With “Friends” becoming as ingrained in culture as it has, almost everybody has a favorite member of the ensemble. For some fans, Joey’s (Matt LeBlanc) lovably dim but good-hearted persona is irresistible, while others favor Chandler’s (Matthew Perry, who passed away in 2023) sardonic wit. Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel became a ’90s style icon, and Lisa Kudrow’s charmingly eccentric Phoebe brought an endearingly offbeat energy to the group. Meanwhile, David Schwimmer’s Ross had a hangdog appeal, and his transformation from nerdy but mostly self-assured into the forlorn head of the Divorced Dads Club was hilarious to watch.
Then there was Courteney Cox’s Monica, whose neurotic focus on cleanliness and competitive spirit could have made her a less likable character. But with Cox in the role, Monica was just as lovable as the rest of the group. For the actress, whose “Cougar Town” was among the cast’s best post-“Friends” shows, Monica’s competitive streak was actually one of her best attributes, and one of the main reasons Cox enjoyed playing the role.
In 2004, when “Friends” was coming to an end, Entertainment Weekly interviewed the cast. Speaking with the outlet, Cox revealed that she loved playing Monica when she was at her most competitive, highlighting one episode in particular as representing the best of her character’s drive and determination.
Courteney Cox liked that Monica had no limits
Asked about her favorite episode, Courteney Cox chose season 4’s “The One With the Embryos,” in which Monica and Rachel take on Chandler and Joey in a game where they have to answer questions about their rivals to see who knows whom better. The prize for winning was the girls’ apartment, which the boys manage to snag when neither Monica nor Rachel can answer the question of what Chandler does for a living, prompting Rachel to blurt out the nonsensical guess, “Oh, he’s a transponster!”
Cox told EW that she “learned more about [her] character and everyone else’s” during “The One with the Embryos” due to the trivia questions, saying that the episode played to her favorite aspects of Monica’s personality. “The times I like playing Monica the most are when she’s being competitive,” she said, “like, when she’s playing football in the Thanksgiving episode or when she’s trying to get George Clooney and Noah Wyle.” (That’s a reference to a Season 1 episode in which the “ER” stars play doctors who go on a date with Monica and Rachel.)
For Cox, her character’s pursuit of victory was one of her best attributes. “She kind of has no limits,” she said. “The stakes were really high [in ‘The One with the Embryos’], because to lose the apartment was huge. She was so sure that she’d win that she bet the apartment. Didn’t work out so well for her, did it?”
Interestingly enough, “Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman also picked the same episode when asked about it in 2020. “It had heart, it was funny, it was emotional,” she told Vulture. “That, for me, is one of the iconic episodes.”