Hilary Duff is on board with the Jennifer Coolidge renaissance.
During an appearance on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live on Thursday, the Lizzie McGuire alum was asked by a fan about her favorite memories of working with Jennifer Coolidge in the 2004 movie, A Cinderella Story.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve just been, like, obsessed with this past year for Jennifer Coolidge,” Duff said of Coolidge, whose received critical acclaim for her role as Tanya McQuoid in HBO’s The White Lotus.
Hilary Duff and Jennifer Coolidge starred alongside each other in the high school rom-com remake of the classic Cinderella fairy tale, in which Duff played main character Sam and Coolidge portrayed her wicked stepmother, Fiona.
“My favorite moment was her rubbing salmon on her face while filming A Cinderella Story and talking about the omegas,” Duff recalled. Years later, her son Luca reminded her of the particular moment when he also put raw fish on his face.
“My son actually started eating sushi when he was, like, three and had a similar moment,” said Duff, who shares her 10-year-old son with ex-husband Mike Comrie. Duff also shares daughters Banks, four, and Mae, one, with husband Matthew Koma.
“I looked and I was like, ‘You’re just rubbing raw salmon on your face,’” she said, laughing. “And it’s soft and he liked it and it reminded me of her. And she’s just everything.”
“She’s always been a lovely human being but I’m really proud to see her moment,” Duff continued. “I think it just reminds me that being in this industry, I feel so lucky that anything can happen at any stage. It’s so dope.”
Jennifer Coolidge has had a long-standing career in movies and television, getting her big break as Jeanine Stifler – also known as “Stifler’s mom” – in the 1999 comedy American Pie. Coolidge went on to play supporting roles in Legally Blonde alongside Reese Witherspoon, and even received a cult following for her role as Sherri Ann Cabot in the 2000 improv mockumentary, Best in Show.
During her acceptance speech at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards, Jennifer Coolidge thanked both Mike White and Ryan Murphy, whom she said were among the “five people” in Hollywood who “kept me going” for 20 years “with these little jobs”.
“I didn’t know anybody, and it just was sort of this thing that wasn’t going anywhere,” she continued. “Then there were these people who would give me these cute little jobs and it would just be enough to get to the next one.”
After thanking her agents, Coolidge gave a shout out to The White Lotus creator Mike White and praised him for giving her “a new beginning” in her career, which eventually brought him to tears.
“I just want you all to know that I had such big dreams and expectations as a younger person, but what happened is they get sort of fizzled by life and whatever,” she said. “And then you get older and, oh, sh*t’s going to happen.
“Mike White, you have given me hope. You’ve given me a new beginning,” Coolidge added, before dropping a major bombshell about The White Lotus season two finale. “You changed my life in a million different ways.”
