The following interviews are from 1998-1999.
Enjoy!
A Friend Indeed-From Hot Press/1998
The nineties - defining brunette bombshell, Courteney Cox has shot like a rocket to the top of the Hollywood ladder on the back of Friends' phenomenal popularity, and in common with fellow ensemble wisecrackers Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston, is sensibly pursuing a movie career as a spin-off.Unlike her co-stars, whose choice in scripts indicates their deep Reluctance to brake out of lightweight comedy mode, Courteney has actually been involved in a truly excellent movie-Wes Craven's masterful 1996 suspense chiller Scream, in which she conjured up a memorable (if sadly short-lived) performance as ruthless, ultra-manipulative superbitch journalist Gail Weathers. By popular demand, Craven and his scriptwriter Kevin Williamson have issued a sequel. Scream 2 re-unites the survivors of the original, with Boogie Nights' Heater Graham and The Nutty Professor's Jada Pinkett joining in the fun. Cox's role is expanded in the film, which otherwise promises more of the same: a clever and consciously clich´-ridden blend of parody and homage, suffused throughout with unsheathed knives, trembling teenagers, piercing screams, copious blood-letting, and enough sly humour to keep you grinning from ear to ear. The original's success (it scooped over at the box office in the US alone) took everyone involved by surprise, but this one is a surefire box-office banker, and a third instalment will probably follow. Whether or not the film career takes off, however, Cox is hardly in dire need of extra exposure or more money, Friends having secured her position as one of the most popular and recognizable TV faces of her generation. Either way, the 33-year-old Alabama native refuses to accept that she's quite reached the peak of her powers: "I feel that, like, here's the prime, the top (waves her hand her head) and I'm right here ," she says sadly, with a lower wave of her hand, before reflecting on the consolations. "But I'm figuring myself out, I think my career is getting much better. I think I will be allowed a lot of opportunities that I haven't in the past .I think I'm ready for them. I probably wasn't before. Exuding self-confidence by the bucketload, Courteney Cox is absolutely nothing like the neurotic Monica Geller persona she essays on "Friends"-and despite her obvious ambitious nature, she bears even less resemblance to her unforgettably hard-headed "Scream" character. "I am pretty tough, but I think I'm a lot nicer that she is. I'm not as ruthless. I'm not manipulative," she testifies, before mischievously adding "I'm just very straightforward." Her steel-blue eyes twinkle. "Seriously I'm not ruthless about my career at all, the way she is," she adds. "I'm tough when I have a job, not before. And I think I'm a little more easygoing than Monica is. I'm probably a little tougher. I'm not neat; I'm pretty organized, but not as compulsive as she is." Cox makes no apologies whatsoever for her business acumen, proudly explaining that "when I made 'Scream', I was the only one in the cast who would't sign a clause in the contract promising to do a sequel for the same price. As a result, when Wes decided to do "Scream 2", my agent was able to get me a nice salary increase." Courteney grins broadly at the recollection of this little coup, virtually licking her lips at the phrase "salary increase". The character of Gail Weathers is a vicious parody of the stereotype "National Enquirer"-type journalism, and Cox freely confesses her loathing for the breed: "I've met those people. I have, actually, met people that come into your life and try to get information in a manipulative way. It's a blast playing her, though. The character was written that way in the very beginning, and as far this movie goes, she's now a producer. She has money, so she's even more bitchy. I just think it's a really fun thing to play. I just love Gail. Love her; she's really funny. I think she's a great character and I wouldn't trade her for the world." Wes Craven says you're a lot like her. "He did?" He said you're tough, and that no woman in this business can afford not to be. Is that sexist statement? "I don't if that's true. I think that there are a lot of woman out there that aren't though, that are really vulnerable and get really affected by this business-but are great actresses because they can show their emotions. That's that." Is ruthlessness an essential part of every actor's make-up? "No. I don't think so. I think a lot of it has to do with luck and timing-and, obviously, talent." When did you decide this was your calling? "I Kind of fell into it. (Pause) I just moved to New York and started doing it. And it worked. When you live in Alabama, it's not something that you think of as an option. There is no other actors in my family. But than when I started doing it, I was like 'Oh, I really like this'. Then when I decided I knew what I was doing was probably after 'Family Ties'. About a year after that, I went 'Okey, I get what I'm doing here'."
