Category: Interviews

Courteney Cox on Coco and Cougar Town as Her Saving Grace

Friday, Jan 14, 2011

From whether the former Monica Geller lets real life daughter Coco, age 6, watch her sometimes racy show to how it’s been helping her while she endures a separation with David Arquette, who is currently in rehab, Breezy Mama got the scoop.

Do you let your daughter watch the show?

[Pauses]… If I say yes, am I a bad mom?

[Laughs] Noooo…

I do but I tell her to close her eyes when it’s inappropriate and she does. She really thinks Dan Byrd [my son on the show] is her brother. This is her family… she’s supposed to be down here any minute.

Has this been a good escape for you with all that’s going on personally?

Oh yeah! Thank God for the show. There have been times when [Executive Producer] Bill [Lawrence] has said, “Are you all right? Do you need to take a break?” And I’m like, “Are you kidding? This is my saving grace.”

Are you used to all the scrutiny and attention of fame after being in this business for a while?

I think I’m kind of used to it, but as I get older, I’m getting more sensitive. So, it might be harder in some ways and because I love the show so much… I do take it personally anything that involves the show. Obviously my life is kind of crazy right now so… I think it’s harder than it used to be.

Is Coco creative?

She just wrote a book about Candy Land and how the Queen said no more candy and you have to eat vegetables. It was a whole story.

So does she eat sweets?

She is a nightmare when she eats sweets. I mean, I let her have them, but I say, “Do you see the difference in your personality? Can you tell how much of a monster you are right now?” And she’ll say [kids voice], “Yes.”

What do you think when people say to you: I grew up watching you?

I think it’s all right… I guess… I mean, I have a few years before I feel bad.

When [Friends Co-Star] Jennifer [Aniston] came on Cougar Town was it like old times?

It felt like… fun. And it didn’t feel like Monica and Rachel at all, which is great – the characters are so different. It just felt natural and we had a ball.

Is she coming back?

I doubt it. She has four movies this year.

Are there other people from the past you’d like to see come on?

Yeah, I loved working with Lisa [Kudrow, a.k.a. Phoebe from Friends], that was really fun… Johnny Depp maybe. I haven’t worked with Johnny but I would like to [smiles].

Have you seen episodes of Matthew Perry’s new show, Mr. Sunshine?

No, I haven’t, but I can’t wait. I just saw his face on a bus and he looked so cute. I will be watching it.

Were you nervous about the Jules [your Cougar Town character] and Grayson story line – them getting together so soon?

I was nervous at first. But I just love Bill’s take on them. It’s not going to be an on and off again thing, which is what I’m used to seeing with [Friends characters] Rachel and Ross… not so much me and Chandler… once we were together we stayed together.

How was working on Scream again?

It’s been 10 years and there’s a new group of actors and they all were subdued and quiet. I was thinking I’m going to stand out like a sore thumb. I was like: GAIL WEATHERS IS BACK!

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by Jess

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LocateTV Sits Down With Courteney Cox

Friday, Jan 14, 2011

Courteney Cox definitely enjoys the grape, both in character as Cougar Town‘s Jules Cobb and after a day’s filming is done.Seated between co-stars Christa Miller and Busy Phillips on the set of the ABC comedy, Cox is in good humor and unusually expansive before a small cluster of TV writers.

“I do love wine,” she said Wednesday when locatetv.com popped the question. “And I have a fancy palette. At least that’s what David always used to say to me.”

It’s her only direct reference to estranged husband David Arquette, from whom she separated last year after 11 years of marriage. “Oh yeah,” Cox said when asked later if Cougar Town provides a safe haven from all the tabloid speculation about her personal life. “Thank God for the show. This is my saving grace.”

Back to the vino, which Cox’s Cobb regularly consumes voraciously on Cougar Town. Her vessel of choice used to be the 44 ounce “Big Joe,” which was broken as part of a recent episode’s storyline. It’s actually filled with grape juice during filming, but cast members regularly gather in Cox’s on-set “bungalow” for the real thing.

“I like French and Italian wines,” she said. “I used to like California wines, but I like them less sweet now.”

At a preceding interview session Wednesday before the TV critic masses, Cougar Town executive producer Bill Lawrence noted that “one of the first things I noticed when I met Courteney Cox is she pours herself a healthy glass of wine. Like the type that you could do wrist curls with.”

“She keeps it for a long time. She milks it,” co-star Miller clarified, probably to no avail.

Cougar Town will be getting a third season next fall, ABC announced earlier in the week. That’s nowhere near a match for the 10-year run of NBC’s Friends, in which the now 46-year-old Cox played Monica Geller. Her ABC series also is a “single camera” show filmed in private while Friends unfolded during tapings before live studio audiences.

