Though Jennifer Coolidge is probably best known as the buxom blonde mom who launched a thousand adolescent male fantasies in the 1999 coming-of-age classic "American Pie," her continued success as a scene-stealing character actress in movies such as "Legally Blonde" and Christopher Guest mockumentaries "Best in Show" and "For Your Consideration" has gained her a devoted following and an IMDb page longer than Lindsay Lohan's rap sheet.
Coolidge will bring her stand-up comedy tour to Springfield this Friday for a performance at Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts. The Standard caught up with the comedian to chat about women in comedy, dating college guys, body stockings, the power of Hugh Grant and life as Stifler's mom.
The Standard: What's one thing audiences should expect from your show?
Jennifer Coolidge: When you're an actress, you don't really get to voice your opinions about anything or make fun of anybody because you're doing other people's material. On movies, I'm always reading someone else's (script), or if I'm on a talk show like "The View" or something like that, everything has to be so polite and edited. You can't really say what you want to say on these things. So when you're an actress, (stand-up) is your only opportunity to just completely be yourself. You can be as dirty as you want or talk as filthy as you want or just say things that you're not saying to the world, you're saying to people in the theater.
TS: You've had a very diverse career as a character actress, but you're still often referred to and recognized as Stifler's mom. What's it like to experience that level of recognition and to be part of creating such an iconic character?
JC: None of us knew that movie was going to be what it was. When we made it, we all got paid nothing. I think Sean William Scott was living out of his car. Everybody was broke. You realize how big that movie is when you go to places. When I was in Scotland last year, I couldn't walk down the street without just getting harassed. The European audience really loved the idea of a young guy seducing an older woman, and so really I felt like I was Bono or something over there. But it's pretty cool for someone like me especially now that I'm single. I think being Stifler's mom has certainly helped my dating life. I don't think anyone who's asked me out in the last few years has been over 30.
TS: Since this is for a college publication, are you interested in dating college-aged men?
JC: Last year I dated a guy who was really young. It's not like they have to be 22 or something, but I have. It really depends on the person.
TS: Do you try to avoid being typecast to continue to play a wide variety of characters, or do you prefer to use that to your advantage?
JC: I've found that's the biggest obstacle in Hollywood to overcome. If you play a horny woman in a movie, the scripts of the horny, older woman trying to seduce a young kid start showing up. I don't really mind that as much as like, for instance, when I did a couple movies in a row. I did "Best in Show" and "Down to Earth," and I played these sort of trophy wives. For years, I would just be offered these bimbo, trophy-wife parts over and over. Being typecast gets boring when you're the actress. It's so strange. You'd think that somebody who ran a studio would say, "Oh, we've already seen Jennifer Coolidge do that." But those are the parts you get offered. That woman I played in "Legally Blonde" has been offered many times in other scripts. Because I've played a woman with plastic surgery in ("A Cinderella Story"), I've been offered a lot of plastic surgery parts. I'll be really honest - I would love to play a serial killer or some really odd thing that I haven't played.
TS: Do you think it's more difficult for women in comedy to overcome typecasting?
JC: Absolutely. It's harder to be a woman in our business. There's so fewer parts for women than there are for men. For every script that's sent to my house, there's always 12 male parts, and there's always like two women in the whole movie. There are exceptions. I've seen these ads on TV for movies like "Bridesmaids" and stuff like that, but a lot of these movies are still very male-oriented. I think people are much more likely to give a male actor a chance. Someone like Robert Downey Jr. gets to play everything. He gets to be serious; he gets to be hilarious. I can't think of any female actress (who) has had the opportunities that Robert Downey Jr. has had.
TS: You've had the opportunity to work with a lot of celebrities in Hollywood. Who have you been most excited to meet?
JC: I was on this movie called "American Dreamz," and I've never seen so many women on a film - I'm talking about the wardrobe women, the craft service people, the make-up people - I saw every girl lose their marbles over this one guy. His name was Hugh Grant. Even I got weird. He had something that I've never seen before. I've gone to parties where you see these really handsome movie stars like Josh Duhamel and all these people. But something about Hugh Grant, he had something else that I can't put my finger on. He just had charm that I don't think anyone has equaled who I've met. That's definitely the most smitten I've ever been.
TS: What's the weirdest job on your imdb.com page?
JC: I was paid $200, and it was shooting this movie called "Mulholland Falls." The director of photography wanted to know what this sex scene was going to look like, so he hired me and this other guy. They told us, "Look, we just want to know what this sex scene is going to look like, but you can wear this thing called a body stocking so you're not naked." But people didn't tell me what a body stocking really was. Literally, it's like being naked. It's just that it's this very thin stocking over you, but you can see everything. We had to fake this sex scene. It was just the worst. Of course, they said it would just be me and the guy and the director of photography, but someone must have called a bunch of people because all of a sudden all these people were coming in. It was the worst experience of my life, and I will never forget that. That's about as humiliating as it gets.
TS: What's one thing you think audiences would be surprised to learn about you?
JC: When I'm doing the show in places other than Hollywood, I think people think that it's an incredibly glamorous life to be an actress in Hollywood. It actually has aspects of that. You have these big red carpet events where you're walking down the red carpet, and you've just done a big movie, and there are glamorous moments. But so much of being an actress is these hideous moments that no one really knows about, and I like to talk about them in the show.
To see Jennifer Coolidge in action, visit the Hammons Hall box office or visit www.HammonsHall.com to purchase tickets.