Jennifer Coolidge demands attention on the final cover of Volume 2 of W Magazine‘s Directors Issue.
The fun, playful and imaginative shoot sees the actress looking fierce as she gets into character and steps into a number of bold and avant-garde fashion pieces.
Before chatting about the entertaining and exuberant photoshoot, directed by Academy Award nominees Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Coolidge comments on her fan-favourite “White Lotus” character Tanya, whose fate was revealed at the end of the second season.
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“I feel bad for her, because she didn’t know what she was made of. She didn’t have that kind of faith in herself,” the 61-year-old star tells the publication. “Sometimes these scary things happen in life. And then you find out, in like two seconds, that you are a survivor and that you can really pull through for yourself, sometimes in a way that you never believed you could.”
While Coolidge admits that “the film business tires people out,” she swears that working with The Daniels, who directed “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, on the magazine shoot was like “getting together with little kids.”
“They were like these sort of child prodigies who are super, super smart and just super creative,” the actress gushes. “I’ve never been asked to do a shoot like this: I have weapons, take down small cities, pick up cars and throw them. I don’t know if I will ever be this surprised again. It was one of the best things I have ever been involved in.”
And it appears The Daniels feel the same way about working with Coolidge, an actor with a stacked résumé.
“I’m prejudiced against young people,” Scheinert admits, explaining: “I have problems with our youth-obsessed culture and beauty standards, so anytime we can shake things up a little, I’m all for it.”
As for what inspired the fun and silly shoot, Scheinert shares how impulse got the best of him and Kwan.
“There is so much pressure around ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, so our impulse for this shoot was to do the opposite,” the director explains.
“Not only do I really just want to dress up as a monster—I want to get our friends together, play with cardboard props, and go out to the desert,” he continues, referring to the California shoot location in Corriganville Park, a famous outdoor location that used to be a movie ranch and notable Western-themed tourist attraction.
The directing duo planned the shoot as a tribute to Tokusatsu, a genre of campy Japanese cinema that birthed such legendary creatures as Godzilla, Mothra, and Giant Robo.
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“Tokusatsu is so well done, but the special effects are always kind of handmade. If you look at the stuff from the ’60s, you can feel the fingerprint. You can tell there’s somebody inside the costume,” Kwan tells the magazine. “There’s something very charming about that, especially nowadays, when you can create anything digitally and nothing impresses you anymore.”
W Magazine’s Directors Issue hits newsstands on March 14.