“I’m not huge on having an audience for some reason,” Cox said. “It made me nervous, even in year 10. “I’d rather do new scenes every day and move on. I get bored.

“But let me tell you something,” she quickly added. “I loved Friends. I’d have done a couple more years. But this is easier for me in some ways. I think it’s kind of tailor made for my personality.”

Her former Friends co-stars keep meshing with her both on- and off-camera. Jennifer Aniston recently guest-starred on Cougar Town in the role of Jules’ decidedly oddball therapist. Matt Perry’s new Mr. Sunshine comedy series will get a limited run on ABC in Cougar Town‘s Wednesday time slot, beginning Feb. 9th. And Cox recently glimpsed Matt LeBlanc adorning a bus in connection with his new Showtime series Episodes.

“He looks so cute. I will be watching it,” she said.

Friends brought her considerable fame and fortune. But its six stars also soon found themselves in the position of one-upping each other with movie roles and other projects.

“I wish I hadn’t been such a ‘comparative person,’ ” Cox said. “I don’t want to do that anymore. There was a lot of stuff that could mess with your ego being on a show with an ensemble of six people. It was hard. It was a lot of learning for me.”

Cox and Arquette were married halfway through Friends‘ run, and have a daughter, Coco, who’s now six years old.

“If I say yes, am I a bad mom?” Cox said after being asked if her daughter is allowed to watch Cougar Town. “I do let her watch it, but I tell her to close her eyes when it’s inappropriate. She really thinks that Dan Byrd (who plays Jules’ college age son, Travis) is her brother. She calls him Brownie. This is her family. She’s supposed to be here any minute.”

By the way, the show’s title is destined to change sooner (or more likely later), executive producer Lawrence said in an earlier session with TV writers.

Cougar Town “has nothing to do with what it’s about, but writers look for ways to procrastinate,” he said.

Cox, however, prefers to stay the course.

“I think it’s a great title,” she said. “It’s become cool to say you watch a show called Cougar Town, I think.”

The show’s audience fall-off is still pronounced, though, with Cougar Town regularly dropping a few million viewers from its potent Wednesday night lead-in, Modern Family.

“It’s a double-edged sword for us right now,” Lawrence said. “You’re always going to get nailed a bit if you don’t retain their audience. And they’re a big hit. We are successful, but we’re not a big hit . . . The next big test for the show is that either at the beginning of next season or halfway through it will have to lead off its own hour somewhere . . . So that’s the next real hurdle.”

“Well, I want to stay behind Modern Family,” Cox countered. “I like to stay behind a good, solid hit. I don’t want to move.”

“We’re going to have to make the leap sooner or later,” Lawrence said. “I would like to stay behind Modern Family for six years and then maybe the seventh year they try us out in our own time slot. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Wherever it lands, Cougar Town will have to replicate a fine wine. Improve with age or eventually die on the vine.

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by Jess

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Wine flows freely in “Cougar Town”

Friday, Jan 14, 2011

The characters on “Cougar Town” drink wine. A lot of wine. Often.The series’ central character, Jules (Courteney Cox) drinks wine out of an enormous goblet she calls Big Carl. A really big goblet. Big Carl holds a bottle-and-a-half of wine.

“And she drinks maybe five or six in one show,” joked executive producer Bill Lawrence.But this is the world of TV. Nobody is headed for the Betty Ford Center.

“She’s going to continue to drink and live a very successful life being an alcoholic, but manageable,” Cox joked. “There is no rehab in sight or anything.”

Cox, who’s also one of the show’s executive producers, and Lawrence quite clearly get along extremely well. They also quite clearly disagree on the whole wine-drinking thing.

“I don’t think we exaggerate the amount of wine-drinking that adults do in America by that much. I think maybe by that much, at most,” said Lawrence, holding his fingers an inch apart.

“I think that we do,” Cox disagreed.

Lawrence sort of blamed Cox for her character’s drinking. Well, more than sort of.

“I love getting to know actors and seeing what their real personalities are like and stealing from them,” he said. “And one of the first things that I noticed when I met Courteney Cox is she pours herself a healthy glass of wine. She pours herself, like, the type that you could do wrist curls with.”

Cox was just shaking her head “no” the whole time.

If the drinking levels are fictional, the drinks are not. If you watch “Cougar Town” closely, you’ll see that those bottles of wine are real wine bottles. With real labels. Not something made up by the art department.

“You recognize labels of wine that also happen to be in my house now in big giant free crates,” Lawrence said. “That’s funny because it’s a little true.”

