Courteney Cox's Outlook on Ambition Has Completely Changed Since 'Friends'

Courteney Cox is entering a new decade in June. Don't expect turning 60 to mean the actress and Homecourt founder plans to slow down, however. If anything, the milestone will make her more invested in leveling up.

"As I’m getting older, I do take more chances. I just go for things more. I’m more ambitious," Cox said in a fireside chat with Marie Claire editor-in-chief Nikki Ogunnaike at Monday's Power Play summit in Los Angeles, California.

The risk Cox took as a first-time entrepreneur in 2022 is a perfect example. Onstage, she said she didn't know a luxury home goods brand would be her next step after acting. But the timing (a freed-up schedule due to the Covid-19 lockdowns) and the concept (non-toxic, luxuriously scented home cleaning products pretty enough to display on a counter) aligned so perfectly, she could dive into becoming a business owner at 58.

Cox wasn't always so willing to chase her interests head-on. "I think there was a time where I was on Friends where I didn’t have enough confidence to go after things that I could’ve or should’ve," she reflected. "Maybe I was more being an imposter back then. But now, I don’t feel like I am, because I take more chances and I do more research and I try harder."

The biggest difference between being the "clean friend" Monica on TV and reaching her full potential as a founder in real life? The amount of effort Cox puts into a project, whether it's developing products for Homecourt or picking up a fresh skill. (Tennis and piano are two of her newer hobbies; she also got very invested in cooking during the pandemic.) "I think things may have come easier [when I was younger]. Now I realize, in order to feel great about myself, you have to put the work in," she explained. "There’s nothing where I don’t give a hundred percent, whereas before I might have skated by."

The leap from Hollywood to founding Homecourt may not be Cox's last big pivot. "I have many things that I want to be better at," Cox said in her closing remarks. "I guess my [definition of] ambition is realizing that you can."

She's proof that's it's never too late to get started, after all. "As I get older, I realize, why not?" she said. "Do all of it, and try really hard."