Courtney Cox covers the latest issue of Marie Claire, in an interview which was conducted during the SAG-AFTRA strike. But it’s okay, because she’s promoting one of her side-gigs. Before now, I did not realize how many celebrities had side-gigs which they will gleefully promote with magazine interviews, but here we are. Cox’s side-gig is Homecourt, which started out as a line of candles but now includes high-end household and cleaning products. In some ways, playing Monica on Friends was a natural fit for Cox, because she really is a clean-freak who loves to deep clean her house. This woman’s natural habitat is knee-deep into a closet reorganization. So, this interview was sort of funny. Some highlights:
She notices everything: “I made this term up, but I feel like I suffer from acute awareness. It’s a pro and a con, but I can’t help but notice everything.”
Letting go of fear: “I used to do a lot of things out of fear, even making connections with people, checking in with people…not taking a chance, a risk. Now, fear doesn’t play nearly as big of a part in my life. I push myself more.”
She’s involved with every detail of Homecourt: “There are a ton of celebrity brands, but I don’t know if all the celebrities that have brands are as involved [as I am]. It’s not something that I’m just getting paid to do; I’m not getting paid. I want it to be perfect. I want it to be the best it can be.”
She loves interior design & seems to have a photographic memory: “I’ve gone through so many different styles. If you [ask me later], ‘what does this room look like?’ I would almost be able to recite every single color, every single thing that I see.”
How she’s made friends: “When I moved to California, I didn’t have any family out here. I was like, I need a community. Where’s the gathering?” Cox took it upon herself to solve the problem. Almost every Sunday for the last 25 years, she has opened her home to new and old friends for casual dinner parties. “People will call and say, ‘Hey, is it okay if I bring three friends?’” Cox says. She’s never said no, even if she would sometimes like to (“I’m not great at that,” she says). Plus, she never knows who she might meet. It was at one of these dinner parties that Cox was introduced to her current partner of 10 years, Johnny McDaid, a musician, who tagged along with his friend and musical collaborator, Ed Sheeran. Other guests have included Taylor Swift, Prince Harry, and Brandi Carlile.
The empty-nester: Her daughter Coco is now in her first semester of college. “I miss that girl every minute,” she says. They FaceTime often; with the dogs too, though “Bear never looks into the camera.” Cox had just visited Coco the week before. “I found myself expecting [to run] into each other’s arms,” she says, laughing. But their reunion wasn’t quite so dramatic. Adds Cox, “I expected her to need more than she does. It’s an adjustment.”
What she says about Coco hit me hard – Coco is an only child of divorced parents, and I’m sure she’s going through it in her own way, being away from her mom. She just can’t show Courteney that! It’s tough being an only child, especially the first year away at college. As for Homecourt, I’m sure Courteney is saying everything with perfect sincerity, but literally every celebrity with their own side-gig or brand cites “I’m in charge of packaging” as an example of how “involved” they are. Courteney is like “no really, the packaging is based on this and this, that shows how involved I am!” They all do that. But I buy that Cox is very involved.
Cover & IG courtesy of Marie Claire.
Sorry but if she were hyper aware or whatever she calls it, she would have noticed how she was contorting her face with whatever she was doing.
On the nice side, I love that outfit in the last pic.
She’s actually talked about that. So yes – she did notice.
I think she looks a lot better than she used to. I don’t think we need to constantly bring a woman down for anything she decides to try regarding maintenance or plastic surgery
Yup. She actually talked about how she realized she was doing too much and it was changing the shape of her face. So she stopped getting fillers in certain areas.
I have no issue, none what-so-ever, with people having work done. But when the person’s face or body becomes void of it’s human side and/or morphs into something cartoonish (Kim K) – then there is a problem.
We comment on Kim K and her sisters and DoC – scrutiny falls on all.
Lastly, I get it – aging is not for the weak of heart especially for actresses but Courtney became unrecognizable.
@Seraphina – “aging is not for the weak of heart”. What a silly thing to say.
The noticing is probably WHY she went for plastic surgery in the first place. And..that’s kinda an awful thing to say.
Noticing is what got her to start tweaking her face but she also went too far – IMO.
I don’t it’s “awful” to call her out or to say, things much worse have been said of other celebs.
Look at Martha Stewart and how she looks. Hardly recognizable. We need to stop trying to normalize morphed faces due to trying to look younger. It’s unrealistic and sets us women up for failure – and men too. Lastly, sends a negative message to younger generations about the ageing process and our acceptance of it.
Except Courteney Cox has always been beautiful. She had great face card until..
