Watch Jennifer Coolidge’s Emotional, Raunchy and Hilarious 2023 SAG Awards Speech

The actress was recognized at the 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night.

It's official: Jennifer Coolidge is now a Screen Actors Guild Award winner. On Sunday, The White Lotus star took home the prize for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her performance in the second season of the hit HBO series.  

"It's been a very special year and you know, overwhelming," Coolidge said while delivering another memorable speech following wins at the 2022 Emmys and 2023 Golden Globes. "And White Lotus and Mike White writing me this great part that went on for two seasons, and just HBO giving me the thumbs up to let me to it."

"I just want to say," she continued before getting emotional. "I want you all to know that I'm just so grateful. So grateful, because this could be it."

Next up, Coolidge thanked the show's creator, Mike White, for changing her perspective, telling the crowd and White directly, "Mike White -- you can give money to friends and do nice things for them, and people love money, and I do -- whenever I can. When your friends are broke, you can give money and stuff, but the best gift you can give someone is to change someone's perspective for the better, and view life in a different way, and that's what Mike White did for me."

In addition to thanking White, Coolidge also went on to thank her parents for exposing her to the art of acting from a young age.

"What I really want to say is, I have these amazing parents. And they had this incredible gift, it was impossible for them to lie. They just couldn't do it -- never. Never. They just never lied," she said before revealing the one exception. "My father, one day, the school principal came to my first grade class and said that I needed to be called to the office. And I went to the office, and she said, 'Your father's here.' And my father was standing there, and he goes, 'Yeah Jenny, we have to go,' and the principal said, 'Get well,' and I didn't know what that meant."

She continued, 'And I got in the car with my dad, and he was driving, and he said, 'I'm never gonna tell a lie again, but we're going somewhere really cool. And he drove me to this place, and it was this flooky thing in Massachusetts. It was the Charlie Chaplin film festival. He got me out of first grade class to do it, and I swear to God, seeing Charlie Chaplin for the first time and having that experience, my love of film, my love of actors -- all of that came from my first grade."

Coolidge also thanked her date, her friend of 20 plus years, and fellow actor, Tim Bagley.

"My wonderful date, Tim Bagley is my date tonight. He's my best bud for like, 20 years. Thank you, you're a wonderful date tonight. I can't wait till we get home," Coolidge quipped.

Her SAG Award win extends her career comeback another year after collecting a number of accolades in 2022, including a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for season 1 of The White Lotus

Her latest is the third award she's picked up for season 2, which sees Coolidge now competing in the drama categories versus the limited ones after the series returned for a second installment. She also won a Critics Choice Television Award and a Golden Globe in January.


The 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards took place at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, California, and streamed live on Netflix's YouTube channel. Stay tuned to ETonline.com for complete SAG Awards coverage and the full list of winners.

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