Life changed for actress Jennifer Coolidge, who performs four shows this weekend at Donnie B’s Comedy Club, when she connected the Groundlings, the legendary Los Angeles improv-comedy troupe.
“The minute I started with the Groundlings, the seas parted and so many cool things happened,” Coolidge said Monday in a phone interview.
That included her first television appearance, on “Seinfeld,” playing a masseuse who refused to give on-screen boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld a massage. Then there was “SheTV” and, eventually, the teen sex comedy “American Pie” (more on that later).
“I think I would still be waitressing today if it hadn’t been for the Groundlings,” Coolidge said.
Instead, she’s had what appears to be a steady career as an actor on television and in movies. Now she’s taking an act on the road.
Coolidge said she began performing at stand-up comedy clubs relatively recently, in Provincetown, Mass. At first, she was just reading from a notebook, but since then her show has evolved into something between a traditional standup act and a one-woman show.
“It’s my commentary on living in Los Angeles — and my disappointment with it lately, with all the weird ‘reality’ world that’s happening” Coolidge said.
She also
talks about sex, the odd experience of dating after having been attached for a long time, and some of the stranger auditions she’s had since the economy tanked.
“It’s all really story format — it’s not line, laugh, line, laugh — more the Kathy Griffin style,” Coolidge said.
She and Griffin were in the Groundlings together in the 1990s.
“I happened to be there at a really great time: it was Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Griffin, Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, myself, Cheri Oteri, Ana Gasteyer, Will Forte — some really good people,” Coolidge said.
That reads like a who’s-who of “
Saturday Night Live” alumni. But comedy was not the first career choice of the 48-year-old actress.
Brilliant crying“I tried to be a dramatic actress for a very long time,” Coolidge said. “It just wasn’t working out.”
She was in an acting class and doing imitations of some of her more overwrought peers — “there was one girl in the class that, no matter what scene it was, she would cry. … And then our acting teacher would applaud her and tell her that her crying was so brilliant,” Coolidge said, the contempt evident in her tone of voice.
One of her classmates suggested she try improvisational comedy, so Coolidge first joined the Gotham City Improv before moving to L.A. to take up with the Groundlings.
“American Pie,” released in 1999, was arguably Coolidge’s biggest break. She’s still identified with the character known as “Stifler’s Mom” — a boozy, attractive, middle-aged woman who found mutual attraction with the movie’s high-school-aged protagonists.
The character was a harbinger of today’s “cougar” phenomenon — middle-aged women taking up with younger men in movies (“The Proposal”), on TV (ABC’s “Cougar Town”) and in real life (Hollywood couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher).
But Coolidge has done a lot since first playing “Stiffler’s Mom” more than 10 years ago.
She’s acted in the Christopher Guest comedies “Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind” and “For Your Consideration”; had a supporting role in “Legally Blonde” and its sequel; and had guest roles on the TV programs “Sex in the City,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Friends.” She also had a regular spot on the “Friends” spin-off “Joey.”
Escape from L.A.In the past few months, Coolidge has become a regular on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and appeared alongside Nicolas Cage in the film “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans.”
“I loved doing that — that was a really cool job,” Coolidge said, adding that Cage is one of her favorite actors.
Coolidge said the last couple of years have been among the most interesting of her career, letting her do the kind of work she hadn’t previously been able to pursue.
“When you live in L.A. and it really is almost a beautiful day every day, and you get on a show or you get into a routine, sometimes it really does seem like you’re living the same day over and over,” Coolidge said.
“This stand-up thing is so different for me: traveling around the country, going to these states I’ve never seen, staying in these hotels and interacting with people I would never get to hang out with. When you live in L.A., you have an isolated life — all I meet are actors and directors and people in the movie business or TV business.
“In other cities, you have to remember it isn’t about the film business,” Coolidge said.
“I’m meeting everybody, and it’s really cool. I have to say, I didn’t know it would be this cool.”
Brian Mackey can be reached at 747-9587.
