It’s a sunny afternoon when Cox, 57, sits down to talk to Parade in a plain gray T-shirt, hair casually pulled back into a low ponytail, a lush view of hills out the windows behind her and a glass of freshly prepared watermelon juice in her hand. By the sound of it, sitting still like this is rare for the actress, who lives with her daughter, Coco, 17 (her child with her ex-husband DavidArquette), and has been dating songwriter and Snow Patrol guitarist JohnnyMcDaid for the past eight years. Since Cox began acting four decades ago, she has starred in the global hit sitcom Friends as well as in Dirt, Cougar Town and all the movies in the Scream franchise. She recently produced three seasons of the Facebook Watch docuseries 9 Months With Courteney Cox, which was nominated for a Daytime Emmy last year. And she’ll soon be releasing her own line of home beauty products and starring in two new projects that—funny, for a woman best known for comedy—both happen to be in the horror genre. We’ll first see Cox in Scream (in theaters Jan. 14), a reimagining of the original, which revitalized the sagging slasher genre when it was released in 1996. “We’re not making the fifth of something,” says Cox. “This is an absolute, brand-new relaunch of the franchise”—a meta take on the four prior films, with some fresh faces and the return of some “legacy” cast. Along with two other original Scream stars—NeveCampbell as Sidney Prescott and Arquette as Dewey Riley—Cox reprises her role as news reporter Gale Weathers, who is now “a little less campy,” she says. “I think she’s also happier in some ways. She’s more legit now. She has a more serious job.” This time, instead of DrewBarrymore answering a phone call from a terrifying stranger in the first scene, the film opens with actress JennaOrtega (Yes Day) answering the call, as the Ghostface killer in Woodsboro begins slashing at the next generation of high school friends—played by MelissaBarerra (In the Heights), MikeyMadison (Better Things), DylanMinnette (13 Reasons Why), JasminSavoyBrown (The Leftovers) and a couple of famous kin: DennisQuaid and MegRyan’s son, JackQuaid (The Boys), and Cuba Gooding Jr.’s son MasonGooding (Booksmart). Cox and her original co-stars are so comfortable in their roles, “I think we were sillier on set,” says Cox of the new project, filmed without horror pioneer WesCraven, who directed the first four movies and died in 2015 of brain cancer at age 76. “It was such an emotional thing to come back,” she says, “and I had the same feeling when I walked on the set of Friends [for the reunion]. I got really teary-eyed then too.” But it was clear to her that Scream’s new directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, were bringing the same passion, while the new cast brought fresh energy. “They’re all top-notch actors who were so excited to be there, and no complaining over the sticky [special-effects] blood,” she says with a laugh. The result is a movie she feels would make the original proud: “It’s nuanced, and it’s funny, and you have no idea who the killer is.” This winter, Cox also will be back on the small screen in the half-hour horror-comedy Shining Vale (March 6 on Starz), by Catastrophe’sSharonHorgan and Trial & Error’s JeffAstrof. She plays Pat Phelps, a now-sober writer of one famously raunchy book 17 years earlier (“a feminist empowerment story,” her character claims) who’s having marital issues with her husband, Terry (GregKinnear). In an effort to start fresh, Pat and Terry move from their Brooklyn home with their two teenagers (GusBirney and DylanGage) to a large, creepy house in the suburbs, where Pat is the only person in the family who sees the ghosts haunting it. (The cast also includes SherilynFenn, MiraSorvino and Judith Light.) And since her own mother began feeling the effects of schizophrenia around the same age, Pat can’t tell if she’s mentally ill—or possessed. It’s a meaty story Cox couldn’t resist. “Mental health, menopause, possession, depression, marriage, infidelity, raising a teenager—all of it,” she says. “It packs a big punch. They call it a horror-comedy, but some of my best scenes I’ve ever had in my whole life are in this half-hour show.” Cox relishes the complexity of her character, which lets her push herself in ways she never has before. “I think I worked harder on this part than I ever have. I love this job, I really love it. I’ve never felt this fulfilled as an actor before. How lucky to have this, at this point. I’m so happy.”
