Courteney Cox says she was hurt being the only ‘Friends’ star not nominated for an Emmy

Courteney Cox became a global star overnight when she landed the role of Monica Geller on Friends. Originally from Alabama, this role brought her immense fame and wealth.

Her acting career was already advancing when she secured her part on Friends. At 57, she had previously starred in a famous music video.

So what did Courteney Cox think of playing Monica? And what is she up to these days? Here is everything you need to know.

For every actor, landing a big role is incredibly exciting. It marks the start of something major. For some, this big break comes in childhood, but others battle for years to get their chance, sometimes not until their 30s or 40s.

Courteney Cox – Friends’ superstar

Once they make that big breakthrough, their careers typically soar. That certainly was the case for Courteney Cox.

The star from Alabama appeared in Bruce Springsteen’s music video for “Dancing in the Dark,” which kickstarted her Hollywood career. Shortly afterward, she was cast as Monica Geller in the iconic sitcom Friends, forever altering her life.

Recently, Courteney Cox has taken on several projects, built a lovely family over the years, and welcomed children.

She has also been vocal about her views on plastic surgery and facelifts, opinions she has completely reversed.

That sums up what you need to know about Courteney “Monica Geller” Cox!

Courteney Cox was born on June 15, 1964, in Birmingham, Alabama. She was the youngest of four siblings, born to parents Courteney and Richard Lewis Cox. Schoolmates teased her for her surname.

“I disliked my last name, but after my dad died, I decided to honor it and keep it going, as no one else in the family would,” she told Howard Stern.

At the age of 10, her parents divorced. She moved in with her mother and later her stepfather, deeply affected by the divorce.

Bruce Springsteen’s music video

In an interview with The Guardian, she recalled her earliest memory—her parents’ divorce. She expressed gratitude for her non-ambitious mother, as it inspired her to adopt a more driven attitude.

Initially, Courteney Cox aimed to become an architect. She enrolled in Mount Vernon College for architecture but left to pursue modeling and working at a music agency in New York City.

Her modeling stint was brief, yet it paved the way for her acting career.

In 1985, at 21, she made her first significant mark, not in a film or modeling job, but in a music video.

Director Brian De Palma selected her for Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” video, filmed at Springsteen’s concert in St. Paul, Minnesota, on June 29, 1984. In the video, she played a devoted fan in the front row.

Toward the video’s end, Springsteen, unaware Cox was a “planted” fan, invited her on stage. They danced as Clarence Clemons played his famous saxophone solo.

First work in television
Reflecting on the experience, Courteney wasn’t pleased with her dancing.

“That was poor dancing on my part,” she remarked. “I’d only redo that as a joke.”

“Dancing In The Dark” was a massive hit on MTV, boosting her visibility. Although she only appeared briefly in the video, it was enough to get noticed. That same year, she starred in the film Misfits of Science, and by two years later, she landed her first significant TV role.

She featured in the popular sitcom Family Ties, and during the early 1990s, she took on several smaller roles, including one in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective with Jim Carrey.

Courteney was well on her way to a promising acting career, but in 1995, something even bigger happened.

At that time, Marta Kauffman and David Crane were developing a new show about six friends in New York. Friends became a reality, and Courteney Cox was cast as the slightly neurotic and highly competitive Monica Geller.

In 1993, Kauffman and Crane began creating the show, which premiered on September 22. From the start, it was destined for success.

Courteney Cox – Monica Geller on ‘Friends’
Friends is now considered one of the greatest sitcoms ever, running for 10 seasons and 236 episodes.

The finale attracted over 50 million American viewers. Courteney Cox, along with Jennifer Aniston as Rachel, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe, Matt LeBlanc as Joey, Matthew Perry as Chandler, and David Schwimmer as Ross, turned into a global sensation through her role.

“Let’s admit it, she’s lovely and smart and really put-together. She is Monica,” Marta Kauffman said in 1995, referring to Cox’s character on the show.

