Courteney Cox says she was hurt being the only ‘Friends’ star not nominated for an Emmy
“I hated my last name, but then when my dad passed away I thought, ‘I’m going to own this and keep this going,’ because there [was no one else] in the family to keep it alive,” she told Howard Stern.
When she was 10 years old, her parents divorced. Courteney Cox went on to live with her mother and later stepfather, however, the divorce had stayed with her.
Bruce Springsteen’s music video
In an interview with The Guardian, Cox explained that one of her earlier – or the earliest – memories she has was when her parents divorced. And regarding what she feels she owed to her parents, she said, “my mum wasn’t a go-getter so I am thankful that I was able to witness that and be completely the opposite.”
Courteney Cox didn’t have a career in acting in her mind from a young age. Instead, she wanted to become an architect. She went to Mount Vernon College to study architecture but decided to drop out and instead move to New York City, where she started modeling for a living. Simultaneously, she also worked at a music agency.
Courteney’s modeling career didn’t last long, but not because she wasn’t good at it. She soon transferred her skills into acting.
In 1985, at the age of 21, Courteney Cox got her big breakthrough, but it wasn’t in a film or a modeling job, it was in a music video.
Director Brian De Palma had gotten the gig of producing and directing Bruce Springsteen’s music video to the smash hit “Dancing In The Dark.“
Cox’s big break came when she was cast by Brian De Palma in the video for “Dancing in the Dark.” It was filmed during Springsteen’s concert at the St. Paul Civic Center in Minnesota on June 29, 1984, and Courteney Cox got the role of an adoring fan in the front row.
Towards the end of the video, “The Boss” – who was said to have been unaware of Cox being a “fake” fan – brought Courteney up on stage. They started dancing to the wonderful saxophone solo played by legendary musician Clarence Clemons.
First work in television
But looking back, Courteney Cox wasn’t exactly happy with her performance in the “Dancing in The Dark” video.