-Our first guest tonight
is an Emmy-nominated actress you know
from her work on television shows
such as "Friends" and "Cougar Town."
She both produces and stars
in the new series "Shining Vale,"
which premieres this Sunday on Starz.
Let's take a look.
-You look nice.
-And...where's the insult?
-No insult.
That dress hides your flass.
-And that's mean slang for...?
-Flat ass, obviously.
-Oh, obviously.
You look nice, too.
Is that for your virgin boyfriend
or is today the big Diane Sawyer costume contest?
-I don't get that old person reference,
but, yes, this is for Ryan.
-Surprisingly respectful.
-Yeah, I'm trying to break him, but his Lord and Savior
continues to [bleep]block me.
-Aw, that's my baby girl.
[ Laughter ] Please welcome to the show
Courteney Cox, everybody.
♪♪
Welcome to the show. -Thank you.
-I'm so happy to have you here.
-I'm so happy to be here.
-So, obviously, that is your TV daughter,
who is about the same age
as your real-life daughter, Coco.
Does that make it easier to act like the mother
of a 17-year-old daughter, when you actually have one?
-Well, I can really relate.
This character,
played by Gus Birney, who is incredible,
is a little more relentless than Coco.
-That's good. -But, I mean...
[ Laughter ] ...you could see how
-That was pretty relentless. -snappy she is.
[ Laughter ] That was pretty relentless.
And, you know, I don't think this is great parenting,
but I can't help but sometimes just like I imitate her.
[ Laughter ] I mean, she's a little brat?
Guess what -- so am I, yeah.
[ Laughter ] -Is that something you do
as a real-life parent, do you imitate?
-That's what I do, and I don't mean to,
but, if she's sassy,
then, you know, I don't know.
I just can't help it.
I go back to that age.
[ Laughter ] -I'm finding I'm doing it --
My kids are younger, obviously,
but, when my five-year-old whines,
when I know he's just whining and he's like,
"I don't want to read that book," I'm like,
"Oh, you don't?!"
[ Laughter ] -I do that. -And my wife says,
"What do you think you're accomplishing?
[ Laughter ] What do you think?
What was the endgame of that?"
-No, I completely understand, though.
-I don't think there's a single parenting book
where the advice is "Just mirror them.
[ Laughter ] Just whatever energy they give you,
just throw it right back at them."
-Yeah, I'm not the person that's like,
"I can see you're upset.
That must be horrible," no.
[ Laughter ] -My wife is so good at that. -Unh-unh.
-My wife is always like, "I hear that you're upset,"
and I'm like, "We are running out of time!
[ Laughter ]
The Uber doesn't care what we hear!"
[ Laughter ]
This show is very funny,
but it's also a little bit scary.
It's supernatural.
You're in a home that might have ghosts.
-Yeah. -It must've been cool
to approach a show that you knew
was going to both be laugh-out-loud funny
and also have this horror element.
I feel it's very unique.
-Yeah, it is definitely genre-bending.
It's a dark comedy.
It is very real.
I mean, I'm dealing with so many issues on the show,
which is why I loved and, when I read it, I thought,
"I have to do this," but it's a family drama.
I have had an affair with the handyman.
My marriage is kind of
falling apart, right? -Who hasn't?
[ Laughter ] -Who hasn't?
And we are moving outside of the city.
We live in New York and just I want to start the family over
and, you know, get on a new path.
But I'm going through menopause. I'm depressed.
I'm a writer that's had writer's block
for the last like 17 years,
after she's written a very racy novel,
and she has to start over.
But they move into this house that is
probably, I mean, haunted.
I know it's haunted, but no one believes me.
-That's the classic trope, that there's one person
who knows it's haunted and nobody else buys in.
-Exactly.
-In real life,
did you ever buy in to the supernatural?
-Well, I didn't before.
I did live in a house that I heard was haunted
and, recently, I saw something.
I mean, there's no question I saw something.
-You saw something?! -Yep.
-Do you think this is because
the show that you were working on
planted it in your subconscious
or did you fully see something?
[ Laughter ]
-I really think I saw something.
[ Laughter ]
-Was there anyone else with you
at the time that could verify?
-Yes, okay. Well, I was with my partner, Johnny.
We were in the apartment in London
and I was awake
and, all of a sudden, I saw these like faces.
Some of them didn't look that welcoming.
[ Laughter ] I mean, some of them looked
a little like what I would imagine the devil to look like.
And I was like, "Oh, [bleep]."
-They might've just been British.
[ Laughter ]
-They like knew you were American and they were like --
[ Muttering ]
[ Laughter ]
I was thinking, "Oh, my God."
I was like calling out for my mom or dad
and I kept saying, these really scary ones,
and I thought, "I don't want to go there,"
wherever they're talking about. -Wow.
-But I was actually okay.
The plant moved next to the bed
and I saw all these waves of light and I woke up Johnny.
I was like, "Johnny, you've got to see this!"
He's like, "I'm asleep."
He goes, "And you're asleep right now, Courteney.
You don't see anything."
I said, "No, I just woke you up. How am I asleep?"
[ Laughter ] And we had a big debate.
Like the show, he didn't believe me and I was frustrated
and then, yeah, that's how it went.
-I hope that you should try to,
you know, connect with those ghosts and be like,
"You guys got to go scare the [bleep] out of Johnny."