I don’t know what happened in CC’s life that made her insecure in her looks. It wasn’t being a self aware person. Self aware is someone like Lauren Hutton who was pressured to have her tooth gap fixed and gave a finger signal to those who suggested otherwise.
No matter what she talks about, the first thing people always complain about is that she had plastic surgery. We know. She knows. She’s talked about it plenty. Is it that interesting that it has to be constantly commented on? I’m guilty of it too, I’m sure, but I’m getting tired of it. It’s just not that important, is it?
No it isnt, I think we forget, they are just guys and girls, just like us- only under a microscope. Someone said its like going to your High School reunion only instead of every 10 years its every day. And theres always someone there thats gonna notice and comment on those extra 10 lbs or the few greys etc. I dont think Id make it as a famous person, I couldnt take all the scutiny.
The problem is she has enough money to never have to work again. She could dissappear to another state and not have photos taken of her all the time. Yet here she is. On the cover of a magazine. That is her choice to do that. So yeah it should be okay to comment on her looks. Because she is putting herself out there so we can.
It’s a real thing, called hyper-vigilence and yes, it is closely linked with OCD, including acute attention to detail and strong autobiographical memory. It definitely has it’s positives (particularly in your work life) but also exhausting, and at times, a pain and unhealthy.
Regarding her face / excessive work done, it might me a form of body dysmorphia.
And no, there’s no such thing as Type A. It was a term invented by the cigarette industry as a marketing strategy to blame the health risk of smoking on Anxious people instead of the cigarette.
They basically said all the heart attacks, cancer and health issues were not the cigarette’s fault but the other behaviour of a certain type of person who ran around doing too much – and anxious person. And that if they only learned to slow down and chill, they wouldn’t be getting sick and dying.
They also encouraged Anxious people to take up smoking as it could HELP them avoid these health issues, because smoking would force you to slow down, take a break and relax. Of course, it was all a scam, cigarettes kill people and theres no such thing as Type A, as defined by the ‘studies’ done by the tobacco industry.
I think some of the side gigs is that these are very type A people and need to be doing something all the time.
I think so too, but I also think a lot of them know that acting isn’t always forever, especially for women, and it’s nice to have something else, especially something they have some control over.
A lot of actresses get bored waiting for roles that’s why they start production companies or side gigs bc they’ll (sadly) age out too.
I heard Courtney is a really good home renovator/decorator so this was an extension of that. She flipped houses (for money) before hitting it big with Friends and kept at it.
I don’t know if I would call it hyper awareness, but I am constantly scanning people’s faces as we walk by to see if I know them. It caused friction in my marriage until I figured out what I was doing because my husband thought I was checking out other men (he didn’t seem to notice that I did it with women too). Because of this, I have noticed that so many people look like alike in this world. I’m constantly asking my husband if he noticed that C looks a lot like Y, and he always replies that he doesn’t see a resemblance.
You might have a bit of faceblindness.
I bought the Homecourt products in the scent of CeCe. Can’t attest to the functionality, but the scent is lovely. Only the hand lotion remains, and its held its scent well in over a year.
Coco isn’t an only child – she is Courteney’s only child.
It’s called anxiety.
What does she mean by “I’m not getting paid”?
Meaning she doesn’t take a salary from the company.
Not sure of exactly what she is referring to as her ‘acute awareness’. But she could mean hypervigilance–which I have, and is typically a symptom of PTSD and/or anxiety disorders. Or, she could just be a detail-oriented person. Either way, it’s so mentally exhausting, and I empathize.
Dabbler in astrology here. I think, from memory, she’s Sun in Gemini and Moon in Virgo – two of the more mercurial, perceptive, or neurotic signs in the zodiac. (We’re born with certain traits due to thousand of years of invested belief, energy, and thought in astrology but we can always change these since we create our own realities.)
Her neuroticism is probably why she’s obssessed with tweaking her face. I imagine that every time she looks in the mirror, she’s very hard on herself and notices every single line instead of being wowed by her amazing eyes (which I am for her).
Possible solutions:
(1) I would get her to meditate. People like her will probably go, “I just can’t sit still; nothing more horrible than the idea of meditating” – and these are the exact people who need to meditate. Helps their constant narrow focus on problems, things, objects, people, and the physical reality to a more divergent focus that allows their brains to go into deep, relaxed states. It can really change your personality.
(2) Just learn to love your body for what it is, Courtney. Stop being so hard on yourself and trying to be perfect.
She’s going to end up like Jocelyn Wilderstein or whatever if not.