11 hours ago
Watch: Jennifer Coolidge Makes Commencement Speech at College Graduation, Shouts Out to 'Very Excited Gay Students'
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Emerson College grads got an unforgettable sendoff from an icon when Jennifer Coolidge gave this year's commencement address.
Coolidge "returned to Boston's Emerson College, which she attended before dropping out in the 1980s, to deliver some momentous remarks to 2025's graduation class of nearly 1,000 students on Sunday," May 11, Entertainment Weekly reported.
"After thanking Emerson's board of trustees, faculty, and President Jay Bernhardt, Coolidge joked to the crowd that she was grateful to be 'speaking with some very excited gay students, some less excited hetero students, and hopefully some very eligible widowers,'" the writeup added.
EW recalled that the native of Norwell, Massachusetts headed to Hollywood after dropping out. She was 32 when she landed the TV gig that launched her career: a part on Seinfeld as a massage therapist named Jodi.
That role, in 1993, led to a plethora of other parts, including the cougar known as Stifler's Mom in the 1999 comedy "American Pie," roles in the Christopher Guest mockumentaries "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind," and comedy classics like "Legally Blonde," "Zoolander," and "Napoleon Dynamite," among numerous other entries on her resume.
Her most iconic role, however, is that of Tanya McQuoid on "The White Lotus."
"You have to find your own path, and you can't perfectly plan it out from the beginning," Coolidge advised the class of '25. "And part of directing your life is just letting it unfold, so let it."
Coolidge pointed to her own long struggle before breaking through as an illustration of how life happens as it should.
"Personally, the best thing that happened to me is that it didn't happen to me for a very long time," EW quoted her saying. "I think that is what kept me going with my unrealistic belief in myself and what was possible."
The "Minecraft Movie" actor added, "I had this thing inside of me telling me that I could achieve anything, anything in this world."
Her best word of advice?
"When you find the thing that you want to do... just friggin' go for it!"
Watch Coolidge's remarks below.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
