The White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge had a colossal night at the 80th Golden Globe Awards on Tuesday, picking up an award and winning the crowd with not one, but two incredibly chaotic and glorious speeches.
The actor won award for best supporting actress in a television limited series/motion picture for her unforgettable performance as Tanya McQuoid in Mike White’s lauded HBO series. Coolidge beat fellow nominees including The White Lotus co-star, Aubrey Plaza, Niecy Nash-Betts (Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), Claire Danes (Fleishman Is in Trouble), and Daisy Edgar-Jones (Under the Banner of Heaven).
In her heartfelt and hilarious speech, she popped her heavy statuette on the floor — “I can put this down, right? I don’t work out, you know? What I mean is I can’t hold it that long,” — and reflected on her career, before championing The White Lotus creator himself (and making him cry in the process).
“I had such big dreams and expectations as a younger person, but what happened is they get sort of fizzled by life. I thought I was going to be queen of Monaco even though someone else did it,” she said. “And then you get older and think, ‘Oh, what the fuck is going to happen? And, Mike White, you have given me hope. You’ve given me a new beginning… You changed my life in a million different ways.”
Coolidge reflected on moments of her career including Legally Blonde and American Pie and the difficulty of working in Hollywood.
“Some of the people that were in this room, there were like five people that kept me going for 20 years with these little jobs.” Coolidge said. “And it would be enough to get to the next one, the next one.”
“Because some of these things are like five different … sequels of American Pie,” she added. “I’ve milked that to the bone. I mean, I’m still going for six and seven, whatever they want.”
Earlier, a wildly excellent moment saw Coolidge presenting the award for best supporting actor in a TV series (Abbott Elementary star Tyler James Williams won, hooray!). Coolidge told a tale about being anxious about messing up during her moment, then finished by presenting the award with “and the Oscar goes to…” Perfect.
“Somebody called Cara Bishop called me and said, ‘Jennifer, we would like you to present at the Golden Globes this year.’ And I said, ‘Oh my God this is such an honour, thank you so much. Yes I would love to.’ And I hung up on her.” Coolidge then explained she later called Bishop back. “I said, ‘Cara I’m so touched that you’d want me to do this, but there’s no way I’m gonna make it from behind the curtain all the way to the podium without breaking my skull… I just can’t do it.’
“Cara, I think she was serious, she said, ‘Jennifer, why don’t you just wear a pair of Crocs?’ I said, are you kidding me? With my Dolce and Gabbana dress? All those crazy Italians will lose their minds!”
Bravo, on all counts.
Want to see who else won the gold? Here’s the list of Golden Globes nominees and winners.
