Yes, Jennifer Coolidge has a pair of Emmys for her work on the first two seasons of “The White Lotus.” But an Emmy or two won’t help you when you’re face to face with Bill Murray and a gun.
“I was giddy,” Coolidge says of that moment in “Riff Raff,” a new crime comedy that also stars Ed Harris, Gabrielle Union, and Pete Davidson. “So I was really doing everything I could.
“Like, I had this sharp zipper thing I kept trying to dig into my arm to keep it together,” she says of the nervous laughter she fought to hold back in a climactic scene. “I mean, when Bill Murray is scary, I can’t explain it.
“It was scary and hilarious at the same time,” Coolidge says on a recent phone call. “I just couldn’t keep it together.”
In “Riff Raff,” Vincent (Ed Harris) is a retired criminal, spending Christmas at his vacation home in Maine with his second wife Sandy (Gabrielle Union) and stepson DJ (Miles J. Harvey).
When Vincent’s oldest son Rocco (Lewis Pullman) commits a violent act to protect his pregnant girlfriend Marina (Emanuela Postacchini), he picks up his mother Ruth (Jennifer Coolidge) – Vincent’s ex-wife – and heads uninvited for Maine. Hot on their heels are the criminals Lefty (Bill Murray) and Lonnie (Pete Davidson), hell-bent on revenge.
Ruth shares a few characteristics with Tanya McQuoid, Coolidge’s character on “The White Lotus.” Both drink a bit more than they should. (OK, a lot more than they should.) If they’d ever had their mouths washed out with soap, well, that lesson on naughty language never took. And both have a sadness at their center.
But Ruth is more of a dramatic role than the comedic parts Coolidge typically plays, which is why she says she jumped at the chance to take the part.
In an interview edited for length and clarity, Coolidge talked about how her Boston upbringing helped her understand Ruth, why the part meant so much to her, and where her “Riff Raff” role ranks on her personal scorecard of favorite characters.
Q: What was it about Ruth that appealed to you when you first read the screenplay?
A: Well, you know, I think I had sort of an early revelation before I even finished reading the script, that I knew that woman and maybe met someone like that earlier in my life. So I felt I had a take on it. Like, I didn’t feel like it was some really wild, wild, crazy idea to do something where I would have to guess about how to play her.
I was very seduced by the script when I read it. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I never get offered a role like this.’ And I never did. I’m never in a story like this. And I was very excited about that.
But yeah, I mean, I grew up in a town outside of Boston, and when I drove into Boston, going to nightclubs or whatever, all the nightlife, I felt like I had – I don’t know, some of the places I went were sort of a little rough. [She laughs] So I met people like her, you know. A nice person with good intentions, but just really rough around the edges.
Q: She’s definitely rough around the edges.
A: I think a lot of people, a lot of actresses, feel this way. It’s sort of like, you get really excited when you read a script and you’re like, ‘Oh, I haven’t gotten this.’ I hadn’t been given this opportunity ever to play someone like this.
It was on my bucket list – if I had written a bucket list, it would have been on it. I was playing someone who had a pretty good life ’til it went sour, and was just, sort of, hanging on. Just hanging on.
I was really attracted to the part. I said yes right away. I was so afraid they’d give it to someone else.
Q: Ruth’s can be pretty salty, which is hilarious, but there was one moment where she’s in Sandy’s bathroom, looking at her cosmetics and perfumes, where you also see the sadness in her. Did you see her as a sad person?
A: Definitely. I mean, I [my character] had been madly, madly in love with my ex-husband, and then he replaced me with a very beautiful, young woman. And there’s nothing worse than being in love with someone and then they’re just done with you, and you get replaced. There’s nothing worse. Just sort of the hope diminishes when you realize that.
Sometimes I think a lot of naivete, some of those people have, thinking you’re going to get that person back, and the good times back. And no one’s really interested in you anymore. Guys want the beautiful young wife, and they don’t want the messed-up alcoholic wife. They don’t want her anymore.
Q: You had a great cast in this. What was it like to be working with Bill Murray, Ed Harris, Pete Davidson and Gabrielle Union?
A: To be honest, I was quite nervous, you know, being with all those heavy hitters. I’ve seen so much of their work. And so what happened was I got kind of giddy laughs when we were filming. To be honest, between you and I, I had a hard time keeping it together. I was nervous, and so I was laughing in the scene, and there were a couple of scenes I shouldn’t have been laughing in, but I lost it a couple of times.
I just never sort of pictured myself working with that group. Just that it would have been offered to me, because that’s not what’s offered to me. If you just look at the body of work I had, those roles are just not offered to me. I was just so thrilled.
It was a struggle, I have to say, to just keep it together. I think it was probably one of the most exciting acting experiences. I think it’s the top one for me.
Q: I’m wondering if ‘White Lotus’ helped. That people are looking at you now and going, ‘Oh, we can put her next to Ed Harris and Bill Murray: Why didn’t we realize this?’
A: Yeah, I mean, I hope so. Who knows? I guess I want to put it out in the world. I would like more jobs like this, you know, playing more effed-up people that are in a scary, scary world. I like being in a very scary environment.
I’m just thrilled that it happened. I realized I want to do more of this stuff, and now I know.