Courteney Cox Begged Bruce Springsteen Not to Pull Her On Stage in Video
Before Friends, one of Courteney Cox’s first jobs was in a Bruce Springsteen video. The Dancing in the Dark video is famous because Springsteen pulls Cox out of the audience to dance with him on stage. Adam Sandler played Springsteen in a parody of this video when Cox hosted Saturday Night Live. But Cox says she begged not to be the chosen one in the video.
Cox was a guest on the Smartless podcast on Feb. 21. When hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes asked Cox about the legendary Springsteen video, Cox explained why she wanted out.
Courteney Cox had a 1 in 3 chance of dancing with Bruce Springsteen
Cox said she and two other actors were hired to be the fans at the Springsteen concert. The video’s director, filmmaker Brian De Palma, told The Boss to pick any one of them to pull on stage. Cox hoped she could stay on the floor but her plan backfired.
“There were three girls that were hired,” Cox said on Smartless. “So when Brian said, ‘Okay, when Courteney goes on stage…’ I was like, ‘No, no, no if there’s three of us, I do not want to go on stage. Anybody else, she can, she can, I don’t want to.’ Of course, that’s probably the reason why they chose me.”
The Bruce Springsteen ‘Dancing in the Dark’ video was a tough audition
Before she even got to the set, Cox recalled the audition. That was nerve-wracking enough, but she made it through round one.
“I auditioned for that just like any other commercial,” Cox said. “Brian De Palma directed it, he asked me to come into the room, this is not a weird thing, all the people came into his office and we danced. I walked into the room, these dancers were stretching. I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m in the wrong place, I’m not a ballerina.’ I didn’t know what was going to happen. So he said, ‘Will you dance?’ It probably was the same reaction that I got when he pulled me up on stage, just completely nervous. Even though I like to dance, I was so uncomfortable.”
Filming ‘Dancing in the Dark’ wasn’t glamorous for anyone
“Dancing in the Dark” lived on heavily in MTV rotation. Cox would go on to roles on Misfits of Science, Family Ties and Ace Venture: Pet Detective before Friends. But, she remembers, nobody was feeling like dancing when they filmed at the St. Paul Civic Center.
“Then when I got to St. Paul, I just remember him, Brain De Palma had the flu, so did Bruce Springsteen,” Cox said. “It was the first night of a tour, the first time he, not met but sang with Patti Scialfa on stage.”
