Jennifer Coolidge is going into depth about why she almost turned down her award-winning role in The White Lotus.
12.06.2023 - 12:53 / variety.com
Jennifer Coolidge the huge success of two seasons of “The White Lotus” represents both a huge career revival and a hard act to follow. “I have to move on,” Coolidge told fans in Sydney, Australia, this weekend. “Offers have come in and I would love to do a film next, but ‘The White Lotus’ holds this very high bar, so it will be hard to choose.” Coolidge and the show’s creator, writer and director Mike White were in Australia’s biggest city for Vivid Talks, part of 23-day Vivid Sydney, the largest festival in Australia. Their 90 minute “Conversation” was attended by a sold-out crowd of 9,000 at Sydney’s Aware Super Theatre stadium.
White, whose only previous visit to Sydney was as a contestant with his father Mel White on “The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business” in 2011, was stunned by the scale of their audience. “Backstage I was thinking ‘what is going on? How is it possible that all these people are here to see us,” he said.
White flew in from Thailand where he was developing a third season of “The White Lotus,” but which is now stalled due to the screenwriters’ strike. “Not to turn this industry-wide, tragic situation into a personal plus for me but it’s kind of nice to be ‘pencils down’. I hope, obviously, the strike gets resolved quickly and that everyone’s happy,” he said. “It’s all new to me. I haven’t ever gone past two seasons on a show, but going to places and choosing a new cast is inspirational.” White did not exclude the possibility of a prequel featuring a story line with Coolidge’s character Tanya McQuoid, who was killed off in Season 2, or using Australia as a future location. “I would like to get to every continent for this show,” he said. When Coolidge confessed to being “in a very weird position.”
Jennifer Coolidge is going into depth about why she almost turned down her award-winning role in The White Lotus.
Jennifer Coolidge almost missed out on playing Tanya McQuoid. During 's drama actress roundtable, the 61-year-old actress reveals how her now-iconic role on nearly slipped through her grasp.«Mike and I were going to do another show, which had been turned down by a lot of people, and he mentioned he was going to write [his next] show about rich people on vacation, but I never heard anything more about it,» Coolidge tells Claire Danes, Emma D'Arcy, Dominique Fishback, Jennifer Garner and Melanie Lynskey of Mike White, the show's creator.Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, Coolidge explains.«We were like six months into COVID, and I'd been locked up in my house in New Orleans just pigging out on these vegan pizzas.
The White Lotus season three has been greenlit by HBO and we have all the info you need to know about the cast as of right now.
Editor’s note: Deadline’s It Starts on the Page features 10 standout drama series scripts in 2023 Emmy contention. It showcases the critical role writer’s work plays in a show’s success. All materials (the script and writers intro) were submitted before the WGA strike began on May 2.
The White Lotus perceived her character Portia as a villain.Richardson played Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) young assistant in season 2 of Mike White’s hit HBO series, which aired late last year to critical acclaim.The role ended up being Richardson’s most high-profile to date, and, speaking on the Just For Variety podcast, she admitted that the spotlight took some getting used to, especially when Portia was criticised by some for seeming entitled or spoiled.“I just hadn’t been in that situation before, so I did get sad,” Richardson says. “There was probably the first couple of episodes where I was seeing some things and reactions to things with Portia and me that I was taking personally or I wasn’t fully sure how to take it or how to process it.”[via Variety]She grew to realise that it was a good thing people were talking about the show in such detail.
On their latest shows, Brett Goldstein and Theo James have created characters who unpeel deeper truths beyond their hunky appearances. Goldstein, who’s won two Emmys for portraying soccer player and coach Roy Kent on “Ted Lasso,” returned for the Apple TV+ comedy’s third season. (He’s also a co-creator and writer on “Shrinking,” about a therapist played by Jason Segel.) James joined the second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” set in Italy and from creator Mike White, as a chiseled, privileged vacationer. THEO JAMES: How did you end up writing for “Ted Lasso”? BRETT GOLDSTEIN: I’d done a pilot for Bill Lawrence. The pilot didn’t get picked up, but we stayed in touch, and he knew I was a writer as well as an actor. When people ask me for advice, I’m always like, there’s no magic phone call. It doesn’t happen. But I did get a magic phone call here, from Bill, out of the blue, saying, “I think you’d be good for this football show.”
No, we didn’t ask Leo Woodall about the “scene” in “The White Lotus” season two. Maybe we should have.
The buzz surrounding HBO’s controversial new series The Idol might just be working to its benefit.
The White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge could “absolutely” get her own spin-off series, according to the show’s creator.Coolidge starred as Tanya McQuoid in the two seasons of the hit HBO show, the only character to carry over between both season one and two.Tanya met her death at the end of season two, but creator Mike White has said that there is the possibility of a prequel series focusing on the character.“I absolutely think that’s possible,” White told press at the Vivid Sydney Festival this weekend (June 10), as reported by Deadline.“We were just talking about that. It’s a funny idea,” he added, discussing the potential joy of “making Jennifer 20 years younger” to become a younger version of Tanya.“That would be fun too,” White added.
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Jennifer Coolidge is sharing new details about her life.
61-year-old actress reflected on her choice not to become a mother in a cover interview with British GQ.Coolidge told that outlet that her friends suggested that she adopt children, but she thinks she would be more suited to becoming a stepmother.“I’m very, very immature,” the “Legally Blonde” star said. “I think that has kept me from having children, because I’m sort of a child.
Jennifer Coolidge candidly revealed the reason why she never had children. The 61-year-old actress reflected on her choice not to become a mother in a cover interview with British GQ. Coolidge told that outlet that her friends suggested that she adopt children, but she thinks she would be more suited to becoming a stepmother. "I’m very, very immature," the "Legally Blonde" star said.
Jennifer Coolidge is taking over Australia!
said at a recent press conference during Sydney’s Vivid Festival. “We kind of have to come to Australia if we keep going.”“It would be so fun,” he continued.
Next stop for HBO’s “The White Lotus” series could be Australia, creator Mike White said
The White Lotus season three.In the finale of the show’s second season, Tanya (Coolidge) goes on a shooting spree aboard a yacht against a group hired by her husband Greg (Jon Gries) to kill her. Following the massacre, Tanya accidentally falls overboard and dies when trying to escape.Speaking to Variety, Coolidge explained that she hopes there’s some “comeuppance” for Greg in the next season.“My hope for Jon is that he’s not finished with Greg,” Coolidge said. “I hope there’s some comeuppance for evil Greg.
returned in Season 2 married to Greg Hunt (Jon Gries), whom she met in the first season. The sophomore installment, set in Sicily, ended with the shocking death of her character.In the Season 2 finale of “White Lotus,” viewers learned that Tanya was being plotted against and taken advantage of for her money — by the man she married.While Coolidge, 61, won’t be starring in Season 3 of the show — considering her character’s tragic ending — she doesn’t think Tanya’s story is quite finished.Coolidge, who won an Emmy for her portrayal of the lovably flawed Tanya in Season 1, revealed in Variety’s Actors on Actors series that she wants to see Greg return in the next season to get what he deserves.“My hope for Jon is that he’s not finished with Greg.
Before there was the award-winning comedic genius Jennifer Coolidge, there was an aspiring young actress who primarily worked in the service industry.
Jennifer Coolidge’s award-winning portrayal of Tanya McQuoid in “The White Lotus” may have met her untimely demise in the second season’s finale, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to bid farewell to the scene-stealing character.