Jennifer Coolidge Once Mistook Natasha Lyonne For An Entirely Different Star

Jennifer Coolidge and Natasha Lyonne endeared themselves to a generation of fans in the smash 1999 comedy “American Pie,” but even a shared Hollywood background sometimes can’t prevent a case of mistaken identity.

Appearing on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast this week, Lyonne recalled a surprise run-in with Coolidge, during which the “White Lotus” actor mistook Lyonne for a different former co-star entirely.

“Jennifer Coolidge saw me at the Chateau Marmont and I had straight hair, and she thought I was Hilary Duff,” Lyonne said. “I was so confused.”

Coolidge portrayed Fiona Montgomery, the stepmother of Duff’s character Sam Montgomery, in 2004’s “A Cinderella Story.” That film’s release came just one year after “American Wedding,” the third installment in the “American Pie” series, in which Coolidge played Jeanine Stifler, the mother of football jock Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott).

Though Lyonne didn’t specify the exact timing of the Coolidge exchange, she noted it was after she’d “dropped out” of show business for a while. A former child actor, Lyonne saw her career derailed in the mid-2000s amid well-documented experiences with drug and alcohol abuse and a number of health ailments, including a collapsed lung.

“I was like, ‘Maybe I’ve become too well.’ You know what I mean?” she said of Coolidge’s mix-up. “Because whatever I’m projecting is something I’d rather scratch real quick — I have lost my edge. Hilary seems like a lovely person, and sometimes I’ll look at pictures of her and be like, ‘I think maybe this is a good thing. I think they mean this kindly.’”

Noting that she cleared up the confusion with Coolidge quickly, she added: “I would rather be mistaken for Keith Richards or something.”

Now sober, the New York native returned to prominence as Nicky Nichols on “Orange Is the New Black,” and has continued her professional resurgence with well-received performances in “Russian Doll” and “Poker Face.” She received further acclaim in Azazel Jacobs’ big-screen a “His Three Daughters,” which is garnering awards season buzz.

Lyonne is also set to take a turn behind the camera. Though a release date for the second season of “Poker Face” has not yet been set, showrunner Tony Tost has confirmed that Lyonne will direct the first episode.

Catch Lyonne’s “Happy Sad Confused” chat below. Her comments on Coolidge’s mix-up begin around the 46:35 mark.