In true form, Jennifer Coolidge delivered a commencement speech to Emerson College’s graduating class of 2025 that was equal parts comedic and heartfelt.
The American Pie star, 63, who studied performing arts at the Boston institution in 1985 before dropping out, per Boston.com, returned to her alma mater Sunday to speak to the eager new graduates.
“I’m excited that I’m speaking with some very excited gay students… [and] some less exciting hetero students,” Coolidge began, prompting widespread cheers and laughter from the audience.
Reflecting on her long-winding journey from growing up “40 miles down the road” to the current day, the Emmy-winning White Lotus actor declared: “If you had told the kids that I grew up with that … one day I would have this opportunity like this, they would’ve laughed in your face.”
She noted that she was a “very strange kid.”
Going on to address the families in attendance, Coolidge said: “To all the parents and caregivers in the audience that are worried about their kids succeeding, I just want to say: ‘Don’t.’”
She went on to recall a “traumatizing” childhood memory from elementary school, when she was disqualified from her first-grade class’s field day.
Although Coolidge finished the competition first, she said she forgot to complete the event’s obstacle course.
“And then the teacher came up to me and told me that I didn’t win the blue ribbon because I was disqualified,” she remembered. “And it turns out, I had skipped all of the obstacles. I just ran along the outside.”
She said that the moment led to years of relentless teasing from fellow classmates, who had “pretty thick Boston accents,” which she quipped made everything “sound so much meaner.”
Finally making her way to the moral of the story, Coolidge said: “Don’t listen to the people who mess up the real story that you’ve got going.
“It really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks or says. I mean, when it comes to the obstacle course of your life, you have to find your own path. And you can’t perfectly plan it out from the beginning. And part of directing your life is just letting it unfold.”
In conclusion, the Legally Blonde star congratulated the graduates, saying: “As Elle Woods, my co-partner in crime, would say, ‘We did it!’”
At the ceremony, Coolidge additionally received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
