61-year-old actress Jennifer Coolidge has had Hollywood’s spotlight planted firmly on her, after her unforgettable role as Tanya Mcquoid in The White Lotus. After sweeping the Emmy’s, Golden Globes, and Critics Choice Awards to collect her accolades for her prize-winning role, Jennifer has done it again. She’s stunned us out of our boots.
This time, with directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who brought us the year’s most-nominated film at the Academy Awards, Everything Everywhere All At Once.
The Daniels teamed up with Coolidge to transform her into a sci-fi superheroine in a tokusatu-inspired shoot for W Magazine. Tokusatsu refers to a genre of Japanese film and television that heavily features special effects. The term literally means “special filming” in Japanese.
The genre is known for its use of elaborate costumes, miniature models, and pyrotechnics to create action-packed sequences that often involve giant monsters, superheroes, and other fantastical elements.
“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,” said director Daniel Kwan.
“There’s something very charming about that, especially nowadays, when you can create anything digitally and nothing impresses you anymore.”
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Some of the most famous Japanese tokusatsu franchises from the ’60s are Godzilla, Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider. In more recent years, shows like Power Rangers (which adapts footage from Super Sentai) and Ultraman (which features a giant superhero battling monsters) have brought the concept of tokusatsu to life.
Now, the Daniels, known for their unique take in film style and aesthetics in their award-winning film Everything Everywhere All At Once, have brought the concept back to Hollywood. And what better model to cast for a tokusatsu inspired shoot than Jennifer, who stands out in everything she has ever been cast in! To us, combining the two is a strike of pure genius.
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“…Of all the people who are having a moment right now, she [Jennifer] felt like someone exciting to put on the cover of a magazine,” Kwan said.
The Daniels explained that they prefer to work with seasoned professionals who are older, explaining:
“I’m prejudiced against young people,” says Kwan. “I have problems with our youth-obsessed culture and beauty standards, so anytime we can shake things up a little, I’m all for it.”
The Daniels, who are both in their mid-30s, said working with Michelle Yeoh, 60, Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, and now Coolidge, 61, allows them to tap into “different strategies for existing in this industry,” adding “we still feel like just babies.”
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And, it worked! Coolidge fully tapped into her superheroine era and delivered all the quirk a tokusatsu scene demands. Coolidge posted to Instagram, sharing the following:
“I’m on the cover of W Mag. Wee-hee! Inarticulately grateful for this embarrassment of riches. When the extraordinary Daniels first called and presented their vision for this shoot — paying homage to the Japanese Tokusatsu film genre — I thought they had the wrong muse (or certainly not their first choice for this amazing honor!) How unbelievably cool are these photos?!”
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Feature Image:Gotham / GC Images via Getty
