Jennifer Coolidge has built a career on being the quirky one.
When colleagues and friends clued on to the fact that I was going to be meeting the Hollywood actress at Bondi Beach, while she shot a campaign for Audible, the main reaction was:
“Oh she’s hilarious!”
“OMG I love Jennifer Coolidge! The gays are trying to murder me!”
“I’d love to know if she is quirky in real life…”
Well, to answer that. Yes, she is. And while it might appear to be put on, The White Lotus,American Pie and Legally Blonde star told news.com.au exclusively that this isn’t all an act – she is just… different.
“Sometimes I just think… I wasn’t made well. I have a problem with being able to execute anything,” she said.
“I do think I faked a lot of things that didn’t work out.”
When asked for an example, the 64-year-old Emmy Award winner took a long (and slightly awkward) pause before recalling an unconventional party trick of hers when she was younger.
“I did have this one thing going for me. I was able to buy alcohol before any of my friends or anybody could get their hands on it,” she shared, admitting she was 11 or 12 years old at the time.
“The woman that lived next door to my house, she had all these fancy wigs and stuff and I knew the daughter. I put on her wig and everything and I was able to get booze for even my brother’s friends.
“I had cat eye glasses and I wore her wig and I went there. I guess the guy must have been blind behind the counter,” she laughed.
Coolidge shared it was during this “big deal” moment that she realised she had a hidden talent for acting and completely taking on a persona.
“I think it gave me a lot of confidence. I [felt] like I could fool people.”
Whether she is playing a confident seductress, a loud neighbour, or a tragic millionaire, Coolidge infuses her roles with her trademark breathy voice, total lack of self-conciousness, and a chaotic energy that everyone has come to love.
The star was in town to shoot a campaign for digital bookstore and streaming app, Audible, to kick off a new experience where shoppers will be able to listen to audiobooks through shopping trolleys while they go about doing their supermarket shop.
Once again, she plays up her erratic persona as she gets so engrossed in what she is listening to, she somehow ends up in North Bondi with her shopping trolley.
During our chat, the conversation jumped in all sorts of directions. She spoke of her love for Aussies – in particular our policemen – before recalling the time she nicknamed Haley Lu Richardson “sugar tits” on the set of the first series of The White Lotus.
“God, I’m embarrassed,” she replied when I brought it up. “I think I gave her a ring that I got and it said sugar tits on it.”
The topic moved on to other nicknames she might’ve called people in the past.
“I called my brother’s best friend, Dildo,” she laughed.
And that’s when the interview was very quickly wrapped up. An intentional move from her team before anything more was said?
I guess we will never know…