Jennifer Coolidge is riding high these days after her award-winning role in season 1 and season 2 of Max’s White Lotus, but there was a period when her career completely stalled — all because of a man.
“Well, it’s a moment and you have to seize the day. Your agent is calling you. People are interested. But I dilly-dallied,” Coolidge, 63, explained in an interview with The Times published on Sunday, March 23. “I wanted this guy that I was obsessed with. I wanted him to like me, so I went completely off-track. I wasted a lot of time — and that moment passes. And, God, if I could live my life over again, I wouldn’t have done what I did.”
“Actually I don’t want to say it was just one guy,” she added. “It was guys and, well, everyone wants certain things in their life at a certain time. I was trying to have relationships with men who were unavailable, or there are guys out there who really hate women deep down and I certainly dated them.”
Coolidge also said that if there’s one piece of advice she would give people now, it’s to stay focused on their own success. Of her cinematic rise in the early aughts, she explained, “Yes, it was this incredible wave and my surfboard was there and I got on.”
“I sabotaged myself, and I’d say this to any young person: when the wave comes, have the guts to stay on,” she added. “I would beg people to, you know, blow off your wedding and take that job. I was a sure bet, I got so many good jobs in a row. I have huge regrets — I was deeply depressed for a very long time.”
When it comes to dating these days, Coolidge likened her experience to being in a corral.
“I have friends that went to their prom in the last year of high school, found a guy, fell in love with him and still have that guy,” she said. “I haven’t had that luck — it has never been the right person. Also, it’s kind of limited out there. I feel like I’m a horse in the corral and I haven’t found a male horse that matches up with what I got. I feel like I need to go into some other corrals.”
Things changed when her good friend Mike White, the creator of White Lotus, wrote the part of Tanya for her. “Do I think any other director would have chosen me for Tanya? Probably not,” she admitted. But she knows others have been impressed by her portrayal.
“I did get a letter from an executive saying how he really liked my performance,” she added. “I never thought I did anything very well. It blew my mind when people came up to me, but then you don’t even know what you did right half the time.”
