Jennifer Coolidge’s White-Hot Comeback: Hollywood Didn’t Get Her, Then She Landed the Role of a Lifetime

variety.com:

Jennifer Coolidge’s agent came to her with an offer: A theater in London was putting on a production of the musical “Legally Blonde,” based on the 2001 film in which Coolidge played the lovably dizzy manicurist Paulette. (The seductive “bend-and-snap” move Paulette practices on film?

In the show, it’s a whole number.) And the theater wanted her to audition.“I said to my agent, what do you mean, audition?” she recalls. “It’s not a straight offer?” He reiterated the request: Would she be willing to fly to London to try out for a part she’d already played? “My agent said, ‘I think they just want to see if you can sing and dance.’ Look, if I got up onstage and farted, and that’s all I did, it would still be the lady from the movie!” Here on the coast of Sicily, where Coolidge is filming Season 2 of HBO’s “The White Lotus” (which Variety can exclusively reveal will premiere in October), we’re a quick flight from the West End.

But the downturn in her fortunes she’s recalling — “I’m still angry about this,” she says, “that’s why I brought it up!” — couldn’t be farther away. (And that agent no longer represents her.) After decades in film and TV as a secret weapon the industry didn’t quite know how to use, Coolidge has just landed her first Emmy nomination, for her performance in the anthology series’ debut season.“The White Lotus,” about the war of wills between the guests and staff of a luxury hotel, is an ensemble show — so much so that eight of its performers are Emmy nominees this year.

But it’s Coolidge’s portrayal of childlike heiress Tanya McQuoid, shrouding wounded humanity in bad behavior and big appetites, that sticks in the memory.