Yahoo Lifestyle Jennifer Coolidge Admits She's 'Messed Up' Her Life in the Past: 'It's So Hard to Dig Yourself Out of a Hole' (Exclusive)
Jennifer Coolidge is in a new era of her career — one where working with her heroes is the "ultimate compliment," while the job itself is "the extra benefit." Her latest job in the dark comedy Riff Raff saw the Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner share the screen with Hollywood icons Bill Murray and Ed Harris, playing Ruth, a character type that she tends to gravitate towards.
"She's screwed up other people's lives, and she's screwing up her own life by not knowing how to make the right move ... I like to play people that have been screwed over in life and don't get everything they want to have, but still are forced to deal with what's left," Coolidge tells Parade in an exclusive interview.
Like Ruth, Coolidge can relate to things not going well. "I've had a pretty great life, so I don't want to say 'woe is me' about anything, because I had a pretty good life, but I made a lot of terrible decisions in my life," the actress says. "I messed up my life by my own actions, and it's so hard to dig yourself out of a hole."
"There's a side of Ruth that's just completely clueless, and I can relate to that," Coolidge continues. "So I felt like I could play it. Just clueless about how much she had to do with her life going the wrong way. I like that she's hopeful, too. I'm always hopeful, even despite lots of things not going well."
In recent years, Coolidge has experienced a career renaissance, taking home accolades for her portrayal of Tanya McQuoid in The White Lotus — a role whose response took her by surprise.
Related: Jennifer Coolidge Cracks Everyone Up With 'White Lotus' Golden Globe Win
"I couldn't have possibly predicted that that was going to be, even though I think [White Lotus creator] Mike White is a genius and all of that, I just didn't have any idea that that job, it was such a surprise that that would be where so many people responded, you know?" Coolidge admits. "I like surprises where you decide whether something's going to be successful or not. You know you can really be off on it. I don't know. I was certainly surprised by all of that, by the amount of people that responded to it."
In fact, it was while watching The White Lotus that Riff Raff director Dito Montiel asked who the actress playing Tanya was. "The lucky thing, if you're an actress, you're on a good show or something that someone else happens to watch, you get another job out of the deal," Coolidge points out.
"I got to meet the cast of a lifetime," she adds. "It's all because Dito, yeah, did me that big favor."
For Coolidge, the Riff Raff cast, which includes Murray, Harris, Gabrielle Union, Lewis Pullman, Miles J. Harvey, Emanuela Postacchini, Michael Angelo Corvino and Pete Davidson, was "just the creme de la crème," and "the most heroes" in the cast of a movie that she's ever worked on.
"That had all the big winners," Coolidge says. "What luck that I got to be invited."
Riff Raff is now playing nationwide in theaters.
Related: 'The White Lotus' Season 3 Cast: Where You Know Them From
