this cheery, upbeat energy", which was significantly different from how they had envisioned Monica at the time. Feeling she was not "quirky" enough to portray Rachel, Cox lobbied in favor of playing Monica instead because she was drawn to the character's "strong" personality, but the producers feared that she was not "tough" enough for the role, which was offered to actress Jennifer Aniston, alongside whom Cox would eventually co-star. Meanwhile, a close competitor for the role was actress Nancy McKeon; Littlefield recalled having greatly enjoyed both actress' auditions equally, and left the final decision up to Crane and Kauffman. Ultimately, Cox won the role over McKeon because the creators noticed "something fresh" in her audition; Kauffman elaborated that Cox ultimately "brought a whole bunch of other colors" to Monica than what they had first envisioned back when they were considering Garofalo for the part. Meanwhile, Aniston ultimately won the role of Rachel. Each main cast member auditioned for Friends having had some degree of prior sitcom experience. Before finally being cast in Friends, Cox's burgeoning success as an actress had heavily relied on her physical appearance. Unlike her previous roles in projects such as Family Ties and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, the Los Angeles Times Steve Weinstein believes that Monica was the first major role in which Cox was cast based on her abilities as a comedic actress as opposed to her beauty. Cox believes that she owes winning the role to her brief stint as Gabriella Easden on the short-lived sitcom The Trouble with Larry, which she considers to be the first time she played a character who "was the funny one", which in turn earned the actress a recommendation for Friends following its cancellation. When Friends premiered, Cox was the show's most famous main cast member among a cast of young, relatively unknown actors, and was thus initially perceived by critics and audiences as the show's star, despite Crane and Kauffman's efforts to promote Friends as an ensemble comedy. According to actress Lisa Kudrow, who portrays Phoebe, Cox is responsible for suggesting that the entire cast work together as a team. As the most experienced cast member at the time, Cox advised her co-stars to remain open to each other's ideas, notes and suggestions, while giving them permission to tell her "If I could do anything funnier". Cox was originally the highest-paid cast member. Preferring to be treated