The 'White Lotus' actress declares, 'great comedy starts with great writers,' when she's delivering her acceptance speech at this year's MTV prize-giving event.
- May 8, 2023
AceShowbiz - Jennifer Coolidge showed support for the WGA strike during her acceptance speech at the MTV Movie and TV Awards. The 61-year-old actress picked up the gong for the Most Frightened Performance for her part as Tanya McQuoid in "The White Lotus" and reminded viewers in her speech that "great comedy starts with great writers" as the Writers Guild of America fights in protest of their current working conditions.
She won competition from "Cocaine Bear" actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, "Barbarian" star Justin Long, as well as "Bodies Bodies Bodies" actress Rachel Sennott and "Smile" star Sosie Bacon.
Speaking at the event on Sunday, May 7, she said, "Almost all great comedy starts with great writers. I just think as a proud member of SAG, I stand here before you tonight side-by-side with my sisters and brothers from the WGA that are fighting right now, fighting for the rights of artists everywhere."
"I think of the words of Shakespeare where he once said, you know, the play is the thing. Well, I don't want to put words in his mouth or anything but I think what he really meant was it's everything!"
The "Legally Blonde" star also won the coveted Comedic Genius Award at the annual ceremony - which went on without a host after presenters such as award winner Drew Barrymore and "Everything Everywhere All at Once" actress Jamie Lee Curtis stepped down from their duties in order to show their support for the winners - and other big winners of the night included "Scream VI" for Best Movie and "The Last of Us" for Best Show.
Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise beat the likes of Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Keke Palmer, and Michael B. Jordan to scoop Best Performance in a Movie for "Top Gun: Maverick". In a pre-recorded speech that saw him piloting a plane, he said, "I love you, I love entertaining you."
Elsewhere, pop singer Selena Gomez was awarded Best Music Documentary for her mental health film "My Mind and Me" whilst "The Kardashians" was awarded Best Reality Series and Jenna Ortega was awarded Best Performance in a Show for her starring role in the Netflix hit "Wednesday".