What was the most enjoyable thing about making "Scream 2"?
"Well, I love Wes Craven, I think he's one of my favourite people. He's so talented, he's so smart, he gives you so much freedom-yet he reins you in when you go too far. See, I'm very detail-oriented... I'm just very particular. I like to know why I'm doing something. I need to justify my movement: I won't just go 'okay, I'll do it'. I'll say: 'You've got to give me a reason for stepping over this dead body, it might look stupid', or 'You explain to me why the hell you think Gail would actually walk over there and not walk into the house first', whatever it might be. And he will always come up with a reason to justify everything, he's just so smart. And we have a battle over it, y'know? But fun battles. I challenge him and than he challenges me." And he had to pull you back? "No. There is one scene, but this was not going too far as an actress-this way actually physically going too far. I kept saying to him I wanted to go ahead and get to the crime scene-I don't think Gail would stop for anything-and he kept saying 'Courteney, look at your mark', I'd say 'Wes, I've gotta get there', 'No, no, you don't'. He usually likes to make you go further, but I think maybe he was worried or something." The set of the original "Scream" was renowned for it's sociable, easygoing atmosphere, with tales of all-night bar binges after hours. Wes there a conscious effort to try to recreate that atmosphere for the sequel? "I don't think it was conscious. Wes interviews every single person that's gonna be on the movie set, from the assistant wardrobe person up, and he creates such an atmosphere that everyone's really relaxed. There was never any pressure. It was just like going on a big family vacation. We were just all very good friends and we hung out. And not just the cast, I mean the entire crew. It's the nicest crew I've ever worked with." Were you one of the ringleaders? "I was a little bit more of a hang-out person in the first "Scream" because I realized I was the oldest person in the movie. And I was like 'All right. I'm gonna hang out with the rest of them', We were doing a lot of nights than, and we were swimming at five in the morning and being kind of crazy. But on this movie, I was a little more subdued I had my whole family there. So I would fine my self hanging out with them a lot more. But there was always late-night pool playing, in the lobby of the hotel. Even Wes. I'd say 'Wes, you have to go to bed. You've got to be our leader now'. (laughs) I came home and bought a pool table." Did any part of the movie disturb you at all , give you strange dreams or anything? "No. Never . Not at all. (laughs) 'Cause I usually knew who the killer was, and he was my friend, and we'd probably come from lunch. It's really funny-when you're doing it, it doesn't scare you at all. But when you watch it, it does. Isn't that strange? I'd watch it, and if I knew a nasty scene was coming, I'd keep my head long enough to miss it. And then I'd turn back, and then there's something else. I'd be almost screaming 'Wes! Give me a brake!'." Were you not looking around the corners in your house, or double-checking the shower? "In the first one I was a little scared the house we were filming in was really scary. It was on top of a hill, and it looked out over a valley, and all the shoots were at night. So it was a little freaky." Were you a fan of slasher-movies as a teenager ? "I loved to be scared. Halloween is my favourite holiday of the year, I love being scared. I love being chased even by my brother. I just think that stuff is fun." What was the toughest scene in the film? "My toughest scene was the scene with Dewey, when I was picking up the bag of videotapes. That was the toughest, just because I wasn't really ready for Gail to be that vulnerable. Courteney wasn't ready. I was ready to keep going with the other stuff. And to make that shift-that was a battle for me, internally." Did you have any idea the original would as enormously popular as it did? "I had no idea it was even going to be a hit. But I can tell you this: immediately I read the script, I wanted to do it there and then. I hadn't even gotten to my character by the time I thought 'this is a great movie'. I was really excited, sitting there with my mouth open going 'this is just great. It's been so long since there's been a really good, scary movie'. I knew it was going to be good, but big... I don't know box-office stuff. Matthew Perry knows box-office-I don't. Before you read the script for the sequel, were you at all Apprehensive about being killed off? "No, they told me." Had you the choice to make the film, or were you signed along with the first one? "Oh, I had the choice. The script was written-I don't know what they were going to do if I didn't go for it. Wes and Kevin basically made me say 'yes' again. I hadn't even seen the script when I was