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Category: Interviews
Courteney on The Talk
Sunday, Apr 24, 2011
Courteney Cox dishes Cougar Town, Scream 4 and the media
Thursday, Apr 21, 2011
Courteney Cox. Cox dished Cougar Town, Friends and Scream 4, as well as living under the media microscope, especially while she and David Arquette wrestle with a very public trial separation.
SheKnows: There’s a warmth to Cougar Town that makes viewers want to sit down and share a glass of wine with you guys. At what point did you feel that energy take hold?
Courteney Cox: It was a big thing for (producers Bill Lawrence, Kevin Biegel and myself) when we were casting. We definitely have a no (expletive) policy. It was important that everyone was a great person, and you can tell when someone comes into the room to read. When Busy [Philipps, Laurie] came in, she by far was the best actor and she was also so nice. I had known Christa (Miller, Ellie), so that was no issue.
SheKnows: Did you ever think you’d have a second show where the cast clicked as well in front of and behind the camera?
Courteney Cox: I knew that would be the only way that I would do it. There would be no point in doing it unless everyone got along great and it was fun, because life’s short. Even on the show Dirt, which wasn’t a big success at all, I loved every one of those characters. I know there can be shows where there are real jerks, but I haven’t experienced that yet.
SheKnows: When Jules and Grayson paired up so early in the series, were you concerned about getting stuck?
Courteney Cox: Yes. I was nervous at first. If it works, it’s going to keep happening and as soon as it doesn’t work, he’s so gone. [Laughs] I just love Bill and Kevin’s take on it. This is not going to be an on again-off again thing you’re so used to seeing, (like) Rachel and Ross…I think once me and Chandler did it, we stayed together, but I can’t remember one episode from Friends. I have a terrible memory and I’m checking that out in therapy now.
SheKnows: Is shooting Cougar Town easier than Friends, since you’ve already got sitcom chops?
Courteney Cox: This show is so much my passion and so was Friends, but now I’m older. It’s tailor made for my personality. I’m just having a ball.
SheKnows: Do you miss the Friends live audience?
Courteney Cox: I’m not huge on having an audience. Jennifer Aniston loves it. It made me nervous, even in year ten. It’s just too much pressure. Also, I like that you get to have more than one chance at it. Monday through Friday doing the same show? I’d rather do a new scene every day and move on. I get bored. But let me tell you something, I loved Friends. I’d have done a couple of more years. That was amazing, but this is easier for me in some ways.
SheKnows: What was it like to work with Aniston again, and might we see her back on Cougar Town?
Courteney Cox: It didn’t feel like Monica and Rachel at all, which is great, because our characters are just different. It just felt natural. We had a ball. I loved working with Lisa (Kudrow). That was really fun, too. I doubt (we’ll get Jennifer back on Cougar Town). She literally, I think, did four movies this year.
SheKnows: Matthew Perry recently said he wishes he could go back to the Friends heyday and be more present and less focused on who’s landed the next gig. Do you share that feeling?
Courteney Cox: I have a lot of things to say about what you just said. There were a lot of reasons he wasn’t present. I actually was present. I may have been hyper-vigilant. There is a lot of stuff that can mess with your ego, being on a show that’s a straight ensemble of six people. You’re all equal. Everyone wants to get out early. It was just hard. It was a lot of learning for me. If anything, the one [regret from] back in those days is that I wish I didn’t spend time comparing. It was a waste of time. We all have our path and we all did pretty well.
SheKnows: Have the trappings of fame and the media scrutiny gotten easier to deal with since then?
Courteney Cox: I’m kind of used to it, but as I get older I’m getting a little more sensitive, so it might be harder in some ways. Because I love this show so much and feel so thankful, I do take anything that involves the show personally. Obviously my life is kind of crazy right now and I’m getting a lot of that. It’s probably a little harder than it used to be. I think I didn’t notice.
SheKnows: Has clocking in at Cougar Town offered you an escape during a difficult time in your life?
Courteney Cox: Oh, yeah. Thank God for the show. There have been times when Bill has said, “Are you all right? Do we need to take a break?” I’m like, “Are you kidding? This is my saving grace.”
SheKnows: Do you let your daughter watch the show?
Courteney Cox: If I say, “Yes,” am I a bad mom? I do. I tell her to close her eyes when it’s inappropriate and she does. She knows everyone. She thinks that Dan Byrd is her brother. She calls him Brownie. This is her family.
