Jennifer Coolidge – otherwise known as Stifler’s mom – has expressed belief she slept with 200 people thanks to her role in American Pie.
Coolidge continues to be an icon in her own right, having most recently appeared in titles like The White Lotus and The Watcher, but the actor has also used her talents to turn her characters into icons of their own.
The character of ‘Stifler’s mom’ is the perfect example of that – say those words to any millennial, and chances are they’ll know exactly who you’re talking about.
Coolidge first took on the role in 1999, when she appeared for the first time as the attractive older woman named Jeanine Stifler, who completely captivates her teenage son’s friends.
As it turns out, however, the younger characters weren’t the only ones drawn to Coolidge in the context of Stifler’s mom.
In fact, the actor thinks her sexual history might have been very different if it weren’t for that particular role.
Speaking to Variety in 2022, Coolidge explained: “I got a lot of play being a MILF and I got a lot of sexual action from American Pie.
Universal Pictures
“There were so many benefits to doing that movie. I mean, there would be like 200 people that I would never have slept with.”
Following the success of the first movie, Coolidge returned to the role of Stifler’s mom a total of four times as she appeared in American Pie 2, American Wedding and American Reunion.
However, in her interview with Variety, she also lamented about being typecast after playing Jeanine Stifler and Paulette Bonafonté Parcelle in the Legally Blonde films and felt no one in Hollywood wanted her to play serious roles.
“The saddest thing about life is that you just make decisions about yourself,” she said.
“If I’m not getting great roles, I come to the conclusion that people think I’m incapable of that.
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“And then I make the decision that I am incapable of that. You actually have to have a [White Lotus director] Mike White that comes in and says, I think you can do this.”
Thankfully, Coolidge’s role as Tanya McQuoid in the HBO series helped to elevate her status in Hollywood, and even earned her her first Emmy nomination.
The actor indicated that she’d have loved to do the show no matter what the outcome though, as she explained: “If Mike was never successful, and we just did White Lotus as a play in a little theatre where everyone paid 10 bucks to see it, it would still be one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.
“Because it was a killer job that no one else thought I could do.”
