See Jennifer Coolidge in Flashy Superhero Photo Shoot by 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' Directors
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Lenne Chai
Jennifer Coolidge has already been crowned this year's red carpet superhero — and now she's really leaning into the role.
The actress is living out many people's childhood fantasy on the new cover of W magazine. The White Lotus star is the newest and final cover star of the magazine's Directors Issue Volume 2 — and it is safe to say the outlet closed it out with a BANG! POW! BOOM! ZAP!
Lenne Chai
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For the issue, which highlights and platforms the most talked about directors of the year, Coolidge was reimagined through the lens of tokusatsu by the directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — known collectively as the Daniels.
Tokusatsu is a Japanese style of live-action cinema that is campy, over the top and full of practical effects — elements that were central to the cover shoot. The aesthetic and cinematographic style is behind the work of Godzilla, Mothra and Giant Robo and has inspired American shows like Power Rangers and now this iconic imagery.
For her photos, Coolidge dressed in a variety of costume-like pieces, including a lime green coat with sequin polka dots and a dress with a comedically oversized bow.
Lenne Chai
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When asked why they chose to go for a Godzilla-like design for the shoot, Kwan opened up about the humanness of tokusatsu style and how it is more impressive to him than digitally rendered art.
He told the outlet, "Tokusatsu is so well done, but the special effects are always kind of handmade. If you look at the stuff from the '60s, you can feel the fingerprint. You can tell there's somebody inside the costume. There's something very charming about that, especially nowadays, when you can create anything digitally and nothing impresses you anymore."
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Lenne Chai
When Coolidge arrived at the set and saw she would be electrocuting monsters, taking cities down and wielding larger-than-life swords, she was surprised to say the least. She opened up in the cover story about how much of a breath of fresh air the shoot was and how it was "one of the best things I have ever been involved in."
"The film business tires people out," she shared. "But I swear to god, I felt like I was getting together with little kids. They were like these sort of child prodigies who are super, super smart and just super creative."
Lenne Chai
Opening up more about what the shoot means to her, Coolidge said, "I've never been asked to do a shoot like this: I have weapons, take down small cities, pick up cars and throw them. I don't know if I will ever be this surprised again. It was one of the best things I have ever been involved in."
The breath of fresh air and the surprise of it all were precisely what the directors were aiming for.
"There is so much pressure around Everything Everywhere All at Once, so our impulse for this shoot was to do the opposite," Scheinert said. "Not only do I really just want to dress up as a monster—I want to get our friends together, play with cardboard props, and go out to the desert."
