The White Lotus has not only earned Jennifer Coolidge two Emmys, but it’s also improved her romantic life.
In the first two seasons of the hit HBO series, Coolidge played the emotional and naive Tanya McQuoid, though she (Spoiler Alert!) dies after falling off a boat in the season two finale. The actress recently spoke to The Sunday Times about how that character differed from her role in the American Pie films.
“Even though I play a complete weirdo in White Lotus, cute guys come up to me. And this is far better than American Pie because people were really sad about Tanya falling off a boat,” she said. “These men like you better because they feel that you went through something. That show really upped my game!”
Coolidge continued, “I had a guy come up to me in New Orleans once. It was a few years ago and he had a T-shirt on that his belly came out of, plus red cowboy boots. He was 4ft 11in and he said, ‘Would you like to go out?’ And, well, there was nothing wrong with him, but you have this idea that Brad Pitt or whoever will sweep you off your feet, and then it was that little … And White Lotus changed that for me. It’s not just that little guy anymore.”
However, before The White Lotus, Coolidge was known for playing Steve Stifler’s (Seann William Scott) mom in the 1999 classic comedy American Pie, who sleeps with high schooler Paul Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas).
Coolidge admitted there were positives from playing the character at 37 years old. “I got a lot of benefits out of Stifler’s mom — believe me,” she said. “They might be over now, but once in a while you still get a Stifler’s mom thing.”