Jennifer Coolidge Wasn’t Professional Acting With Bill Murray in Riff Raff | Interview
Emmy award winner Jennifer Coolidge spoke with ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese about her starring role in the new film Riff Raff. Coolidge discussed getting darker roles recently, how she couldn’t stay composed working with Bill Murray, and more. Directed by Dito Montiel, Riff Raff is available now on demand and on digital.
“Oscar nominees Bill Murray and Ed Harris star alongside Emmy winner Jennifer Coolidge and Pete Davidson in this darkly comic crime thriller about how far you’ll go to protect the ones you love. Vincent (Harris) and his family plan to share a quiet New Year’s Eve together until his sketchy past catches up with him and the night reveals secrets no one could ever imagine,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Your character, Ruth, in Riff Raff, is a bit of a hot mess. How is it really finding and embracing her flaws because that really makes her feel human?
Jennifer Coolidge: I was thrilled that I got this part. I usually don’t really get this kind of part offered to me ever. So, I was thrilled to play someone this sort of… this rough around the edges, you know?
I mean, it makes someone like Tanya [from The White Lotus] look very refined and I liked that it was also extremely dark. You know, I grew up just outside of Boston, and I felt like I’d met a couple of riffraffs in my life out there. People that had sort of living on the edge without a lot to hope for.
When watching the film, it almost feels like a play near the end with the one central location and just this really powerful ensemble. Did that feeling ever come across while filming?
I don’t know if it really… I mean, yeah. [Screenwriter] John Pollono is this sort of… I live in LA and he’s sort of a famous playwright in town here. I know a lot of friends of mine have seen a lot of his stuff at some of the theaters in town in town here. And he’s very well respected.
I don’t know. I just really like the contrast of just with such a brutal story, and some brutal people in this. I love that there’s some brutal people and then there’s some sort of hope on the outside. [You have] such a weird combo of stuff happening at the same time.
I think that’s really why I took the job. I like that there’s some really brutal people in this story, and the brutal people who end up making you laugh quite a few times. There’s a couple very disturbing scenes but remind me of when I was going to all these Tarantino films in my youth, you know?
It’s such an interesting combination of genres and tones. You’re talking about brutal people — Bill Murray’s character is very off-putting, and it is funny seeing him be just this nonchalantly violent as such a cold killer. It is just a shock from what we normally see him as. You’ve worked with so many great actors. What was special about working with Bill as a scene partner?
Well, I’ll be honest. I wasn’t that professional. When we were filming one of the scenes near the end, I just couldn’t keep it together, to be honest. It was something about [laughs], I don’t know. He was so serious that I kind of was starting to lose it.
Ed Harris is such a brilliant actor too, and he’s playing it so real and serious. But he didn’t really like me. I mean the character, probably the actor too [laughs], but it was the character who didn’t really like me. It was sort of… The interaction of him in the same scene as Bill Murray being scary, I don’t know.
But just the combination of all the people in the room, and I don’t wanna give anything away for people. I haven’t seen the movie, but I don’t know. I felt like it was one of my favorite moments ever on a job, ever.
If you could have told me that I would be in the room with Lewis Pullman and Gabrielle Union and Bill Murray and Ed Harris and Pete Davidson and all these… […] I mean, I couldn’t get enough of that. If you told me I had to do a year in that house doing those scenes, I would show up every day for it. It was just one of the most enjoyable. That’s had because I get either, you know, the loser girl, like in Legally Blonde, the loser girl with the other beautiful girl trying to get the girl. The girl that has no hope, takes her under her wing and teaches her how to live and all that.
I get that role sometimes, but it’s all in sort of a real comedy where there’s nothing scary or disturbing. And I sort of like, as I get older, people are like thinking, “well, you know, she could be in this, you know, she can be in a disturbing in a movie that has some really disturbing scenes too.” Instead of what I feel like my past work has been. A lot of it has been quite upbeat and I like going to the dark side.
I like this turn to the dark side. It’s been very fun to watch. You mentioned that you’ve been in some really fantastic broad comedies, upbeat films, and now we’re seeing this different side. You’re getting really interesting roles and you’re getting so much appreciation both from fans and your peers. How has it been finding these really interesting roles decades into your career? We usually don’t see this type of evolution, but you’re having it, and it’s great.
Jennifer Coolidge: Yeah, I’m so afraid if I tell people I love this, sometimes when you tell the world you what you love, they don’t want you to have it. So maybe I should get my mouth shut, but yeah, between you and I, I’m thrilled to be doing something different. I am, and it makes me wanna be in more films like this and I wanna be in really scary films. You know, I wanna do it all now that I’ve been able to sort of, you know, open the door to other stuff. […] For once there’s been some real change in the possibilities of what I’m asked to do. And I can actually hold out for some things that I’ve always wanted to do.
I love that. Do you mean like a horror film when you’re talking scary? Do you wanna become the next great screen queen?
I wanna be in more of a slow-moving story that gets scary when you don’t know where it’s going, and then it gets very [scary.] I like that more than I think … I don’t know if I wanna be in a slasher film or anything like that. I don’t know if that’s my deal. I think I wanna be just in a story that starts off very positive and goes very dark. Sort of like, well, this one. Something that has lots of surprises.
Thanks to Jennifer Coolidge for taking the time to discuss Riff Raff.
Source: Comingsoon.net