Courteney Cox

So many people asked me if I was planning to feature her in her appearance in the “Dancing in the Dark” video. It is where she first came to public attention, after all. And apparently the “Carlton Dance” is supposed to be inspired by the way she dances in that video, being a horrible attempt at it by someone who can’t dance, I guess. But no, it’s not where I think of her first, and she is no doubt fully aware that it’s not where I think of her first. Even though she doesn’t know me. Because she’s got to know that a lot of people are going to remember her from Friends regardless of anything else she’s done or will do.

And honestly? That’s fine. Even though she has a long, impressive career beyond that. She is believed to have been the first person to say “period” in an American television commercial, when she did a 1985 Tampax commercial. She was Alex P. Keaton’s girlfriend, who as I recall was killed by a drunk driver on a Very Special Episode, though I could be wrong. Post-Friends, she’s done a lot. She’s the only actress to have appeared in all of the Scream movies. She’s starred in other things and directed and generally kept on going.

Monica is probably the female Friends character I most resemble, though I don’t have her obsessive cleanliness. She’s smart and creative in her way and awkward socially. She knows her parents favour her brother over her, and it bothers her even when she tries to pretend it doesn’t. She finds long-term love with a friend, and she’s surly and sarcastic by turns as the moment demands. We could never live together—she’d kill me based on how our styles are—but I understand her in a way I’m not sure I understand the rest of them.

A thing that’s worth noting is that Cox has long preferred to portray an array of characters. They didn’t want to cast her in Scream because they didn’t think she’d be successful as a nasty, unpleasant character. (I think she gets toned down in later movies.) But there’s a lot of different types she’s capable of, and I think she’d be an interesting choice in a really meaty role. I’m not saying that none of her costars could act, because among other things I think all of the roles take more subtle acting that people credit them with, but I think she’s the one who could really surprise people.

What surprised me was learning that Stewart Copeland is her step-cousin. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother married Stewart Copeland’s uncle. She actually worked for him for a while, before she made it big. Obviously she was, for a while, a member of the massive Arquette family; one of the best gags they ever did on Friends was just after the marriage, when every single cast member had “Arquette” added to their last name. Obviously Cox’s career isn’t based on nepotism, but there are interesting connections nonetheless.