Dancing With the Boss
Cox, the youngest of four, was raised in Birmingham, Alabama, in an area she only now appreciates for its rolling hills and beautiful countryside. When she was 10, her parents divorced, and her father moved away. And as her older brother and two older sisters began moving out, she grew even closer with her mother, who became her best friend. “Man, she was a great mom,” says Cox, who shared all the gritty details of her teenage life with her mother. “I didn’t want to sneak and go behind her back. Whatever trouble I got into, I wanted her to know so we could have a really close relationship—because when your parents get divorced, you want that.” Her father, Richard, installed swimming pools in Florida; Cox recalls that her mother, also named Courteney, answered phones at a psychiatric office and “worked at, like, a Stein Mart, and then I think she got fired because she wanted to play bridge or something.” She was simply not a career woman, Cox says. “There was no part of her that was a go-getter. She was a Southern, sweet, sweet woman. I’m the opposite of my mom in that way. I was always really a workaholic.” At 13, Cox got a job selling candy to raise money for a foundation. In high school, she worked at a pool store. And at summer camp, she took to the stage, once playing Anna in The King and I. But Cox didn’t realize she could build a career as an actress until she got an agent in New York. There, she modeled, booked a commercial for Tampax, played a debutante named Bunny on As the World Turns and nabbed the part that launched her career. It was 1984 when Cox was famously cast to be pulled onstage to dance with BruceSpringsteen during a live concert for his “Dancing in the Dark” video—which, in a small sign of her scream-queen career to come, was directed by BrianDe Palma, who was behind the horror hit Carrie. There were tons of girls at the audition, recalls Cox, “stretching and…dancers! And I was like, ‘Ohhh, I’m not in the right place.’” When De Palma asked her to dance in his office, “I got so embarrassed,” she says, “because I love to dance, but, like, freestyle.” She was cast with two other girls—but only one would be getting onstage in Saint Paul, Minnesota, for the concert. The day or so before, she met the Boss for the first time with De Palma. “I remember they both had the flu, or had colds, and they weren’t feeling great,” she recalls. And when one of them said, ‘OK, so when Courteney goes up onstage,’ I went, ‘Oh, what?!’” And she’s remained on the world’s stage ever since.
From Family Ties to Friends
Cox began making guest appearances on TV shows like The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote and, in 1987, landed the role of Michael J. Fox’s girlfriend on Family Ties. “That was probably the first time I really felt like, ‘Whoa, I got lost in the character and not in my head,’” remembers Cox, who soaked up all she could watching the young Back to the Future star. Seven years later, she was starring on her own hit show: the sitcom Friends. She was famously asked to audition for the role of Rachel, but she related so much more to the character of Monica (“I’m not competitive like Monica, but I definitely am someone that people tell their problems to,” she says), and the other characters felt like too much of a stretch. “It would have been challenging to play Rachel—and I don’t think I could play Phoebe.” Over 10 beloved seasons with her co-stars JenniferAniston, LisaKudrow, MatthewPerry, MattLeBlanc and DavidSchwimmer, she enjoyed the surprises in the story lines, like having no idea her character would end up with Chandler. “That was really a turn,” she says. “It just gave me a whole new thing to play!” And she cherishes the impact the show has had, how much it continues to mean to fans. “I still, all the time, get asked to do videos for someone who’s going through a hard time, whether it’s literally on their last leg of their own life or they just lost someone. I’m so thankful I was part of a show that really can lift people’s spirits and get them through hard times.” Cox has continued working in TV—starring on two seasons of the drama Dirt, six seasons of the fan-favorite comedy Cougar Town and now on to Shining Vale—and appreciates the opportunity television provides in developing a story and a character. “There’s always a new chance,” she says. “Getting the ability to do it again—but not do the same thing again.” In many ways, this is what Cox seems to like about life too: mixing it up as much as she can. She jokes about how many home-design styles she’s gone through over the years, from modern to country to Gothic to French. “I get bored so quickly that I just change,” she says. And she does the same with her time. “The thing that I really am happy about in life is that I have a lot of hobbies. I love to play tennis, I love to play the piano, I love to cook, I love design, I love to act, I love clothes, I love to have a dance party. I just have so many passions in life.” And the pandemic only magnified them. For one thing, she learned to appreciate a clean, organized home so much that she’s launching her own product line, Homecourt, an upscale, direct-to-consumer brand of “beauty products for the home,” like dish soap, candles and counter spray. And she now cooks about four nights a week for herself and her daughter. Cox’s relationship with Coco, a senior in high school, mirrors the close one she had with her own mother: “She says to me, ‘Mom, no one tells their mother things like I tell you.’ And it’s true! She knows she can trust me. I love our friendship in that way.” Coco is truly a combination of both of her parents. She’s sensitive and a good friend, “and I think people rely on her, which is a lot like me,” Cox says, and she’s also “eccentric and quirky, like her father—they’re very artistic.” Coco often appears on her mother’s Instagram singing to Cox’s piano accompaniment. One of Cox’s other hobbies: hosting star-studded music nights on Sundays at her home. This is how she met McDaid, when her singer-songwriter friend EdSheeran invited him over. “I just remember thinking, Oh, that guy is handsome, and look at those eyes!” she recalls. “We ended up having a date, like, three weeks later.” They’ve now been together eight years. “You would think that having a musician that travels would be annoying, but I actually love it!” says Cox. “I love music.” Which is why, more and more, she’s made music a part of her life—and why she began taking piano lessons as an adult. The hardest part about learning piano? “When Elton John comes to your house, and you have to play ‘Tiny Dancer,’ and he’s sitting next to you, and you just learned it maybe 30 minutes before he came over,” she says with a laugh. That visit by Sir Elton was orchestrated by Sheeran, who was staying with her at the time, Cox recalls, and asked, “‘Is it all right if I have Elton over for dinner?’ and I’m like, ‘What?! Yes, it is OK! My God!’ That was a thrill of my lifetime.” They also were joined that night by singer BrandiCarlile, whose video “Right on Time” was directed by Cox last summer. Cox had directed before (including the 2014 comedy Just Before I Go and 12 episodes of Cougar Town), so when she had an idea for Carlile’s song, she pitched it to her. “I acted it out, because I’m very visual,” she says. It was about “how we have our own boundaries that we put upon ourselves. How we think we can’t do something, and we just need to try.” It’s an idea close to her own heart. Since the day she moved out of her mother’s home to follow her dreams in New York, Cox has been working on being more confident and less worried. “I’d say these last three years have been much more of a learning thing than any other time in my life.” Which is why her goals now are to do what she loves, let go of what she doesn’t and keep taking risks. The word she’d use to describe her life right now? “Possible,” she says. “There are so many possibilities right now that, I don’t know, I just feel like nothing’s written in stone.”
The Cox File
On my nightstand: “A little silver box that this friend of mine—he passed away—gave me that holds silicone earplugs. If I don’t have earplugs, I don’t sleep. If I don’t have a nightguard, I don’t sleep—but that’s not next to my bed. The earplugs are key. I have a lamp, earplugs, a remote for the blinds that go up and down. And some blue light readers [glasses].” Books I’m reading: “I buy books all the time. Brandi Carlile’s [Broken Horses] is a good book. JimmyCarr’s [Before & Laughter]—he’s a friend; he’s really funny and insightful. I’m reading a book about how to prevent and help reverse Alzheimer’s. So interesting. My mom had dementia.” Must-have on a flight: “My Duxiana travel pillow, which I sleep with every night in my bed.” Typical Sunday morning: “I really like Sundays. Just get up, feed the dogs, make some coffee, play tennis and have people over.” Last bone I broke: “My wrist. Nine years ago. I fell.” In my Google history: “What’s more hydrating, celery juice or watermelon juice? I was one of those celery juice fanatics. For two years straight, no matter where I was, no matter where I went, I drank celery juice. I don’t care if I was in Ireland…I bought a juicer and just made it wherever I went. First day I’m doing this [watermelon juice].” Scared of: “Everything. I’m the biggest chicken in the world. Let’s say I’m with my dogs and Coco, and the dog might find a little lizard or bird—I’m, ‘Oh, my God, Coco!’ She’s like, ‘Mom, this is so pathetic.’ Everything scares me, and yet I enjoy it. I get a thrill out of it.” Movies I’ve watched the most: “The Way We Were to Kramer vs. Kramer to Rosemary’s Baby.” Favorite season: “Fall, because it’s sunny, but clear and cool.” First celebrity crush: “Any of the Breakfast Club boys.” Multitasking skill: “Taking a piano lesson while cooking.” Guilty food pleasure: “I love chopped tomatoes and cottage cheese with salt and pepper, and I’ll eat the entire container of it. Now that you reminded me, I’ll do it later today.” Famous person I haven’t met but want to: “AnthonyHopkins.” Most inspiring movie line: “‘Shame on you.’ It’s DustinHoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer. It’s not inspiring but real. I just remember going, ‘Whoa, you could have said f–k you, you could have said anything—but ‘Shame on you’ was the most powerful way to walk away from his boss when he got fired.” Favorite Friends episode: “Probably when I asked Chandler to marry me. I just remember it being so emotional. But I love the Thanksgiving episode, and I love when we played football. I loved when we switch apartments, and Rachel and I lost the game. God, there’s so many.” Best risk I’ve ever taken: “Being on Bear Grylls’ show [Running Wild in 2016]; that was a risk. That was terrifying. I’m glad I did it. Listen, had I known…I wouldn’t have done it!” Favorite scary movie: “Rosemary’s Baby. I loved Halloween. I loved the Freddy Krueger movies. I loved Jason and the lake—nothing wrong with a good camp killing! I love character-driven fear.” Sentimental objects: “I wish I had more things from my father. I do have a beautiful bracelet from my mom, and that means a lot to me. I’m becoming a lot more sentimental as I’m getting older.” Next, Watch the Friends Cast Reunite With James Corden at Central Perk
