Jennifer Coolidge Was a Fan of White Lotus’s “Corrupt, Soulless” Gays – Them
This post contains spoilers for The White Lotus: Sicily.
If you’re queer and on the internet right now, any given social media feed of yours is likely oversaturated with Jennifer Coolidge memes. Although the actor has always been a gay icon, that status was taken to new heights with her portrayal of the heiress Tanya McQuoid-Hunt in the White Lotus, especially in the show’s recently concluded second season. From jokes about gay men trying to kill you, to edits of Tanya at the bottom of the ocean in SZA’s new album cover, to fancasting the actor as the next James Bond, we may be approaching Peak Coolidge.
As it turns out, the actor herself is aware of her status as the gay internet’s favorite reaction image right now, as she discussed in a new interview with the entertainment publication Variety. As a recap, McQuoid-Hunt almost went out in a blaze of glory, thwarting her husband, Greg Hunt’s, plans to murder her by blindly shooting her way through the gang of gay men hired to take her out. She almost gets away scot-free, but in an all-too-painful-yet-fitting twist, Tanya misjudges her leap from the yacht where she’s being held captive to the dinghy that would take her to her freedom, and drowns.
When asked how it felt to murder “a bunch of ‘high-end gays’ who plotted to kill her,” Coolidge said that she was “so riveted” and “enthralled.”
In addition to stating that the “high-end gays” line was one of her favorites, Coolidge told Variety, “Gay men can be catty, but mostly they are the good guys in a lot of films that I’ve seen.”
“But [series creator] Mike White made these guys kind of wicked, very corrupt soulless guys,” Coolidge said. “He told me, ‘You end up getting taken in by this group of — well, let’s just say they’re evil gays.’”
And yes, in case you’re wondering, she is aware that “These gays, they’re trying to murder me” is already a meme. Coolidge told Variety, “I have had some people send me that this morning, yes.” Personally, we’re dying to know which absolutely unhinged edits of that scene Coolidge has seen.
While The White Lotus probably won’t be winning any awards anytime soon for wholesome unproblematic LGBTQ+ representation, we totally agree with Coolidge that on occasion, it’s absolutely thrilling getting to watch “gays” be unmitigated bad guys, especially when it gives us instant classic lines like, “Do you know these gays????”
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for our weekly newsletter here.