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 recently took on a darker role and discussed how he failed to maintain his work with Billmalay. Riff Raff, directed by Dito Montiel, is now available digitally.

“Oscar’s Bill Murray and Ed Harris Starr are with this dark comic crime thriller, along with Emmy winners Jennifer Coolidge and Pete Davidson, about how far you’ll go to protect those you love.

Tyler Treese: Your character from Riff Raff, Ruth, is a bit of a hot mess. Does it really find and accept her flaws because it makes her feel truly human?

Jennifer Coolidge: I was excited to get this part. I don’t actually offer this kind of part normally. So I was excited to play someone of this kind… around this rough edge, do you know?

So, someone like Tanya (from White Lotus) looked very refined and I also liked it being very dark. You know, I grew up just outside of Boston. And it felt like I’ve met some rifraff in my life. People who lived on the edge without wanting much.

When you watch the film, it feels like a play near the end with one central location and this truly powerful ensemble. Did you come across that feeling while filming?

That’s really… I mean, yeah, I mean it’s really… I mean. (Screenwriter) John Polano is this kind of… I live in Los Angeles and he’s like the famous playwright in this town. My friends know that they’ve seen a lot of his stuff in the town theaters here. And he is highly respected.

I don’t know. I really love the contrast between these brutal stories and some of the brutal people in this. I love having some brutal people and then there’s a kind of hope on the outside. (You have) Combos of such strange things happen at the same time.

I think that’s really the reason I got to work. I love the fact that there are truly brutal people in this story, and the brutal people who are supposed to make you laugh many times. There are some very disturbing scenes, but does this remind you of when you were younger and going to all these Tarantino movies?

It’s an interesting combination of genre and tone. You’re talking about brutal people – Bill Murray’s character is very uncomfortable and it’s funny to see him as this casually violent like such a cold killer. That’s a shock from what we normally see him. You’ve worked with so many great actors. What was special about working with Bill as a scene partner?

Well, I’m honest. I wasn’t that professional. When we were filming one of the scenes near the end, I couldn’t keep it together, honestly. It was about something (lol), I don’t know. He was so serious that I was beginning to lose it.

Ed Harris is also a very great actor, and he plays it very realistically and seriously. But he didn’t really like me. I mean the characters, perhaps the actors, would laugh, but that was a character that didn’t really like me. It was a bit… his interaction in the same scene that Bill Murray was scary, I don’t know.

But just a combination of everyone in the room, I don’t want to give anything for people. I’ve never seen the movie, but I don’t know. I felt it was one of my favourite moments ever in my work.

If I had said I was in the room with Lewis Pullman and Gabriel Union and Bill Murray, Ed Harris and Pete Davidson and all of this… (…) I couldn’t get enough of it. If you tell me you have to spend a year doing those scenes in that house, I will show up every day for it. It was one of the most enjoyable things. That’s because I know what I know, like the blonde legally, the loser girl trying to get another beautiful girl and girl. The hopeless girl takes her under her wings and teaches her how to live and everything.

I sometimes get that role, but it’s all like a real comedy with nothing scary or intrusive. And as I get older, people are thinking, “Well, you know, she can be in this, you know, she can be bothered in a movie where she has really bothering you.” Instead of feeling like I’ve had my past work. Many of them are very bright, so I like to go to the dark side.

I like this turn to the dark side. It was so much fun to watch. You said you’re taking part in a really great wide comedy, bright film, and now we’re seeing this different side. You’ve got a really interesting role and are very grateful from both your fans and your peers. Have you found these truly interesting roles in your career for decades? We don’t usually see this type of evolution, but you have it, and it’s great.

Jennifer Coolidge:Yeah, I’m very scared to tell someone who loves this. So maybe I should keep my mouth shut, but yeah, between you and me, I’m excited that I’m doing something different. I am, and it makes me want to be more films like this, and I really want to be a scary movie. You know, I want to do everything now, as I have been able to open the door to other things. (…) Once, there have been some real changes in the possibilities I’m looking for. And I can actually put up with some of the things I always want to do.

I love it. When you’re telling a scary story, do you mean something like a horror movie? Want to be the next great screen queen?

I want to be a slow moving story that scares me when I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know if that’s my deal or not. I think I’m just in a story that starts very positively and gets very dark. Well, it’s like this. There are many surprises.

Thank you to Jennifer Coolidge for taking the time to discuss Riff Raff.