negotiating my deal. I'd just heard a little bit of the story. And Kevin's such a great guy. He's so enthusiastic when he talks about your character, he makes it sound so great that you just believe him." What's the key to a good movie scream? "Don't hold back. Just scream as loud as you can and don't worry about how embarrassed you might feel afterwards at the fact that you're screaming at nothing." What difference has "Scream" made to her careerwise? "I can't tell," she shrugs, "I think because it happened so quickly. I think that if anything, I'll feel it more after this one than the first one, and I could be totally wrong. Like 'Ace Ventura', it happened so fast and people weren't expecting it. This time, people are looking for it." Have you been getting a load of script sent to you lately? "I don't know what you'd call loads. Your agents always give you tons of scripts-they want to make you fell important. But I don't know how much you're actually going to get out of it. There is one thing I really want to do next. If it works out. It's a comedy." If you carved out an A-list movie career for yourself, would you knock the television work on the head? "I would stay with the show for as long as it works. Definitely for two more years. There's no reason not to do that. Because we have time to do other things. Working on "Friends" allows you to have a normal life. It really does. And it's terrific. There's no reason to leave it." How about a "Scream 3", if it materialises? "If Wes and Kevin did it. But also, if Gail has the umph that she's had so far. If there were something to play like that. I wouldn't want to just be chased. If they keep the spice in her, than absolutely." No holidays this year than, I presume. (grinning) "Well, I'd rather be busy than board. I like to keep myself busy 24 hours a day. Maybe it's healthy, maybe not. I can't decide." Although a magazine poll last year revealed Cox/Monica to be the least popular of the "Friends" ensemble-reportedly to her intense annoyance-the show's producers say she's the glue that holds the show together. Is this the case? "Well I'm one of the oldest Friends. Lisa and I are the oldest Friends, so I think that certain things people come to me for, and certain things they don't. It depends on what the topic is. A lot of people call me the mother, and that's not true either. So I don't think I'm the glue. I think what they meant by that is that at the beginning of the show, I'm the reason that everybody knows everybody."
There is no great mystery attached to the success of "Friends": it's extremely easy on the eye, a given episode is guaranteed to spill forth and amount of brilliant one-liners, and they really are quite a likeable lot. Courteney Cox attributes the show's appeal partly to the quality of the writers, and partly to the uncanny chemistry its six key actors manage to generate: "These are six people that really, really get along. In real life. We have amazing writers, but on top of that , the chemistry just works." Has being on the show restricted your life in other ways? "No, I don't feel that way at all. I mean, I might not be able to visit the Midwest and go into a mall, but nothing that you'd notice, there's no problems. I don't know, I hear people talk about that kind of stuff all the time, and I don't get it. If anything, it allows me to have freedom. I get to go to a restaurant that I want to go to, and call at the last minute. There are kind of nice perks about the whole thing. "People that complain a lot about fame. I don't really understand, unless it starts to hurt you personally or it hurts your family. But as far as signing autographs, who cares? Yeah, you sign some autographs and maybe people might whisper, but I'm kind of oblivious to that. I don't even notice people noticing me. First of all, I really can't see that wall, and I don't wear contacts, because I hat them. When the sun goes down. I take my sunglasses off and I don't think of putting my glasses on, so I miss a lot of stuff. And also, I've got blinkers on anyway, When I need to go someplace, I don't stroll. I walk, fast. (laughs) So there's a lot of things in life i miss out on." Does the non-stop attention make going out with people a shade trickier? "That part's a drag. Because you can't just go out with somebody, like, 'Let's check this out', without having everyone write about it, and then you feel pressured. It puts a lot of pressure on a relationship . Or you can have a friend, you can go out with someone who's a cute friend, but you might also be seeing someone else, and now you've gotta brake up with that one, because they've heard about the other one. There's no freedom in that. That part is a total drag." Cox is currently single, after the termination of her six-year relationship with Michael Keaton, and is increasingly fond of staying in at home: "I don't that much really". Courteney Cox, remarkably, fails