Jennifer Coolidge and Michelle Yeoh showcase the talent of older women with big wins at Golden Globes 2023

Jennifer Coolidge has graced our screens in many minor and humorous roles. You'll have seen her in American Pie, which was a break-out role for her playing 'Stifler's mom'.

She won a Golden Globe on Tuesday 10 January 2023 for her role as Tanya McQuoid, an insecure rich woman, in the HBO anthology series The White Lotus (2021–2022). Her speech and that of another woman in her 60th decade, Michelle Yeoh, were extraordinary tales of triumph against the odds.

Jennifer repeatedly thanked Mike White, the creator of White Lotus, for the opportunity to play Tanya and for generally making her life better as she joked she's now invited to the house parties of her neighbours and wants to live longer. It was a masterclass in a flippant and wonderfully heartwarming thank you speech.

"I just want to say: Mike White, you have given me hope. You've given me a new beginning, even if this is the end, because you did kill me off," she said, referencing Tanya's fate in the season 2 finale. Coolidge continued, "But it doesn't matter because even if this is the end, you sort of changed my life in a million different ways. My neighbours are speaking to me, things like that."

In her early years, like many aspiring actors, Jennifer worked as a waitress alongside another success story in acting - Sandra Bullock.

They’re calling it a 'comeback', but Coolidge never had anything to come back from, rather, the industry has finally taken notice. As celebrity commentator and media expert Dr Kirsty Fairclough explains, "The nexus of her fame has shifted. Coolidge has been in the industry for 30 years and has only recently become taken seriously as an actress of a wider range."

Michelle Yeoh, at a youthful-looking 60 years old, was nominated for and won her first Golden Globe for her role as Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

“I remember when I first came to Hollywood, it was a dream come true until I got here,” Yeoh said in her acceptance speech. “I came here and was told, ‘You’re a minority.’ And I’m like, ‘No, that’s not possible.’”

“And then someone said to me, ‘You speak English,’” she continued. “Forget about them not knowing Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Asia, India. And then I said, ‘Yeah, the flight here was about 13 hours long, so I learned on the way.’"

Michelle is a legend, even telling the musicians to 'shut up please' when they played music to hurry her off the stage during her speech. She said it with humour and a big smile and it was wonderfully ironic that her speech about gaining acceptance and space to perform was then curtailed by a need to stop speaking to give time for other speeches.

Both these women were celebrated at the Golden Globes, not just for their talent, but for their ability to be resilient and prove the doubters wrong. You can be in your 60s and beyond and still have accolades to win and points to make.