It finally happened — Jennifer Coolidge got the gig.
On a stage at Boston University’s Agganis Arena, in front of Emerson College’s graduating class of 2025, the award-winning actress and proud alum took the mic and gave a speech that was equal parts hilarious, heartfelt, and totally, unmistakably Jennifer Coolidge.
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“I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for having me,” she began, almost in disbelief. “This is incredible to be with you today.” And if you’re wondering — yes, she brought up the gays right away.
“I’m excited that I’m speaking with some very excited gay students. Yeah, some less excited hetero students and hopefully some very eligible widowers.”
A line only Coolidge could deliver with such sincerity and absurdity, wrapped in one.
“I’m excited that I’m speaking with some very excited gay students… [and] some less exciting hetero students”
— Jennifer Coolidge speaking at Emerson College’s graduation. pic.twitter.com/ntdBItWqQP
— Pop Base (@PopBase) May 12, 2025
But this wasn’t just a comedy set. It was deeply personal. She recalled how badly she wanted this speech — literally auditioning for it during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.
“During Covid, I pitched myself for this job and I even put myself on tape. I really did, and it’s still on my Instagram,” she revealed. “I did a speech in front of some scary looking dolls at my house… and I ended up getting a note back and they said, we’ve decided to go in a different direction.”
Of course, “the second time was a charm.”
Photo Credit: @JENCOOLIDGECoolidge, who grew up just “40 miles down the road in Norwell, Massachusetts,” told a story from her childhood — one that started with excitement but ended in humiliation: Field Day at Osborne Elementary. She ran the final sprint “like hell” and beat the fastest girl in school, only to find out she’d been disqualified for skipping all the obstacles. “I just ran along the outside,” she admitted. “And it was just incredibly traumatizing.”
What followed was years of teasing from classmates with “pretty thick like Boston accents,” who delivered lines like: “Good going, Jennifer, you’re frigging idiot” and “The clams in my chowder are smarter than you.” But from that moment of shame, a young Coolidge made a choice:
“You just have to have insane expectations and believe they’re going to come true.”
Inspired by a magazine photo of Grace Kelly becoming royalty, she set her sights high. “I wanted to be queen of Monaco. And I genuinely, I’m not kidding. I convinced myself that I had a chance at it.”
That sense of delusion-turned-drive was the heartbeat of her message. “It is your ability to convince yourself. You really can make it because you really have to be your own champion.” And she told the graduates: “When you find the thing that you want to do, I really want to highly recommend just frigging go for it.”
Coolidge reminded the audience that “when it comes to the obstacle course of your life, you have to find your own path,” and that “the best thing that happened to me is that it didn’t happen to me for a very long time.”
Jennifer Coolidge answering “dolphin” when she was asked her dream role pic.twitter.com/gxdmVUUI4T https://t.co/u9zCNHOzkQ
— Steven Bonaventure x (@absolutegazelle) December 17, 2023
And after making everyone cry (probably), she ended it with the ultimate Coolidge gift: permission to chill.
“So what I’m saying is give yourself the weekend or maybe the summer and until Labor Day. I mean Labor Day, it’s basically Thanksgiving. And then after that it’s practically the holidays. So you might wait until the new year to really lock in.”
And finally, channeling her iconic Legally Blonde alter ego, she sent off the class of 2025:
“Congratulations. And as El Woods, my co-partner in crime would say, we did it.”
Watch the entire speech HERE.