My Phone Call Beauty Interview with Courteney Cox for Pantene.

Courteney Cox for Pantene

I have to start off by saying, there has never been a more surreal moment in my life than when, one Sunday night, I phoned up Courteney Cox for a chat about beauty…ever! Since I have been blogging, there have been a few times when I have met celebrities face to face and it is truly very exciting and nerve wracking. But a phone conversation is a whole different matter, much to my utter dumb-founded surprise!!

I was offered the opportunity to interview Courteney Cox by Pantene, as she is the ambassador of the Age Defy range and also the Keratin Repair range – both of which come under Pantene Expert Collection. As she is in LA, I was offered either telephone or email time with Courteney. Without really thinking, I opted for telephone, and was rather thrilled that I’d be calling Monica from Friends in a couple of weeks time.

When the day actually arrived I must confess, I felt really rather different about the situation. When I woke up on the Sunday, I had a funny feeling in my stomach and I soon realised that I was absolutely terrified. “Oh. My. God. I have to call up Courteney Cox tonight!!” I tried to distract myself all day but totally failed. Phoning Courteney Cox on a Sunday evening for a natter about beauty was just one step too far away from normal for my over-excited brain to cope with. There is something about a telephone conversation that is so intimate but I had never thought of it that way before.By the time it came to half an hour before my call time, I was almost beside myself and had to have a glass of Prosecco to try and ease the nerves. Not sure if it worked as listening back to my recorded interview I can hear a slight wobble of emotion in my voice at the beginning, as if I am going to cry, whilst I responded to the unforgettable line on the telephone “Hi there! It’s Courteney!”.

I told her how excited I was to be calling her (I kept it to myself that I was very near losing it) and my voice wobbled even more! Lucky she has no idea how I normally sound when I am actually holding it together!!

In a stroke of genius, even if I do say so myself, I managed to distract us both from the near weeping by asking an unplanned question about Cougar Town (which I love) and she told me that (this was 3rd November 2013) that they had just finished filming their 7th episode, with about 5 more to do, and that it would be airing in the US in January 2014. She was unsure of when it would be coming to the UK though. I heard on Twitter today that Matthew Perry is going to appear in it too. Yay!

I proceeded to tell Courteney that I ABSOLUTELY ADORED Cougar Town, and so did my boyfriend,  and my friend, that we love love love it!! She seemed pleased. And at least I wasn’t crying anymore!

And then I started my interview… (typing this up I realise that we are Ree Ree and C C! We could be best friends!). Anyway…

RR: Is having great hair as important as having great makeup?
CC: Absolutely! I think it is probably more important in some ways. For me, I can do my makeup pretty well but I can’t do my hair, and when my hair is styled it changes everything.
RR: Do you feel like you can wear less makeup when your hair is looking great?
CC: For sure. And as we get older, it’s kind of better to wear less makeup anyway, so your hair really needs to look great.
RR: With the new Pantene products, we are looking at hair ageing as well as skin ageing, and it is a part of the same concept. Have you always thought about hair being part of the ageing process? Or is this quite new to you as well?
CC: It’s new to me. I actually do not think about it at all but I definitely started to see that my hair was thinning a little bit and it was maybe not as shiny. When I joined with Pantene (Courteney pronounces it Panteen) I learnt so much! It is actual fact that your hair ages, and that there are 7 signs, but their products really do work. My hair is much shinier than it was and it feels really thick. I am so glad that we joined together!
RR: What’s your favourite product from the Pantene Expert Collection range?
CC: I love the conditioner, I love the shampoo, I use them every day, but the Keratin Repair Restorative treatment is probably my favourite. I noticed a difference in my hair from the first time I used the products. When I was doing interviews yesterday, they brought over a whole load of products to me and Coco goes “Mum (or probably mom if I am going to be precise) I’m just going upstairs to use my Pantene! She is right now taking a bath using every single product!!! I know it’s supposed to be for older people but she loves it!
RR: Well I always think there’s no harm in starting early!!
CC: On anything! I agree!
RR: Do you wash your hair every day?
CC: I do. For some reason if I don’t, it gets flatter. When I go to work and they curl it, for me if it’s really clean it’s better, and it holds better. For some reason with the oils and stuff, I have to wash it every day.
RR: What are your top 3 beauty rules?
CC: I would say, for me, sleep is number 1. I feel so different if I have a good night’s sleep – which I didn’t last night! So sleep, drinking lots of water and moisturiser.
RR: What’s your favourite moisturiser?
CC: Yeah I use all the products from a woman called Mila Moursi. She’s got a skincare institute, kind of like a spa, and every one of her products is amazing.
RR: Do you ever break any of your beauty rules?
CC: Erm… All the time! (We both giggled!) I didn’t do one of the things I just said yesterday! (both really giggled!!) I didn’t drink enough water, I probably moisturised a lot actually because I was just sitting at home on the phone all day doing interviews, but it doesn’t really matter if you’re not doing the right things from the inside, because everything works together. I do see such change. You know, when you’re in the shower and you look in the mirror, it’s kind of the best we’ll ever look because we’re so hydrated, and I think it’s all about hydration.
RR: Do you ever sleep in your makeup?
CC: Never. My best friend, she would leave at the end of the night with tonnes of makeup on, she’d go to sleep and about 5 years ago I said to her, you just have to wash your face before you go to bed. She just hates doing it. For some reason it wakes her up, she doesn’t want to, but she did it for me, and I promise, she looks 10 years younger.
RR: Your skin is always really glowing. What’s your top tip for achieving a glowy look on your skin?
CC: I guess I use tinted moisturiser for base and I just don’t use powder. I think it is better to have a little shine than be too matte as you get older.
RR: If you have only got 5 minutes to get ready, what would you do to your hair?
CC: Put it in a ponytail! I use the thickening spray from Pantene Age Defy and I scrunch my hair, which is kind of what I do every day, it only take me a couple of minutes.
RR: Do you use any hot tools on your hair yourself?
CC: No I am terrible with the blow dryer, I can’t use anything, I just don’t know how to do it.
RR: So you just let the professionals get on with that?
CC: Yes. That’s someone else’s job, not mine!
RR: So what are the best tricks you have learnt from professional hair or makeup artists?
CC: I think not wearing too much makeup, not over powdering – you look younger and fresher if you are not matte. I have an amazing makeup artist, her name is Genevieve and I try to take pictures when she does my makeup – every step – so I can try and do it when she’s not here and I still can’t do it!! And as far as hair goes, I dye my hair but I only use products with low peroxide or ammonia. I’ve never used a permanent colour because I think it can be too harsh.

And that was it! She was so lovely and chatty. We said goodbye and wished each other lovely days/evenings. As the recording continued, (I forgot to turn it off) I am kind of heavy breathing, whisper ‘oh my god’ and then start to frantically type. I think I was tweeting my disbelief over my Sunday night natter with Courteney Cox!

Thanks so much to Pantene for this amazing opportunity. I’ll never ever forget it! If you want to see Courteney in action for Pantene, check out this video. See my review of the Pantene Age Defy Shampoo and Conditioner here.