Jennifer Coolidge, the Original MILF, Has Done Very Well Thanks to ‘American Pie’

Who needs the bend and snap when you can play Stifler’s mom? In a video tied to her recent Variety cover story, Jennifer Coolidge revealed that starring in the American Pie franchise led to her sleeping with “like 200 people.”

Though she may be better known for starring as Paulette in Legally Blonde, or as a member of Christopher Guest’s repertory company, or for her recent Emmy-nominated turn in HBO’s The White Lotus, Coolidge says that playing the archetypal “MILF”—the object of Finch’s (Eddie Kaye Thomas) affection—may have had more of a direct impact on her personal life. “I got a lot of play at being a MILF, and I got a lot of sexual action from American Pie,” an arch Coolidge shared. “There were so many benefits to doing that movie. I mean, there would be like 200 people that I would’ve never have slept with.”

Playing memorable parts in American Pie and Legally Blonde also paved the way to her role as The White Lotus’s histrionic and hilariously devastating Tanya McQuoid. “Maybe I got this special attention because people saw me as Stifler’s mom or the Legally Blonde woman,” she said. “So if they see something else…”

She’s stepping back into the shoes of Tanya McQuoid for season two of The White Lotus, which premieres in October and takes place in Sicily. While Coolidge insists that Tanya “really wasn’t based on me”—though creator Mike White did write the role for her—she does say that they share a similar weakness: men. “My weakness in life has always been men, and—a lot of women do this—you sell out for a guy,” she said. “A lot of my life was chasing unattainable men, and it got me nowhere. I think Mike saw me.”

In keeping with her role as the American Pie franchise’s sensual housewife, Variety asked Coolidge what her Real Housewives opening line would be. Obviously, Coolidge more than delivered. “I think mine would be like, ‘If any of you girls say anything cunty to me, I’m gonna beat the shit out of you.’”