“I sabotaged myself”: Did Jennifer Coolidge derail her own career?
There’s an unforgettable cameo appearance from Jennifer Coolidge in an episode of Sex and the City in which she plays a newly single woman who begins making hideous handbags to deal with her crumbling mental state.
Despite her small role, it’s easily one of the most memorable cameos that the show had to offer (and there were a lot), purely because Coolidge just has this electric comedic presence that leaves an undeniable impression.
I’ll always remember her in 2011’s 2 Broke Girls, which I’d watch as a ten-year-old, perhaps a little too young to fully get it, but old enough to become fascinated by this strange blonde woman with a bizarre accent… I’d soon see her in A Cinderella Story as the perfect evil stepmother, her accent even crazier, and then, eventually, The White Lotus.
But that only really scrapes the surface of Coolidge’s career. She’s done everything from American Pie and Legally Blonde to Best in Show, Promising Young Woman, and even a Werner Herzog film, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. While comedy has always suited her best, Coolidge can do a more serious part when required, although she admits that she has long been typecast, suffering against the ditzy blonde archetype for years.
But she admits to feeling fear at times, revealing that she was close to turning down The White Lotus. Coolidge once told the Guardian, “I can’t tell you how close I came to ruining this whole thing for myself. It’s such a great lesson in life. I’d never have forgiven myself. I would’ve sat down to watch The White Lotus and said, ‘What the hell was I thinking? I’m an insane person.’ A lot of us actors are so insecure and scared of failure, we blow our own chances.”
The actor has been open about her career, which has always been steady, but sometimes she has made choices that she has regretted. And that includes both on and off the screen. Talking about her career with The Times, Coolridge actually revealed that she let her career slip following her initial bout of success – all because of a man. It happens to the best of us.
She said, “It was this incredible wave, and my surfboard was there, and I got on. Then I got off. I sabotaged myself, and I’d say this to any young person: when the wave comes, have the guts to stay on. 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.”
Jennifer Coolidge
Coolidge opened up about the fact that she let her preoccupation with a man distract her from her ambitions, but it’s a mistake that she has learned from, noting, “Well, it’s a moment, and you have to seize the day. Your agent is calling you. People are interested. But I dilly-dallied. I wanted this guy that I was obsessed with. I wanted him to like me, so I went completely off-track.”
Concluding, “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.”
It’s OK though, because isn’t that part of what life is all about… Sometimes we do silly things for the sake of love (or a shag), but all you can do is dust yourself off and get back on the horse, which Coolidge certainly did.
