Courteney Cox took a trip down memory lane in her latest social media post.
The actress, 59, took part in a TikTok trend in which kids ask their parents to show them how they danced in the 1980s. Cox followed that same prompt in her Sunday, June 9, TikTok upload, dancing awkwardly before unzipping her hoodie to reveal the same Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band T-shirt she wore in the singer’s 1984 music video for “Dancing in the Dark.”
“1980’s dancing … in the dark,” she captioned the post, which featured her doing the same swaying and snapping dance moves she did in the video. The clip concluded by cutting to Cox dancing with Springsteen, 74, in the song’s music video.
The “Dancing in the Dark” music video marked one of Cox’s first professional gigs, as she had only appeared in one episode of As the World Turns in 1975 before the video. She appears as a fan in the audience of one of Springsteen’s concerts. Locking eyes with Cox as he performs the upbeat tune, Springsteen eventually pulls her up on stage to dance together.
“I’d done two days on a soap opera and a New York telephone ad, and that was it. And I did a little bit of modeling,” she recalled of booking the part in a March 2017 episode of The Off Camera Show. She remembered being surrounded by professional dancers at the audition, but her authenticity managed to win over director Brian De Palma.
“I got the job because I was so nervous and embarrassed,” she joked.
@courteneycoxofficial 1980’s dancing… in the dark
Despite getting the part, Cox was hesitant about her dance skills. “I didn’t want to dance in front of 30,000 people. … It was a full concert and we did the song twice, back-to-back,” she explained, adding, “I spent a lot of time talking about what Bruce Springsteen was really like after that video. It got me in the door to so many places.”
Cox went on to play Michael J. Fox’s girlfriend, Lauren Miller, on the sitcom Family Ties from 1987 to 1989 and appeared on shows such as Till We Meet Again, The Trouble with Larry and Seinfeld before scoring her breakout role as Monica Geller on Friends in 1994.
Following Friends’ conclusion after 10 seasons in 2004, Cox followed up the NBC series with roles in shows and movies such as Dirt, Cougar Town, Shining Vale and the Scream horror franchise.
Cox’s new TikTok post isn’t the first time she’s recreated a memorable moment from her past. Last month, she had her very own Monica Geller moment by experiencing frizzy hair during a trip to Florida. “I love Miami,” she said in the May 24 clip before walking onto a balcony. Upon stepping outside, her dark locks frizzed out.
The clip ended with Cox lip-synching to a soundbite of Monica yelling, “It’s the humidity,” one of her famous lines from the Friends season 9 episode “The One in Barbados Part 1.” In the 2003 episode, Monica’s hair gradually grew larger and larger the more she was exposed to the tropical setting’s humidity.
