Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert Direct Jennifer Coolidge on the Cover of W MAGAZINE’s Directors Issue

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W Magazine today released the final cover of Volume 2, The Directors Issue, featuring the iconic Jennifer Coolidge in “Coolidge vs. Haute Squad 5: Attack on Neo Runway City – Jennifer Reborn” directed by Academy Award nominees Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Shot in Corriganville Park, Kwan and Scheinert planned the shoot as a tribute to tokusatsu, a genre of campy Japanese cinema that birthed such legendary creatures as Godzilla, Mothra, and Giant Robo.

Now in its fifth year, the beloved Director’s Issue highlights and celebrates some of the greatest and most talked about directors in film and this year features three out of the five Oscar nominees for Best Director.

Photographed by Lenne Chai, Production Design by Calder Greenwood, Costume Designs by Shirley Kurata, and Written by Alex Hawgood

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Daniel Kwan talks about the themes of the cover shoot: “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. There’s something very charming about that, especially nowadays, when you can create anything digitally and nothing impresses you anymore.”

Daniel Scheinert explains what inspired this silly/fun shoot: “There is so much pressure around Everything Everywhere All at Once, so our impulse for this shoot was to do the opposite. Not only do I really just want to dress up as a monster—I want to get our friends together, play with cardboard props, and go out to the desert.”

Daniel Scheinert explains that they appreciate working with actors with a stacked résumé: “I’m prejudiced against young people. 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.”

Jennifer Coolidge on her White Lotus character Tanya: “I feel bad for her, because she didn’t know what she was made of. She didn’t have that kind of faith in herself. Sometimes these scary things happen in life. And then you find out, in like two seconds, that you are a survivor and that you can really pull through for yourself, sometimes in a way that you never believed you could.”

Jennifer Coolidge on working with The Daniels for the shoot: “The film business tires people out. But I swear to god, I felt like I was getting together with little kids. They were like these sort of child prodigies who are super, super smart and just super creative. I’ve never been asked to do a shoot like this: I have weapons, take down small cities, pick up cars and throw them. I don’t know if I will ever be this surprised again. It was one of the best things I have ever been involved in.”

[Photo Credit: Lenne Chai for W Magazine]

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