Raise a Glass to Jennifer Coolidge's Heartfelt 2023 SAG Awards Speech

Jennifer Coolidge's 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards speech deserves its own prize. 

The White Lotus star sparked a whole lot of laughs during her heartfelt speech at the 29th annual ceremony Feb. 26 as she took home the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. (See the complete winners list here.)

For the award, Jennifer was up against The Crown's Elizabeth Debicki, Ozark's Julia Garner and Laura Linney and Euphoria's Zendaya. The win marked Jennifer's first Actor trophy, and the achievement left her speechless.

"I want you all to know that I am just so grateful, so grateful," a tearful Jennifer told the crowd at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, Calif., before dedicating a message to White Lotus creator Mike White. "You know, you can give money to friends and do nice things for them—and people love money—and I do whatever I can when your friends are broke. The best gift you can give someone is to change someone's perspective for the better and view life in a different way. And that's what Mike White did for me."

She also thanked her "amazing parents" and the "incredible gift" they had—their inability to lie. And as she explained, that trait ties into how she discovered her love of acting.

"One day, the school principal came to my first grade class and said that I needed to be called to the office, and I went to the office," the American Pie actress recalled. "She said 'you know, your father's here.' And my father was sitting there and he goes, 'Yeah, Jenny, we have to go.' And the principal said, 'Jennifer, get well.' And I didn't know what that meant."

After Jennifer and her dad got in the car, he told her, "I'm never going to tell a lie again. But we're going somewhere really cool." Their destination? A Charlie Chaplin film festival.

"He got me out of my first grade class to do it," she continued. "And I swear to god, that seeing Charlie Chaplin for the first time, and having that experience, it's my love of film. It's my love of actors. All that came from my first grade."

And this isn't the first time Jennifer has stolen the show with her iconic speeches. At the 2023 Golden Globes, the American Pie actress accepted her trophy, but then quickly put it down, adding, "I don't work out! I can't hold it that long."

After going on to thank Ryan Murphy for supporting her career, she then turned to White Lotus boss.

"I just want you all to know that I had such big dreams and expectations as a younger person but what happened is they get sort of fizzled by life," she said, "and I thought I was going to be Queen of Monaco even though someone else did it."

While thanking Mike for giving her a "new beginning," Jennifer noted how he has impacted her life, even though her character Tanya McQuoid's fate has been sealed.

"Even if this is the end, because you did kill me off, you changed my life in a million different ways," she continued. "My neighbors are speaking to me—things like that!"

Keep scrolling to see every star take on the 2023 SAG Awards.

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Christina in Christian Siriano 

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Jason in Dolce & Gabbana 

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