Courteney Cox's career reached a major milestone this week when she received her own star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, but things could have turned out very differently for the actress, who famously played Monica Geller in "Friends."
During an appearance Tuesday on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Cox revealed that she almost walked away from Hollywood to sell swimming pools with her father.
"My dad thought I should give up, really. What happened was, I hadn't worked in a long time. And I only had enough money to live about two weeks. I mean, really eat, like that was it," Cox said, according to the Daily Mail.
"So I was talking to my dad and he was like, 'CeCe', that's my nickname, 'You need to come home. It's a long fall from Los Angeles to Birmingham [Alabama] and this is time to pack it in. And you are a salesman, you're a damned good salesman. You need to do what you do best,'" she continued.
"What did he want you to sell?," Jimmy asked.
"Sell swimming pools," Cox replied.
"Swimming pools?" Jimmy responded.
"That's my dad's business. By the way, I am pretty good at that," Cox explained.
"I knew I had that as a fallback. I was like, 'Dad!' The next day I got a call saying the audition I'd gone on for 'Family Ties,' I got the part as Michael J. Fox's girlfriend for the last two years," Cox said. She maintained the role from 1987 to 1989.
Cox received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, and her fellow "Friends" costars, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow, were present at the ceremony to celebrate with her.
"To be friends with Courteney is to be family with Courteney, and she is responsible for all of that from the beginning," Aniston said during the ceremony, according to CNN. "When we met her she was immediately inclusive, warm, loving, interested in everything about you and you know I was really nervous to meet her because I was a huge fan."
Kudrow said Cox’s influence "really set us up to become one of the closest, most loving and supportive casts in, I’ll say, the history of television."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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