SheKnows: Coming from your Cougar Town comfort zone, how hard was it to slip back into Scream mode for Scream 4 last summer?
Courteney Cox: The last movie was ten years ago. People have changed. People are cooler than they used to be. I was like, “Gale Weathers is back!” That character is over the top and Dewey was Dewey. I realized all the actors on the set, the new group, were very subdued and quiet. It was like, “Are they going to talk any louder at all? Because they’re very cool, and I’m older and not as cool.” I thought, “I’m going to stand out like a sore thumb in this crowd,” but I stuck to my character and we’ll see what happens.
Courteney Cox Regrets Howard Stern Show Surprise
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2011
Courteney Cox regrets her surprise appearance on shock jock Howard Stern’s radio show last week (ends15Apr11) – because the chat got way too personal and she was too candid.
The former Friends star stunned Stern and her husband David Arquette, who was co-hosting the satellite show, when she walked into the studio last Thursday (14Apr11) and sat down to chat.
But the appearance turned into a therapy session as Stern and Arquette grilled her over the state of her marriage – Cox and Arquette separated last summer (10).
Stern quizzed her about her sex life, extra-marital affairs and went “deep” into her relationship with her husband, who was happy to encourage the prying DJ.
Cox eventually walked out, but not before she’d said enough to make the pages of the tabloids and all the gossip Internet sites.
She says, “They got heavy, deep and real. I was not expecting the questions, like, ‘Are you going to get back together?’ I was like, ‘Wow, dude, this is…’ It was really personal stuff… and David was like, ‘Yeah, tell me!’
“You say things on Howard, or Howard says things and you agree and then it’s all over the press… I said something about David and it was like, ‘Courteney says David is sex obsessed.’ I just told one story, I was just joking.”
Herald Sun Interview with Courteney Cox
Saturday, Apr 16, 2011
SHE may be living out her divorce very publicly, but the star won’t deny being in the spotlight has its advantages.
Meeting Courteney Cox is like coming face-to-face with your past. With a TV and film career spanning 25 years, it’s easy to feel as if you’ve grown up with her, and it’s hard not to compare her life with your own. From career ups and downs to relationships, marriage and kids, her journey feels spookily familiar. As we sit down to talk, Cox nods in agreement when I say at least two generations of women have led lives parallel to hers.
“Isn’t it crazy? I’m just starting to realise I’ve been on TV for this long. Friends started 17 years ago, there was Dirt and now Cougar Town – that’s a lot of TV.”
The 46-year-old has had her fair share of big-screen time, too, and while we’re here to discuss her latest film, it’s but a sidecar to the upheaval she’s been living through in the past year. Scream 4, the latest instalment in the blockbuster horror franchise, sees Cox back as ambitious journalist Gale Weathers. While the film reunites her with series castmate Neve Campbell and veteran director Wes Craven, it’s the fact that she’s been working with her recently estranged husband, David Arquette, that’s most intriguing.
The couple, who separated in October last year after 11 years of marriage, met on the set of Scream in 1996, and have spent a lot of time bumping into each other on the promotional circuit for their latest film. Despite the towering elephant in the room, they appear at ease with each other at press conferences. During one, Arquette addressed their situation filming Scream 4, saying, “There was a real family feeling. Especially with Courteney. Being married and having a kid, it just brings an honesty – and that’s really my favourite part of acting.”
At the moment, everyone is playing nice, but will that last amid ongoing talk Cox is dating her hunky Cougar Town co-star Josh Hopkins? The rumour mill went into overdrive again in March, when the pair were spotted holidaying together in the Caribbean. Hopkins’ father added fuel to the fire by saying he’d approve of the pair as a couple if it were true.
For Cox, it must be tough to keep the focus on her film when the real interest is in her love life. “I admit, it’s hard when people are making judgments about our relationship, or David, or me,” she says, seemingly open to talking about her emotional state. “And it can make you sad, too. Sometimes you see a photo and you go, ‘Oh, I remember the relationship at that moment.’ So, overall, it’s all pretty hard.”
