Jennifer Coolidge Says Ariana Grande's 2018 Impression of Her Got Her Out of a Career 'Dead Zone'

Jennifer Coolidge is thanking Ariana Grande.

On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Thursday, The White Lotus actress, 60, shared that Grande's impression of her pulled her out of a career "dead zone."

Coolidge recounted Grande's 2018 impression of her and explained how it led to a cameo in Grande's "thank u, next" music video.

"You should know that it was sort of the beginning of a lot of cool things that happened for me because — I don't know — I was going through a dead zone," Coolidge shared. "Not much was going on, and then Ariana did this imitation on your show, and you encouraged her, and then this ball got rolling."

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Coolidge continued, "My friend who is like her age, Theresa, she was like, 'You know, you should DM Ariana and just say I thought it was such a good imitation,' and I was like, 'No, she's got like 260 million followers, those are robots! The robots answer the DMs, and we will never ever get to her.' "

But she decided to message the singer regardless. "I did it anyway, and this response came back, and the next thing you know, I was going to her house, getting fit for a wardrobe fitting for 'Thank U, Next.' That was all because of Jimmy Fallon!"

Coolidge reprised her Legally Blonde role as Paulette for the video, in which Grande, 28, recreated three of her favorite movies.

Though Coolidge said she found herself in a "dead zone," she found major success again with her starring role in season 1 of HBO's The White Lotus. Coolidge played Tanya McQuoid, a grieving woman who was processing the death of her mother, attempting to spread ashes and get back in touch with herself while vacationing at a luxury resort.

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Coolidge recently spoke about the possibilities of returning to her role as Paulette in Legally Blonde 3, which is being written by Mindy Kaling.

Coolidge previously joked about her character being replaced in a November interview at the 2021 Gotham Awards. "If Reese [Witherspoon] comes down the carpet tonight, you tell her yes. Tell her I'm in. Yes!" she said of reprising the role.

"You never know," she joked. "This is show business. I don't know. I could be replaced with a roller-skating character or something."