Though Jennifer Coolidge has certainly seemed to garner a lot of cultural clout over the last couple of years, with her roles in The White Lotus and Promising Young Woman, she’s long been held up as an icon in the queer community. (Fun fact: She’s the actor that’s reportedly most emulated in audition tapes for RuPaul’s Drag Race.)
That should only continue considering Coolidge’s latest role, as campy Aunt Sandy in Netflix’s new queer holiday romance, Single All The Way. Considering there’s a line about how gay people are always obsessed with Coolidge thrown right in the trailer, we thought we’d ask the actress about the origin of her queer fandom when we sat down with her and co-star Kathy Najimy for a recent video interview.
Coolidge told us that, “It just started from a very young age,” saying, “I don’t think when you’re young, you’re very conscious of any decision you make.” She continues:
“You go with what you’re attracted to. I think that’s really what most of our youth is. And that’s just what I was attracted to in all my friends. I don’t think they had figured it out at the time when we were really, really young, but they eventually figured it out. And yeah, and it was all the gay men and all the gay women in my town, at my school or at camp.
I think it’s just a mutual thing. I was never conscious of it, ever. It was just the people I was attracted to.”
Najimy then chimed in, saying, about Coolidge, “The gays have good taste.” “They really do,” said Coolige.
There’s more from Coolidge and Najimy in the clip, including Coolidge’s thoughts on being “a Halloween lady” and Najimy’s quest to find her own Christmas drag name. Single All The Way hits Netflix December 2.
