Jennifer Coolidge wants The Watcher season 2 to get revenge on her character: 'Karen needs to be punished'
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Could the notorious 657 Boulevard be going back on the market?
While the real family it was based on didn't watch The Watcher, so many others did that it landed as Netflix's top English-language series two weeks in a row. There's no word yet on a second season, but if the show does return Jennifer Coolidge wants her aptly-named real estate agent Karen to get a dose of karma.
"I think Karen needs a good slap across the face. I think Karen needs to be punished," Coolidge said during a press event with several members of the cast on Saturday when asked by series co-creator Ryan Murphy what she'd want her character to do if the show continued. Murphy noted he's been asked about a potential season 2 of the true-crime thriller starring Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale "a lot lately."
Netflix Jennifer Coolidge as real estate agent Karen in Netflix's 'The Watcher'
Though Karen starts the series seemingly as a good friend to Watt's Nora, she turns out to be a schemer who encouraged her frenemy to escape a potentially cursed home (and marriage) just to knock down the price and move into 657 Boulevard herself. Karen ends up moving out of her new abode before she even has a chance to enjoy a "holiday pour" of wine in the pink marble remodel due to a series of spooky encounters and finding her adorable dog dead.
But losing a beloved pet and home all in one night was apparently not enough retribution for the actress. "I think Karen's gotten away with a lot," Coolidge said.
"Nora's gonna take care of Karen," Watts chimed in, seeking justice for her friend-turned-rival of the real estate strategist.
During the weekend event, Murphy revealed that Coolidge had been itching to take on a darker role. "I called Jennifer and I said I have this part of this insane real estate agent based on a Reddit thread and the character's name is Karen Calhoun. And [she] said 'I'll do it if I get to kill someone,'" he recalled.
"You were very interested in the idea, that I find fascinating, of playing a darker ruthless character that you said nobody in a million years has thought to write for you," Murphy told the White Lotus actress. "I want you to play something like that, someone who is villainous. I think you can say Karen is villainous."
Netflix Jennifer Coolidge in a dramatic moment as Karen Calhoun in 'The Watcher'
Coolidge confirmed, noting that she's had great comedic roles such as Stifler's mom in American Pie or Paulette in Legally Blonde, but that "no one really thinks of me when it comes to a dark, evil person. Someone who is not really very nice."
She said she'd actually "had a fantasy" about landing a part in a Murphy project for a decade, ever since they rented her house in New Orleans to film a season of American Horror Story. She said at the time she was "praying" to be asked to join in during production.
"I just thought you were using the house [so] I would have to bump into you, and I thought you'd go like, 'Jennifer, I have a horrible part for you where you're someone really rotten,' but it didn't happen until 10 years later. I'm thrilled."
Murphy said he was "shocked" when he first heard about her unfulfilled desire to join his terrifying troupe. "Of course I would have cast you immediately," he assured her.
Well, better late than never.
The Watcher is now streaming on Netflix.
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