to notice anything special about her physical appearance, lamenting that 'my nostrils are two different sizes, so are my eyes. One is smaller than the other. I have a lot of freckles, that all-American thing." Is the atmosphere around "Friends" still the same as it was? "If anything, we're more particular. We want it to get better and better and better. Kind of get past the backlash that we had." Do people tend to assume that the cast are all friends offscreen? "Well, that part is true. We really do hang out, like the girls really hang out a lot; the guys hang out with each other more than we hang out with them. We're all good friends." The entire cast of "Friends" seem to be in the process of conquering Hollywood. Do they all deserve it? "Oh yeah, I think that all of them picked really good movies-Matthew's, Jennifer's and Lisa's. And David's got three movies that he did over the summer. Matt LeBlanc has "Lost in Space" coming out. So I think everybody's getting good stuff. I don't know how the timing works." A devout dog-lover, Courteney Cox counts an Alsatian and a border collie called Rags among her closest companions. She enjoys cooking, throwing parties, buying and selling houses for a profit, and playing the drums, with time enough to fit in a few power-yoga classes on the side. She lists body-piercing and irresponsible people as her two especial pet hates. "My father is the kind of man who would rather have fun, then worry about the bills later. That's probably why my parents got divorced. I don't think that there was security for my mother. As a result, I'm very conservative. I take care of myself, always have." Any regrets, careerwise? "None at all." Not even your 'breakthrough' Tampax ad? (Turning several shades of scarlet) "I cringe when people remember that I was the first actor to say the word 'period' on television and not mean a punctuation mark!" I guess we all have our problems, eh?
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Courteney and David-Married 1999
Friends stars Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow were getting antsy. Minutes before 6 p.m. on June 12, they stood at the entrance of San Francisco's Ritz-Carlton hotel, waiting for the limousine that was to whisk them and four pals to nearby Grace Cathedral, the historic church high atop Nob Hill. There, on that cool, breezy evening, their friend and costar Courteney Cox was marrying actor David Arquette. But the limo, one of a fleet of cars shuttling A-list guests to the church, was stalled in traffic. Cooling his heels in the hotel lobby was Saturday Night Live alum Jon Lovitz, who was supposed to be sharing a ride with Friends vixen Jennifer Aniston and her beau, some guy named Brad Pitt. They, too, were running late. But somehow they and Lovitz made it to the church on time, as did Friends stars David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc. And, of course, Perry and Kudrow. Just before their own limo pulled up, two paparazzi, alerted to the festivities, began shooting them from across the street. Perry turned away and then cracked, "I wonder if Courteney's getting top billing."
You bet she was. By the time the guests were seated in the stately gothic church, it was clearly the Courteney and David show. Indeed, it would have been hard to upstage a groom decked out in a Valentino-designed morning coat with a gray vest and matching gray suede spats. The age gap between Arquette, 27, and Cox, 35, who met on the set of the 1996 hit horror film Scream, seemed minuscule. "They looked like two little kids looking at each other," recalls one guest, actress Lisa Mordente. In her white satin, three-inch-heel shoes, Courteney walked down the aisle wearing a silk-crepe gown with shiny silk-inlaid embroidered stripes and a 6-foot-long train. Her tulle veil was attached to an ornate silk-flowered headpiece, like the dress itself a one-of-a-kind Valentino creation. She also had on the antique diamond choker that David had given her. Recalls her aunt Ann Cox: "She carried a bouquet of red roses and was beaming the entire walk down the aisle with her father" (Richard Sr., a building contractor). Her mother, Courteney Copeland, divorced from Richard since their daughter was 10, looked on from her seat as Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" filled the cavernous church.
Maybe the groom was amazed too. As he waited for Courteney at the altar, Arquette stood, riveted, beside his father -- and best man -- actor Lewis Arquette. They were flanked by five groomsmen, including Courteney's brother Richard Jr. and Arquette's siblings Alexis and Richmond. In front of their 250 guests, the bride and groom "were so nervous," says Mordente. "They didn't want to screw up their lines!" In the exchange of rings, "David had some trouble getting the ring on her finger," recalls his dad, laughing. "(So) he licked her finger" -- and the ring slid on.
