Jennifer Coolidge got into the thick of things for a conversation with The Bear star Jeremy Allen White in Variety where they discussed their rise to the top of the industry, particularly over the last year.
The actress, 61, opened up especially about the means through which she found early success with her work as a character actress and why she feels it was the wrong decision to not capitalize on them.
When asked by Jeremy, 32, if she chose roles for longevity or because she found people she liked and wanted to work with, Jennifer responded: "Now that I'm old enough to really look back at my life and certainly my mistakes, I see a lot of those.
"But I never had any strategy. I just went job to job. I have to say I made the terrible mistake of not riding the wave that I had early on."
The acclaimed comedienne continued: "It was sort of in the '90s when I had Legally Blonde, Best in Show, and American Pie. And then a few years later, there was Cinderella Story and stuff like that. But there was a moment."
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She explained that she entered a phase where she specifically pursued people for roles while not bearing in mind what were the jobs she actually wanted.
© Getty Images"I wasn't paying attention," she said. "I just thought I had my whole life. I never said, 'I want to do…' I did get some jobs, but I didn't have a plan.
"And I think that was a fatal flaw of mine, because it took so long to get anything going later. I look back and I go, 'What was I thinking?' And then I bought a house in New Orleans, and I was consumed with fixing that up."
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While Jennifer remained a significant presence in mainstream cinema thanks to her comedic turns in movies like Legally Blonde and American Pie, she achieved critical acclaim and awards love in recent years thanks to turns in Promising Young Woman and, specifically, The White Lotus.
© Getty ImagesHowever, it was quite the shock when the season two finale killed her character Tanya McQuoid off after she gunned down all those aboard a yacht before slipping and hitting her head on a dinghy and then drowning.
It seems like that's probably the end for Jennifer's run on the show, but is there a possibility for her return given the HBO series' massive success?
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Jennifer stated in an interview with The New York Times after the finale's premiere in December that she didn't want her trajectory on the show to come to an end.
© Getty ImagesShe'd said: "You can't talk [The White Lotus creator] Mike White out of anything, really. But whenever Mike was in a really good mood, and laughing about something, I'd go like, 'I don't have to die, right?'"
In the same Variety chat, she continued: "Mike was looking for a big Italian opera ending, and it was big and dramatic, so he wanted me to die for many reasons.
© Getty Images"But I also think Tanya's a lot. Maybe people would get sick of her on another season. Maybe people would be like, 'Oh, my God. Get rid of Tanya!'"
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