Indeed, just as many women have mapped their lives alongside Cox’s career, the Scream films take viewers through her long-term relationship. “It’s where I met David and fell in love. Wes Craven directed all of the films, but he also directed my relationship with David,” she reveals. “He was so instrumental in getting us to grow up, look at what we had and take a chance. He was instrumental in telling David to step up. He told us we had something special, so he’s been our mentor.
“Then, with the second Scream, we’d had our struggles, and by the third one, we’d just been married. Now, for this one, we’ve had a kid and all that stuff, so it means a lot to us personally. In that time, we’ve also lost parents, so when I think of all the things that have happened in those 15 years, it’s a lifetime.”
In that same time frame, Cox has had to come to terms with being offered the ‘older’ roles, and she admits it took a little getting used to.
“I went from Friends, where we were all the same age, to Dirt, where we had the ‘young’ couple on the show. It hit me that I was now the mature woman and no longer the young one. Then, in Scream, I was never the young one. As the films went on, the kids were still in high school, yet Gale was getting older. In Scream 4, there were so many people turning 21 on this movie, you just had to go, this is my reality now.”
Cox famously embraced her age in sitcom Cougar Town, even coming around to the term cougar as one that can be empowering for women of a certain age.
“I don’t have a problem with it. To me, it means that a woman doesn’t need a man to take care of her,” she says, and then adds with a clear nod to Arquette, who’s seven years her junior, “I think men like older, confident women.”
Still, dressed today in a gorgeous black Isabel Marant suit and formidably high Balenciaga heels, Cox looks stunning and it’s hard to believe she’s old enough to be mum to six-year-old daughter, Coco.
Motherhood, she says, has brought on a renewed confidence, and being both star and producer of Cougar Town means she can easily balance her career and home life, often having Coco on the set for a bit of extra mother-daughter time.“She loves it and has her own little job in the wardrobe department,” says Cox. “So she does her homework and then becomes part of the crew. It’s a great learning experience for her, and I’m lucky we’re on a show that sticks to 13-hour days. As producer, I get to leave earlier on Fridays and start later on Mondays, so I can take her to school more. And I get five months off a year.”
The self-deprecating comedy of Cougar Town is a natural fit for the actor, who has no issues with playing the fool.
“Making people laugh feels good,” she says. “I grew up in a house where if you weren’t saying anything interesting, the family would move on. You had to be quick.
“My dad had a strong personality – he was in the construction business – so there was a lot of pressure to hold his attention, and me and my sisters all wanted his attention and approval. You’d have to be as funny as possible or the next subject was going to be tossed to the next kid.”
While the show’s content might work for the star, how does she feel about the pressure to look like the hottie older femme?
“It’s definitely harder to stay in shape now,” Cox admits. “I don’t eat a lot of carbs. I eat a lot of protein and vegetables and I try to drink more water. But let me tell you something,” she says, leaning in. “I love cheese, mild Swiss cheese. Lots and lots of cheese.”
Her exercise routine now incorporates the Tracy Anderson Method. “Gwyneth Paltrow introduced me to it and I love it. It’s really hard, but it’s a smart exercise that includes fun things, including dance. I try to do it four times a week.”
When she’s not working, spending time with Coco or watching her carb intake, Cox says she enjoys hanging out with girlfriends and – as clichéd as it sounds – her BFFs are former Friends, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow.
“Lisa has a kid [son Julian, 12] and I have a kid, and if we had more time, we’d see each other more. Jennifer comes over on weekends. We really do love each other,” she insists.
Despite her marriage breakdown and a sometimes rocky career path since Friends finished in 2004 (rumour has it, she turned down Teri Hatcher’s role in Desperate Housewives, and Dirt ran for only two seasons before it was cancelled), Cox is one of the few celebrities you won’t hear complaining about being famous. Given all the recent attention, you’d think she’d have a moan but, in fact, it’s the opposite.
“There are a lot of great things about being famous. And acting is the most fun job you can ever imagine,” she says with a smile. “I’m pretty good about not reading things or going online to see what people are saying. I’m not at parties and I don’t like to go out much. I’m social, but only in so far as I’m around my close friends.” All the heartache aside, Cox feels this is turning out to be a wonderful stage in her life. “I used to worry about getting work, but now I don’t. Everything is just perfect. I’m very happy and, even though I’m going through this hard time, I’m learning a lot. And, in many ways, David and I are probably closer than we’ve ever been.”
Scream 4 is in cinemas now.