Then, near the end of the 35-minute ceremony, Arquette shattered a wine goblet with his foot, performing a revered Jewish wedding ritual-"since David's mother, who's deceased, was Jewish," explains Rev. Douglas Carpenter, who conducted the service. An Episcopal minister from Courteney's hometown, Birmingham, Ala., Carpenter had also presided at the nuptials of her sister Virginia McFerrin, who was now a bridesmaid, along with Courteney's other sister Dottie Pickett and David's actress sisters Rosanna and Patricia Arquette.
The 1997 death of Mardi Arquette from breast cancer hit her youngest son particularly hard. Cox helped him through his grief, and their relationship deepened. (Cox, as it happens, will play Arquette's therapist in the upcoming comedy The Shrink Is In.) Last September, Arquette proposed to Cox on a Florida beach as fireworks exploded overhead. Soon he was sharing his fiancé's smartly furnished four-bedroom house in Brentwood, Calif.
From the beginning, it struck many as an unlikely attraction of opposites. Cox is a cautious, level-headed woman whose last serious relationship, with actor Michael Keaton, ended in 1995. Arquette, who was previously linked with Ellen Barkin, is best known as Scream's dopey Deputy Dewey and as the wacko pitchman on AT&T spots. "Most people see him in his acting roles, which are sometimes pretty crazy," says Reverend Carpenter, who counseled the couple before the wedding. "But David is a very warm person. He has deep reserves of gentleness."
They were on display when it came time to kiss the bride. Arquette gingerly lifted her veil. Their lips met. Then, says Mordente, "they buried their heads in each other's shoulders and held onto each other for a long time." After Reverend Carpenter introduced "David and Courteney Arquette" to thunderous applause, a gospel group broke into an upbeat tune as the couple danced in place.
The effervescent Cox could have boogied all night. She and Arquette lasted, in fact, till about 1 a.m. at a reception at Bimbo's 365 Club near Fisherman's Wharf, where the bride still wore her wedding gown. A seamstress had tacked up a portion of the floor-length dress after the ceremony, enabling Courteney to kick up her heels to the strains of two different bands. Also on the dance floor were Jennifer and Brad -- "He can move!" one guest marveled -- and Courteney's new sister-in-law Patricia, who tripped the light fantastic with Enzo, her 10-year-old son from a previous relationship. Her husband, Nicolas Cage, was content merely to watch. An embarrassed Aniston, despite her friends' urging, sat out when the bridal bouquet was tossed. David's cousin Edward Goldstein caught Courteney's red-and-black garter, which David had wound up pulling off with his teeth. Everyone dug in on salad, lobster and steak, followed by slices of a multi-tiered wedding cake, as local actors impersonating such stars as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and Laurel and Hardy entertained at each table. Before the evening was over (the couple had to delay their honeymoon to start shooting Scream 3 a few days later), a giant padlocked heart and key were brought out. "Courteney was laughing as she explained that she had unlocked the key to David's heart," recalls her aunt Ann. If the groom's heart was racing, it didn't show. "David is the wild, crazy one," says Mordente. But his garter act aside, "he did no over-the-top stuff," she says. "Near the end of the evening, I saw him looking over at her, and he just had this silent beam on his face. You can see how deeply in love they are."
Cox Talks 1999
COX TALKS:
Exercise: "I get so bored! I had a treadmillÖI gave it to my mom. I had a Stair MasterÖgone. I had a recumbent bikeÖI don't know where that is now. So I hate exercise except for Pilates."
Diet: "Jennifer [Aniston] is a big advocate of The Zone, and she looks amazing. It tried it but I didn't get it. I don't like rules."
Makeup: "I love to ask people what their favorite product is, because I'm always looking for how to deal with the thin skin under my eyes, how to tighten it up. Right now I'm using Yonka products; they're the aromatherapy type, and they smell really good. Also when I looked at the label, it said antiaging, so I got it."
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