Jennifer Coolidge urges graduates to explore 'absurd possibilities' in speech

Los Angeles, May 13 (IANS) Making someone laugh is one of the strongest suits of Jennifer Coolidge, afterall she is also a comedian in addition to being an actress.

Recently, the actress, 63, delivered the 2025 commencement address for roughly 1,000 graduates at Emerson College, reports ‘People’ magazine.

Coolidge studied performing arts at Emerson, which is located in Boston, before dropping out to pursue a career in Hollywood.

As per ‘People’, during her speech, Coolidge reflected on her childhood, expressing that she grew up a few miles away from the college as a "very, very strange kid”.

The White Lotus actress, who made reference to her iconic line from the HBO hit and her loyal gay fan base by joking that she was "excited" to be "speaking with some very excited gay students", looked back on her last day of first grade, during which her school had a field day with an obstacle course.

After her teacher explained how to complete the event, Coolidge said she "ran like hell" and beat the fastest girl in school — or so she thought.

"I was so elated that I had won, and to me, it just meant that I was going to get the blue ribbon. And then the teacher came up to me and told me that I didn't win the blue ribbon because I was disqualified”, said Coolidge. "And it turns out, I had skipped all the obstacles. I just ran along the outside”.

Coolidge admitted that the mishap caused her classmates to tease her for years. "I realised I was going to go the rest of my life as a joke. I was so uncomfortable with myself, I began to completely live in my head from that moment on”, she explained.

After a while, though, the experience caused her to have "insane expectations [for herself] and believe they’re going to come true”.

Her change in mindset grew even stronger after she saw a magazine that belonged to her mother featuring Grace Kelly and her royal wedding, which made Coolidge dream of becoming the queen of Monaco.

--IANS

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