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by Jess

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Cougar Town Interviews Media Projects

5 Awesome Things Learned on the Cougar Town Set Visit

Thursday, Jan 13, 2011

The Winter TCA has been packed with all sorts of goodies — mainly news about the TV shows debuting in the midseason — but there was a special treat for this TV junkie: a visit to the Cougar Town set! Before chatting with the show’s stars like Courteney Cox (read the interview here), I got to check out Jules Cobb’s living room and kitchen, Grayson’s bar, and the other spots where many a glass of wine has been drunk. The cast and creators, in a great mood in the wake of their season three pickup, also hung out for a panel and gave us some tidbits about the show. Here are my five favorite things I learned.

Cox may have something to do with her character’s affinity for huge glasses of wine (giant goblet Big Carl made an appearance, by the way — series co-creator Kevin Biegel drank out of it during the panel). Executive producer and co-creator Bill Lawrence says he often gets bits about his characters from the actors who portray them, and he spilled that Cox “pours herself a healthy glass of wine.” Lawrence, however, said he doesn’t think that the show exaggerates how much Americans drink, but Cox disagreed: “I think we do.” Oh, and if you’re curious, Big Carl can hold an entire bottle of wine.
The name Cougar Town isn’t going anywhere, though Lawrence says he always has “one incredible screw-up” with his shows, and the title is Cougar Town‘s. Not that anyone cares anymore. “It’s become cool to say you watch a show called Cougar Town,” Cox joked. Plus, Lawrence says that at this point, “it’s just too much fun to write those jokes,” referencing the subtitles that accompany the title in the opening credits.

To see the other funny things I picked up at the set visit, just read more.

If you’re afraid that Laurie and Travis will get together, rest easy; it doesn’t sound like it’ll happen anytime soon, especially not if Dan Byrd and Busy Philipps have a say. Byrd says he thinks “the flirtation is more interesting,” while Philipps cracked, “I’m not sure I want to kiss Dan Byrd.”
The cast of actors is obsessed with the “penny can” game the same way the characters are. Lawrence says that if they start playing the game, it’s hard to get them to stop, and that the bit grew out of procrastination in the writer’s room.
Wondering why you see so many guest stars from Lawrence’s other shows like Scrubs? “We have a friends and family policy,” Lawrence said. Among the visitors they’re hoping to get on Cougar Town are Nia Vardalos, Ian Gomez’s (Andy) wife, and Philipps’s husband — despite the fact that he’s not an actor.

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by Jess

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Interviews Media

Courteney Cox Interview on Cougar Town and Scream 4 From 2011 Winter TCA

Thursday, Jan 13, 2011

Courteney Cox sat down with reporters to talk about her quirky series, how it’s helped her at this time in her life, how she’s different from her Scream 4 costars, and her old Friends costar Matt LeBlanc’s new series Episodes.

Has the show been a good escape for difficult times in your life?
Courteney Cox: Oh yeah. Thank God for the show. There have been times that Bill has said, “Do you need to take a break?” And [I say] “Are you kidding?” This is my saving grace.

Is there any chance Sheryl Crow will come back?
CC: We had fun with her! And she had fun, she said. She really liked it. I don’t know, maybe!

How was it stepping back into the Scream franchise?
CC: That character is really over the top, and I just realized that was 10 years ago; all of the actors on the set, the new group, they’re very subdued, kind of quiet. And I stick out like a sore thumb; I was like “Gail Weathers is back!” Like, are they going to talk any louder at all? They are very cool, and I’m older, and not as cool. But I stepped into my character; we’ll see what happens. Dewey was Dewey! But then, you know, people have changed. People are cooler than me.

Is it true that there will be more Scream films after this one?
CC: There is going to be a Scream 4, 5, and 6. [But] I don’t know anything.

To find out what Cox said about her Friends days and Matt LeBlanc’s new series, just read more.

Have you seen Episodes yet?
CC: No! I can’t wait to see it.

Is there anything you wish you had done differently when you were on Friends?
CC: The one thing that I wished I hadn’t been back in those days, which I’ve changed, is [that] I’m not a competitive person at all, but I am a comparative person. And I don’t even want to be that. I don’t want to compare anymore. There’s a lot of stuff that can mess with your ego, being on a show with six people in an ensemble like that . . . It’s hard. It was a lot of learning for me. I wish I hadn’t ever spent time comparing.

How do you think you’ll feel when people start saying that they grew up watching you?
CC: I think they already have! I think it’s alright, I guess. I mean, I have a few more years before I feel bad.

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by Jess

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Cougar Town Interviews News Projects

Cougar Town Webchat with Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel Tomorrow Night!

Tuesday, Dec 7, 2010

Thats right folks! A good friend and fellow CC fan Magali and her website are having a webchat tomorrow night (Wednesday) with the very creators of Cougar Town, Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel!!! The chat is going ahead tomorrow at 5.00 pm PST. Make sure you dont miss it! Just incase you think it may slip your mind,you can enter your email at the chat site to get a reminder sent straight to you!

Go here for the chat tomorrow night!

by Jess

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