Jennifer Coolidge Talks ‘Doing My Own Thing’ in New Discover Commercial (Exclusive)

Jennifer Coolidge will be in high demand once the SAG-AFTRA strike comes to an end. The 62-year-old actress is coming off an Emmy-nominated performance in Season 2 of The White Lotus and appeared in two big movies this year — Shotgun Wedding and We Have a Ghost. Currently, Coolidge can be seen in a new Discover commercial to help launch the company’s new national brand campaign called “Especially for Everyone.” PopCulture.com spoke to Coolidge about the new commercial and she revealed the big reason she loved filming it. 

“They sort of let me do my own thing,” Coolidge told PopCulture. “That was another thing, you don’t know, sometimes people go, sometimes you get pitched something where they’re like, ‘Oh, we think you’re great and blah, blah, blah.’ And then you get there and then they have a very, very specific thing of what they want you to do and it’s not the free bird thing that you thought you were signing up for.”

Coolidge continued: “But they really let me do my own creative thing. It is pretty cool when they let you improvise lines and they don’t just hand over some very scripted thing to say and tell you, ‘You can’t miss a word.’ They were very much like, ‘Do your thing.’ I couldn’t believe the freedom that I had and it made me like them even more.”

The commercial shows Coolidge using her Discover Cashback Debut card at a restaurant, and she is surprised to learn that Discover’s benefits are for everyone and not just VIPs. Coolidge will be seen in a series of national advertising efforts focusing on Discover’s benefits and products. 

Coolidge also talked about why she wanted to partner with Discover. “We had similar things,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m as normal as the Discover people, but I feel like I’m a little bit weirder, but they were just normal, friendly,” she explained. “I was trying to think of a word. And it’s two words actually for them, it’s sort of like they’re anti-snobbery people. They don’t believe in special treatment. They believe everyone’s the same. If you spend more, it’s not like you’re more important to them.”

Coolidge also said that the people at Discover are “down-to-earth.” She said: “I grew up in a small town. My parents weren’t snobs, my parents were very down-to-earth people, and my friends were very down-to-earth people. No one had any sort of put-on airs or anybody. It was all very normal people. I think if you grow up that way, I think you’re attracted to that till the end of your life. I think you want that.”