Courteney Cox's "Natural" Face Was All Fans Could Talk About Despite Saying She Almost Quit Acting On Jimmy Kimmel Live

During the Friends reunion in May 2021, the main cast, including the men, were trolled for looking as “plastic” as Courteney Cox —who has been criticized for her changing face over the years. But in a 2023 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the Scream star surprised fans with her “natural” look that overshadowed her revelation of almost quitting acting because of a family member.

The interview came a year after Lisa Kudrow —who didn’t feel great about her body while filming Friends—was praised by fans for “looking youthful without Botox” on the show. At that time, Cox already had her facial fillers dissolved after years of struggling with the pressure to look “young”. Here’s how she overcame her insecurities.

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Courteney Cox Told Jimmy Kimmel About Almost Quitting Acting Because Of Her Dad But Fans Were Focused On Her Dissolved Facial Fillers

In March 2023, Cox sat down with Kimmel to talk about Scream 6, getting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and almost quitting acting because of her late father. But fans were so stunned by her “natural beauty”. One wrote in the comments: “Courteney Cox is absolutely stunning why she messed with fillers I’ll never know! She’s definitely back to her best and I respect her so much more for realising and putting a stop to it. Natural beauty.”

But her supportive fans might have missed out on a good story. Remembering the time she almost left Hollywood, Cox shared: “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.” Her dad even asked her to sell swimming pools back home instead.

She continued: “So I was talking to my dad, and he’s like, ‘CeCe’, that’s my nickname, ‘You need to come home. It’s a long fall from Los Angeles to Birmingham, and it’s just time to pack it in. And you are a salesman. You’re a damn good salesman, and you need to do what you do best…’ Sell swimming pools, yep that’s my dad’s business. By the way, I am pretty good at that.”

The following day, Cox received a phone call saying she was cast in NBC’s Family Ties as Michael J. Fox’s onscreen girlfriend, Lauren Miller. She starred in the sitcom from 1987 to 1989 when it ended. In a spooky moment during the actress’ Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, water suddenly poured down from the roof right after she thanked her dad in her speech. She believed it was his spirit, letting her know he was there with her.

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Courteney Cox Said Her “Biggest Beauty Regret” Is Getting Facial Fillers To Look “Young”

Days after her Kimmel appearance, Cox told the Gloss Angeles podcast that her “biggest beauty regret” is getting facial fillers because she felt pressured to look “young”. “It’s a domino effect,” she said of getting started with the injectables. “You don’t realize that you look a little off, so then you keep doing more because you look normal to yourself…and you look in the mirror and go, ‘Oh, that looks good.’ You don’t realize what it looks like to the outside person.”

In February 2022, the Zoom star opened up about quitting fillers after hearing other people “talk about” her. “Because people would talk about me, I think,” she recounted. “But there was a period where I went, ‘I’ve got to stop. That’s just crazy.” She even joked about meme-ing herself after seeing her drastic transformation.

“My publicist wouldn’t let me post this, but I wanted to say, like a before or what I was and what I am,” she said. “And then the caption would be ‘oh this is what my friend was talking about,’ because when someone is talking to you [about fillers] and saying, ‘babe, I don’t know,’ then you’re like ‘what?! I didn’t do anything here and nothing there’ and you don’t realize that probably floated down.”

Reacting to what her haters say, she told Sunday Times it’s probably not “more intense than what I put on myself.” What’s important is that she’s now more comfortable with looking her age. “There was a time when you go, ‘Oh, I’m changing. I’m looking older,” she said. “And I tried to chase that youthfulness for years. And I didn’t realize that, oh s—, I’m actually looking really strange with injections and doing stuff to my face that I would never do now.”

Here are other sitcoms Cox has starred in aside from Friends:

• Misfits of Science (1985-1986)
• Family Ties (1987-1989)
• The Trouble with Larry (1993)
• Dirt (2007-2008)
• Cougar Town (2009-2015)
• Shining Vale (2022-2023)

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Courteney Cox Dissolved Her Facial Fillers Because She Didn’t Want To “Look Fake” Anymore

In 2017, Cox informed NewBeauty that she had all her facial fillers dissolved. She was finally convinced that it made her “look fake” if she tried to go against her natural aging process. “I’ve had all my fillers dissolved. I’m as natural as I can be,” she told the magazine. “I feel better because I look like myself. I think that I now look more like the person that I was. I hope I do.”

“Things are going to change. Everything’s going to drop. I was trying to make it not drop, but that made me look fake.”

Her longtime friend, Aniston also talked about her similar experiences in 2023. Speaking to British Vogue, she said she hates when people say, “You look good for your age,” because it’s more of a backhanded compliment. “It drives me bananas, I can’t stand it,” said The Morning Show star.

She explained: “That’s a habit of society that we have these markers like, ‘Well, you’re at that stage, so
for your age
…’ I don’t even understand what it means. I’m in better shape than I was in my 20s. I feel better in mind, body, and spirit. It’s all 100 percent better.”

Around the same time Cox was commended for her natural look on Kimmel, Aniston also opened up about not giving in to the pressure of looking young. “If I tried to look the way I looked at 20, I would not really actually want to do that. It’s absolutely impossible,” she told USA Today. “We’re all going to get older. We’re all headed to that exact same spot.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Release Date

January 26, 2003

Seasons

21

Network

ABC