Courteney Cox Says She Felt Like an ‘Imposter’ When She Was Younger: ‘I’m Getting Older, I Take More Chances’

Courteney Cox says with age comes confidence – and a lot of ambition.

“As I get older, I take more and more risks and I realize that I only strive for things more. I’m more ambitious,” said the 59-year-old actress on Marie ClairePower Play event in Santa Monica, California on Monday night, where she was interviewed by the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Nikki Ogunnaike.

“I think you value your time and you also want to do everything you can,” explained Cox, who turns 60 in June. “At least that’s how I feel. The fear I no longer have is that if I don’t want to do something, I can ask myself an honest question: ‘Do I want to do it? Or am I doing it for someone else?’ ”

Cox went on to explain that she no longer worries about saying no.

Courteney Cox photographed in Los Angeles on April 10, 2022.

Amy Sussman/Getty

“I think later in life, where I am now, if I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to,” Shining Vale said the star. “I’m not mean or mean, I’m just saying, ‘I can’t make it. But thank you and please call me again.’ Because you never know. Oh my God, please always call me!”

As Cox explained, “We all spend a lot of time saying, ‘Gosh, if I don’t go to it, will they ever call me back? And was it the best time in the whole world? And I’m not there, and then I don’t get to experience it? But I don’t really want to go. But…’ God, the battle and then not wanting to hurt someone.”

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But she didn’t always have this level of confidence, Cox said, sharing it even when she was starring as a cast member of the global hit Friendsshe suffered from insecurity and impostor syndrome.

“There was a time when I was on Friends and I didn’t have the confidence to ask for things that I could or should have,” said Cox, who was 30 when the show premiered in 1994.

“So maybe I was more of a cheat then,” she said.

Courteney Cox in 1994 on the set of ‘Friends’.

Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

“But now I don’t feel like I am because I’m taking more risks, exploring more and trying harder. I think things were easier then,” the Scream the alum said. “And now I understand that in order to feel good about myself, you have to make an effort – in every way. There is no thing that I don’t give 100 percent now, whereas before I might have skated.”

When Ogunnaike asked her, “How do you see or define ambition at this stage in your life, in your career?” Cox replied that she was trying to do more – not less.

“I think I have so many things I want to be better at,” Cox noted in her response. “My ambition is to understand that you can. I do so much. I play piano. I play tennis. I like to cook. This is something I learned to do during the lockdown. Having this job, directing, acting, I think I’m just more ambitious because I care more, so I’m less lazy.”

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Cox continued, “If I’m not busy, that’s when I get lazy. If I’m not busy, then I’m not doing anything. But you give me a million things to do and I’ll do them all. Well, I just think as I get older, I realize why not do it all and try really hard.”

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Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education