Courteney Cox Says She Loved ‘Overweight Monica’ Because She Felt Free

Friends star Courteney Cox has revealed she loved playing ‘overweight Monica’ because she felt free while wearing the bodysuit. 

Cox, and consequently her character, was slim throughout the entire 10 seasons of the hit sitcom, but the series often made references to – and featured flashbacks of – a past, heavier Monica Geller.

Monica’s backstory was that she had been overweight when she was a teen; someone who would hitchhike to a New Jersey bakery in order to get her hands on the creamiest frosting and who would make a bake sale-sized batch of cookies for herself on a Friday night.

In the series, viewers learn Monica decided to lose weight after hearing Chandler criticise her size, though there are still many scenes of Monica living her best life without the weight loss, as seen in flashbacks and alternative storylines.

Courteney recalled some of the episodes during a recent interview for The Ellen Show, where she explained she’d decided to rewatch Friends during quarantine.

She described the series as ‘really good’ – as if we didn’t already know that – and went on to declare the ‘Thanksgiving episodes’ as her favourite.

Check out Courteney’s interview below:

Courteney made reference to the episode where each character has a flashback to various past Thanksgivings, aptly titled The One With All The Thanksgivings, in which it’s revealed Chandler called Monica ‘fat’.

Despite the saddening revelation in the story, Courteney recalled her fondness for playing the overweight character, saying:

I was overweight Monica. I loved playing overweight Monica because I felt so free. I could dance… just sit up and dance and have no problem at all. I did love it. Those are really good episodes.

Courteney’s love of dancing in the bodysuit is apparent throughout the episodes it appears in, as scenes show her getting her groove on while visiting Ross at college, and enjoying a doughnut while dancing around the living room in an episode depicting what life would have been like if she hadn’t lost weight.

During her interview, Courteney admitted she didn’t remember a lot from the show; a realisation she described as ‘really sad’.

The actor commented:

I remember the people and I remember specific things that happened, but my memory is not great when it comes to fun times. I only remember pain I think.

So I started watching. I’ve been bingeing it.

Until then, we can all join Courteney Cox in bingeing the episodes again, and again, and again.