One of the most harrowing moments on television in 2022 was finding out the fate of Jennifer Coolidge’s beloved The White Lotus character, Tanya Hunt-McQuoid, and it seems like she knows it to.
While attending the 2023 Golden Globes, the bona fide screen icon took to the stage to accept her award for ‘Best Actress In A Limited Series’, poking fun at Tanya’s unexpected albeit hilarious death in a now-viral acceptance speech.
Complete with her classic bouffant hair do and her signature nonchalant attitude, Coolidge proved to be a fan favourite amongst her esteemed Hollywood heavyweights receiving in a standing ovation for her animated and tear-jerking speech.
However, for those who were still reeling from the loss of Tanya from the award-winning series, Jennifer’s poking fun at her character’s death was anything but satisfactory.
“This hook came out and took me off stage at the Emmys and I didn’t get to say what I really wanted to say,” Coolidge began, referencing her iconic moment where she refused to be played off by the award show by dancing to the music.
“I just want to say I had such big dreams and expectations as a younger person but they get sort of fizzled by life and I thought I was going to be Queen of Monaco, even though someone else did it.
“I had these giant ideas but then you get older and I just want to say Mike White you’ve given me hope,” she added, referencing The White Lotus showrunner.
At this point of the speech White was crying, with Coolidge continuing: “Even though this is the end because you did kill me off but it doesn’t matter because you really changed my life in a million different ways.”
“He [White] really is one of the greatest people I’ve ever met, he gives me so much excitement to be, you make people want to live longer and I didn’t.”
Of course, for the fans who hadn’t watched the season two finale, this part of the speech was certainly a surprise.
Nevertheless, Coolidge has certainly thrown her hat in the ring for as a future award-show presenter, because her wickedly funny and apt speech is exactly we needed as a reprieve from the humdrum monotony of award shows.
We’re certainly in the era of a Jennifer Coolidge renaissance (Coolissance?), and we’re so grateful to exist in the time where we get to see the 61-year-old legend win her much-deserved and first-ever Golden Globe.
Was her incredible delivery of the line “these gays are trying to kill me?” what landed the award? We’re not sure, but she’s certainly a tour de force that will be surely missed in The White Lotus season three.