[ Laughter ] -Yeah. I did.
The next night, I came into the room and I said,
"Look, that was really nice, guys. [ Laughter ]
Had a nice meeting last night. -Oh, this is very smart.
-I cannot have it tonight.
I mean, I enjoyed it." I was trying to be really nice
and I don't want to be snatched up and then taken, so,
I was like, "It was great. Not again."
[ Laughter ] -I haven't seen them since. -That proves
they were British ghosts because then, they were like,
[ Muttering in English accent ] [ Laughter ]
-[ English accent ] I want to be polite.
[ Laughter ] -[ Muttering ]
-[ English accent ] Pardon me.
-[ English accent ] Had no idea.
[ Laughter ]
This is very exciting --
One of the people you worked with on this show
is one of our favorites here, Sharon Horgan,
who's a fantastic Irish writer and comedian.
Were you a fan of hers before you
started working on this? -Huge fan, yeah.
I mean, from "Catastrophe."
But you know, she created the show with Jeff Astrof,
who is from "Friends."
I mean, he's done other things, obviously,
but I knew him from back then and it's a perfect combination.
They really balance each other out.
Jeff, you know, he writes the episodes and --
But Sharon, she's so real.
I mean, she's just -- -She really is.
-She keeps it like just her sense of humor, it's real
and Jeff is so funny and, together,
I think they really are a great combination.
-That's wonderful. What a cool person
to work with. -Yeah, Jeff works really hard.
I mean, this is his like baby.
-You mentioned "Friends." I don't even remember this.
I think the last time I saw you was about 10 years ago in L.A.
I was having dinner with Amy Poehler
and you were a table over,
having dinner with Jennifer Aniston.
Do you remember this? -Where was it?
-At Sunset Tower. -Oh.
-And we were having dinner and I just remember when I left,
I said to Amy, I'm like,
"People in that restaurant were like,
'Hollywood is the best.
[ Laughter ] All the people you see on TV
have dinner together off-camera.
[ Laughter ] The Friends have dinner together.
The "Update" people have dinner together.'"
[ Laughter ]
You were very nice that evening. It meant a lot.
You also have your own line --
Well, how would you describe it, home goods?
-Yes. I'm really, really proud of this.
I love scents.
I'm obsessed with candles.
But, during this lockdown, I realized that without --
You know, you're so used to smelling Clorox,
it was the most important thing you could have.
[ Laughter ] And now, I mean, I didn't mean to be typecast,
but I do like to clean.
[ Laughter ] And I like to be neat.
-You can admit it now. -Alright.
So, anyway, I created this line called Home Court
and it's beauty products for the home.
So, literally, you know, you could spray your counter
with something that really works.
It's natural. It's good for you.
-This is a surface cleaner. -Not good for you.
[ Laughter ] It's just not bad for you.
Don't like in the mouth.
[ Laughter ]
-I want to assure you that my audience
didn't think they could eat the cleaning product.
[ Laughter ] -Okay.
-This is a very well-heeled group of people.
[ Laughter ] -I'm sorry.
But the scents are incredible and it kind of makes cleaning
nice and fun. -I hope this is open
because I haven't cleaned this desk in a long time.
-What scent do you have? -This is Steeped Rose.
-Oh, yeah. I don't like the smell of rose,
if it's too powdery, and this is incredible.
Oh, my god. Do you not smell it and love it?
[ Laughter ] -I do. I smell it and love it! This is great.
I mean, we haven't cleaned this thing since I moved in
[ Laughter ] eight years ago. -Let's see the rag afterwards.
But it's nice, right?
-The rag, it's like nothing's on it.
[ Laughter ]
-It works better than that.
You've got a good crew here.
[ Laughter ]
Oh, gross, here, get this.
-Okay. Don't say gross.
[ Laughter ] -Yep.
-I've heard that, not only do you like products
for the home, but you like to have people over.
You like to have big dinner parties,
which, obviously, was a thing that, you know,
one of the many things COVID took away from us,
was being able to host people at our homes.
-Yeah. -Are you doing it again?
Are you having your friends back over?
-I'm doing it again.
I actually met Brandi Carlile on Instagram
because I played one of her songs
with my friend Gary Lightbody, who, Snow Patrol.
And she contacted me and said, "Oh, you did a great job."
She DM'd me, which, I just learned about Instagram
a couple of years ago.
-I mean, that's a great way to learn about Instagram DMs,
is from Brandi Carlile. Well done, yeah.
[ Laughter ] -I mean, it's like a --
I don't want to say a dating website because I'm not,
you know, I don't do that because I've got a partner.
But it is, it's like how you meet people, I can imagine.
It's better than a lot of those other ones,
especially after seeing the Tinder spoiler.
[ Laughter ]
Anyway, what was my point? Oh, yeah.
So she was supposed to come over on the Sunday
and then that day, on whatever day it was in March,
the world shut down and she didn't come.
But afterwards, she's been there since
and played music. -Oh, that's fantastic!
-Yeah, I'm back at it. -I think that's one
of the nice things that people are finally doing,
is like cleaning up those like sort of unfinished plans
and doing the things they were looking forward to
that were taken away. Hey, thank you so much for being here.
-Thank you. -It's just a delight -to have you in the studio.
[ Cheering and applause ] You guys, that's Courtney Cox.
"Shining Vale" premiers on Starz this Sunday.