (Image via Getty)

Jennifer Coolidge had a sly trick to get into these establishments. She used to pretend to be one of the granddaughters of Ernest Hemingway, albeit the lesser known and fictitious Muffin Hemingway. She even got thrown out of a club once because of her behavior and was asked never to return. But well, that ban was for Muffin and not Jennifer.

5) She came close to saying no to her role in The White Lotus

The pandemic took us by surprise and put us on house arrest for an indefinite time, and Jennifer was no different. With devastating information across all the news channels, people losing their lives, and being essentially helpless, it took a toll on Jennifer's mental health.

In an interview with The Guardian, she talked about how she was gorging on pizza all day and was not ready to be on film. The project for The White Lotus took her by surprise, and she was on the verge of letting it go. But her friend and the show's creator, Mike White, convinced her to go for it. As we know now, The White Lotus has been hailed as one of Jennifer Coolidge's best performances to date.

If you want to catch more of her iconic performances, check out The White Lotus if you haven't already. The White Lotus is available for streaming on HBO Max. The second season is already under production and will premiere in October 2022.

Jennifer Coolidge will also appear in the upcoming Netflix original limited series based on true events, The Watcher, which is set to premiere sometime this fall.

Edited by Shreya Das