Why Jennifer Coolidge almost turned down the role of White Lotus

Jennifer Coolidge almost did not have time to fly to Hawaii.

The actress recently revealed that she nearly landed her now-iconic role as grieving socialite Tanya McQuoid on the HBO series. White Lotus. Coolidge, who was nominated for an Emmy for the role, said she almost missed out because she was unsure about the weight she had gained due to the pandemic.

“It was COVID, [I was] locked with this very sweet girl I knew in New Orleans Coolidge said People in an interview published on September 1. “It was a very lonely time… and so she and I got into these vegan pizzas and we ate a lot of them every day.”

“The number kept growing,” she continued. “You can get rid of any worries if you just eat one more pizza.”

Coolidge is nothing if not connected.

Therefore, when White lotus creator Mike White approached her, Coolidge initially turned down the role because she wasn’t, as she put it, “fit to fight”—even asking White if they could reschedule the shoot (they didn’t).