“I was really affected by the pandemic,” CoolidgetoldThe Guardianin a new interview.
“It was an incredibly sad time.
I knew people who lost their lives and was convinced we wouldn’t make it through.
Jennifer Coolidge and Murray Bartlett in ‘The White Lotus’.Mario Perez/HBO
I wasn’t thinking about work, because I didn’t think we’d be alive.”
Then White called her with the offer.
I said: ‘OK, when are we doing it?’
He said: ‘What do you mean?
We just got green-lit.
We’re doing it now.
you should probably get on a plane to Hawaii.’
That was an impossibility to my mind.
I’d been gorging and self-destructing at home for months, eating pizza all day."
That wake-up call inspired Coolidge to fight through her anxieties and get to Hawaii.
“It’s such a great lesson in life,” Coolidge toldThe Guardian.
“I’d never have forgiven myself.
I would’ve sat down to watchThe White Lotusand 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.”
“What helped is that my character, Tanya, had parallels to me personally,” Coolidge said.
“I’d been incredibly depressed during the pandemic.
I lost my own mother at an early age.
A family member passed away during Covid and we couldn’t hold a proper memorial.
So I had all that going for me.”
But she also had the opportunity of a lifetime waiting for her just around the corner.
Read the full interview atThe Guardian.
