E Online Q&A - Courteney Cox

When NBC launched Friends nearly four years ago, Courteney Cox was easily the best-known cast member. The Alabama native had already spent several seasons as Michael J. Fox's girlfriend on the hit '80s series Family Ties; had clambered onstage with Bruce Springsteen for the Boss' "Dancing in the Dark" video; and had been the first person to say the word period on TV (and mean it in that way) for a Tampax commercial.

But as Friends exploded into a Must-See affair, Cox's obsessively clean Monica Geller kept getting overshadowed. If it wasn't David Schwimmer's puppy-dog petability snagging the spotlight, it was Lisa Kudrow's ditzy ditties. If the world wasn't speculating about Matthew Perry's cosmetic surgery, it was all agog over Jennifer Aniston's hair.

Of course, Cox's got a pretty impressive black mane herself. She's also got a knack for making big-screen hits. While her Friends have floundered at the box office, Cox has succeeded with Jim Carrey's breakthrough film, Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, and with Scream, Wes Craven's critically acclaimed teen slasher satire.

Cox's latest effort is Commandments, a dark romance with Aidan Quinn. While it may not match Ace or even the upcoming Scream 2--yes, Courteney and Co. will be back--it provides her with another interesting character. And in her eyes, that's what this game is all about.

Although you've played lots of different parts in your career, it can't be easy to separate yourself from Monica in the public's mind. I mean, she's such a hugely popular character.
Absolutely. That's why I'm trying to do all of these little roles that show that I'm not Monica.

Well, you certainly veered away from Monica with Scream. And you've done it again with Commandments.
Yeah, I don't want to do the same kinds of things in movies that we do on the show. Besides, it's hard to find stuff that's written as well as Friends in the romantic comedy field. The stories have all been done, in some form or fashion. I don't want to do something just to be in a movie. I'd rather take a small or different part and have it be interesting.

What was it like making Commandments?
It was tough, because I did it last year while I was doing Friends. I was flying back and forth to New York on the weekends. But I wanted to play this character, who is very different from Monica. This movie is a real journey.

The title makes the film sound a little foreboding. What exactly happens in Commandments?
Aidan Quinn plays a guy who tries to break all 10 Commandments, because all these disasters have happened to him. He wants to know why, and God never gives him a reason, so he says, "Okay, God, you defy me, I'll defy you." One of the Commandments, of course, is adultery, and that's where I come in. It's a romance, but it's not cute. This is a very dark movie.

Speaking of dark, you've just signed to do Scream 2.
Yeah, I really enjoy playing Gale Weathers. She's larger than life; she's a real witch. It's fun just creating the look--the lip gloss, the blond hair, the clothes. But if Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original, weren't involved, and if David Arquette and Neve Campbell weren't coming back, I wouldn't have agreed to do the sequel.

Between Scream and Ace Ventura, you've had some real success at the box office. But movies featuring the other Friends haven't fared nearly so well. Why do you think that is?
The problem is how they sell the things. I think The Pallbearer [with David Schwimmer] was a great movie; it just wasn't marketed right. And Jennifer was wonderful in She's the One--that definitely didn't hurt her. Lisa's playing a totally different character in the movie she's got going. I really think everybody's doing great.

And you still enjoy doing the show after three-plus years?
Definitely. There are still challenges, because Monica keeps growing. She's getting really quirky and weird, and I like that. It makes it interesting.

Is the Friends cast really thistight on and off the set?
As boring as it may sound, we just totally dig each other. But we have our own lives. We don't see each other every night after work like people think. The girls see each other some, and the guys just went to Europe together. But we mainly just get along. Like I said, it's boring.

It certainly wasn't boring when you all decided to ask for substantial salary increases in unison last summer. It had the whole Industry buzzing.
It wasn't like a holdout or a holdup. Every show renegotiates; I don't know why people got so interested in talking about, "Oh, look what they're doing!" There's not a show that goes on the air that this doesn't happen with--especially when the show becomes a hit. The third season is always the time when you renegotiate. There were never any hard feelings between the producers and the actors. It's just business.

And it worked. You're all signed through the year 2000, and your salaries are supposed to hit $120,000 per episode by then. What can you say about it?
Just that I think everybody came to a great agreement.

Well, you are valuable commodities. The show's still in the Nielsen top five, and for a while there, you couldn't look at a magazine rack without seeing one of the cast members staring back.
I don't think you'll be seeing us on that many magazine covers now, except when we're doing something separate from Friends. People probably were watching this year and wondering if the hype was bigger than the show, and I think we've proven that it's not. But yes, there's been a backlash against Friends. People are tired of seeing us everywhere they look. But that wasn't always our choice, either. There are a lot of people controlling what we do. The thing is, the writers on our show and the producers have such high standards that the work comes first and the other stuff is secondary. And we've tried to really pull back on all that other stuff.

Such massive celebrity must have quite an impact in real life.
I gotta tell ya, I don't really notice anything different in my life, unless I go outside of New York or L.A. Then I really realize, "Wow, this show is popular." Maybe I can get a doctor's appointment faster or get into a restaurant easier, but other than that, I don't feel like my life has really changed. It's opened up a lot of work opportunities, and, financially, it's great. Now I can fix up my house the way I want to, as opposed to the way I know how to but don't necessarily want to. But I don't feel any different, really.

Can you still function normally in public?
Oh yeah. People look, but that's all right, I don't care. They can sneer, they can criticize, whatever; I don't even notice. My friends who are with me notice a lot more than I do.

©2001 Absolutely Arquette