“I adore Monica because she’s mature, and it’s beneficial for viewers to see that, but I can also incorporate more of my own traits into her, and I’ve never had that chance before,” Cox explained. “She can be silly, angry, sarcastic, and a bit naughty. While some see her as the prude of the show, I think she’s more sexually active than the others.”

Interestingly, Courteney found many similarities between herself and her character, including being a “neat freak” in real life, just like Monica on Friends.

“I don’t use a lint brush or iron, but I could easily clean lint off someone else. I remember doing it on The John Stewart Show and realized ‘oh my god, I’m just like Monica. This is too weird,’” she added.

Courteney Cox – net worth & ‘Friends’ salary

Friends became a global phenomenon, and Courteney and her co-stars were well-compensated. In the show’s final seasons, they earned an impressive $1 million per episode.

To this day, 17 years after the show ended, they still receive about $20 million annually just from reruns. This is because they get two percent of the show’s syndication revenue. Netflix reportedly paid $80-$100 million just to keep the show available until 2019.

Currently, Courteney Cox’s net worth is estimated at around $150 million.

Although money can make life easier, there was a painful aspect to her time on Friends. All the other main cast members received an Emmy nomination during the show’s run, except for Courteney Cox.

“Yes, it always hurt my feelings,” Cox told Howard Stern. “When every single cast member was nominated except me, it definitely hurt. I was happy for everyone, but it felt bad to be the only one left out.”

“I want them to win, I just also wanted to be included. I never wanted to detract from anyone else,” she continued. “I just sometimes wanted to be included in certain things. And everyone on the show deserved every [nomination].”

Career after ‘Friends’

Courteney Cox might not have won an Emmy while on Friends, but awards would eventually come her way through her many great performances afterward.

Following Friends, she starred in the sitcom Cougar Town from 2009 to 2015, playing Jules Cobb across 102 episodes, and in 2010, she received a Golden Globe nomination for her role. In 2021, she and her Friends castmates were nominated for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) for the Friends reunion special.

As of today, Courteney Cox continues to work in television. She’s starring in the new series Shining Vale, which is currently in post-production, according to IMDB.

Over the years, Courteney Cox not only became a global star but also a wife and mother.

She married actor David Arquette in 1999, and the couple welcomed their daughter Coco Arquette in 2004.

Family, husband, dating

However, their marriage ended in divorce in 2013, and since then, Cox has been dating musician and record producer Johnny McDaid, known as the singer of the band Snow Patrol.

Over the years, rumors about Courteney Cox undergoing plastic surgery and botox surfaced. In 2017, she confirmed these rumors were true.

In an interview with New Beauty, Cox discussed her experience with fillers, noting how easy it was to get carried away.

“Well, what usually happens is you see a doctor who says, ‘You look great, but you could improve with a little injection here or filler there.’ So you leave, and you don’t look too bad, thinking no one noticed—it’s fine,” Courteney explained.

“Then someone recommends another doctor: ‘This doctor is amazing. They work on someone who looks very natural.’ You meet them, and they suggest, ‘You should just do this.’ The next thing you know, you have layer upon layer of work done. You don’t realize it because it’s gradual until you look in the mirror and think, ‘Oh no, this doesn’t look right.’ And it always looks worse in photos than in real life. I had a friend who finally told me, ‘Enough is enough!’ I thought, ‘But I haven’t done anything in six months; I didn’t realize how it had accumulated.’”

Eventually, Courteney decided the best approach was to accept herself as she is, leading her to dissolve all her fillers.

As a huge celebrity, she can influence others, often without even realizing it. Thus, it’s heartening to see her often appear on Instagram without makeup.

“I’m as natural as possible now. I feel better because I look like myself. I think I now resemble who I was, and I hope others see it too,” she said.

“Things change. Everything sags. I tried to prevent it, which only made me look artificial. You need to allow your face to move, especially if you have thin skin like mine. Those lines are not wrinkles—they’re