She was hardworking, caring, funny and sassy, but (like me), needed to learn how to reclaim her voice. Coolidge turned Paulette into the heart of the film, showing us the vulnerability beneath the character’s glossy exterior and perfectly capturing her precarity as a “middle-aged high school dropout” who’d lost her sense of self after leaving an abusive partner.
She made such an impression that I’m pretty sure my decision to get a bulldog a few years later was largely inspired by Paulette’s love story with her bulldog, Rufus. (Who can forget that triumphant scene when she gets him back from her awful ex? )
Speaking of dogs, there’s also Coolidge’s hilarious performance in Best in Show (one of my favourite movies of all time). She plays trophy wife Sherri Ann Cabot in the mockumentary-style film made with frequent collaborator, Christopher Guest, who said of the star: “No one else acts the way she acts. I don’t mean acting as an actor. I mean behaves the way she behaves. ”
Much of the film was improvised and Coolidge’s performance is stellar, from her physical comedy and impeccable timing to her uncanny ability to express a devastating range of emotions without uttering a word. Although you’d be hard-pressed to find a better delivery of memorable lines, like: “We could not talk or talk forever… and still find things to not talk about” and “I’m going to be right here until I get another message… from myself. ”
Jennifer Coolidge hasn’t been propelled into the fame stratosphere overnight: she spent years auditioning and failing to land roles, and even after big-screen breakthroughs like Legally Blonde, she wasn’t given credit where it was due. (She told Variety she was asked to “audition” for the role of Paulette in the musical version of the movie. ) Plus, she spent years being typecast as a “ditzy blonde”. . . although I’d argue that while her blondes did seem to have fun (and lots of it), they also had a lot more to them than met the eye.
Coolidge has always been a master at subverting expectations: her trophy wives are full of emotional depth, wit and intelligence. She’s infused each of her roles with something unexpected or out of left-field, whether it’s a layer of insecurity or a hint of the tragic. Also: she’s fearless in how she embodies her characters, taking them to extremes that can be clumsy or sexy, unhinged or totally held-together.
As someone who spent most of my life being told I was a “total ditz” (and later diagnosed with ADHD), so many of Coolidge’s characters resonated. I spent much of my life feeling like I was being typecast as someone vacuous (who also happened to enjoy wearing tight-fitting clothes and lip gloss). . . even though I knew there was a lot more to me beneath the surface. Coolidge’s characters made it easier for me to laugh at myself. And also to love myself.
Coolidge seems exactly like a person I’d want for a best friend in real life (just watch any interview with her; trust me). Her candour is disarming, and she has openly discussed challenges she’s had over the years… as well as revealing that she almost didn’t take on the career-changing role of Tanya in Mike White’s The White Lotus, because she felt self-conscious about her body.
Which happens to be another thing I adore about her. Every time she appears on screen – all bold colours and glorious curves – I feel joy. This is a woman who seems so confident in herself, who embraces the person she is in every decade, who isn’t afraid to play up the sultry or the ridiculous. She can be fierce and fragile, silly and sexy, all in the same moment. Coolidge doesn’t apologise for taking up space — her emotions consume the screen whenever she appears on telly— and, for all of Tanya’s fizz and force, she’s also able to show us the fragility beneath, with a simple curve of her lips or a scrunching of her eyes.
I have wanted to be like Jennifer Coolidge so many times in my life (yep, even when she was an evil stepmom in A Cinderella Story). I know I’ll want to be like her again time and time again. I love how she continues to define so many different moods and eras… and how she always brings the sparkle, in her style and spirit.
Thankfully, the rest of the world has fallen for her magic, too. It’s about time.
