Tanya McQuoid-Hunt may be resting at the bottom of the sea, but Jennifer Coolidge is very much alive — and she stole the show at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Coolidge, 62, accepted the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, January 15.
“I still don’t have the strength,” she joked as she put her trophy on the ground.
Coolidge won for her role in season 2 of The White Lotus, which aired in late 2022. (The Emmys ceremony was originally scheduled for September 2023 but was pushed back because of the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, both of which ended last year.) She started her speech with a shout-out to the show’s creator.
“Mike White, thank you for giving me this opportunity to play this wonderful character,” Coolidge gushed. “He said I’m definitely dead, so I’m going along with it.”
She added, “It’s running out [of time] so I just want to thank all the evil gays, just really. Especially, you know, Palo, Francesco and Bruno. ”
As time ran out, host Anthony Anderson‘s mom interrupted with a sign to let her know she was going over her limit. “I love you baby, but time,” the matriarch said.
Coolidge said she had one quick thing to add: “I had a little dream in my little town, and everyone said it was impractical and that it was far-fetched. But it did happen after all, so don’t give up on your dream.”
The White Lotus has the second-most nominations of any series at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards with 12 nods. The HBO show is up for Outstanding Drama Series in addition to scoring nods for writing and directing. Coolidge’s costars Aubrey Plaza, Meghann Fahy, Sabrina Impacciatore, Simona Tabasco, F. Murray Abraham, Theo James, Will Sharpe and Michael Imperioli are all up for acting trophies as well. (Succession scored the most nominations with 14 total.)
The White Lotus already nabbed a few trophies at the Creative Arts Emmys, which took place on January 7. The show took home honors for music composition, music supervision, casting and contemporary hairstyling.
Coolidge previously won an Emmy in 2022 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her work in season 1 of The White Lotus. (At the time, it wasn’t clear whether the show would return for additional seasons.)
Her victory was a highlight of the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards broadcast, thanks in part to her revelation that she took a “lavender bath” right before the ceremony that was causing her to “swell up” inside her dress. “I’m having a hard time speaking,” she told the crowd. “But anyway, this is so thrilling.”
Producers began to play her off the stage before she finished her speech, but she didn’t hesitate to clap back. “Wait, hold on. This is a once in a lifetime thing, and I’m full. I’m full,” she said.
Coolidge attempted to continue on with her speech, but producers responded with an arrangement of “Hit the Road Jack.” Undeterred, Coolidge started dancing before grabbing her Emmy and leaving the stage.
