Greg Kinnear Recalls Guest Starring on 'Friends,' Working With Courteney Cox on 'Shining Vale' (Exclusive)

Greg Kinnear is talking about crossing paths with Courteney Cox before starring in their upcoming horror comedy series, Shining Vale. The two spoke with ET's Matt Cohen about their new television show on Starz, and Kinnear also recalled having a memorable guest-starring role on Friends. 

Kinnear played Dr. Benjamin Hobart in the episode titled "The One With Ross' Grant" during season 10 of Friends. Ross (David Schwimmer) was up for a grant and had to appear before Dr. Hobart, who turned out to be an ex of Ross' girlfriend at the time, Charlie (Aisha Tyler). Kinnear said he actually pretaped a lot of the episode because his eldest daughter was just born, and therefore missed his chance to work with Cox, who played Monica in the beloved series.

"You know, it's crazy, my oldest daughter was born like the night before I was going to go on Friends and subsequently something happened where my stuff -- which I was so excited to go do it in front of the live audience and the whole thunderous crowd and hang with the whole gang here -- and I ended up having to pretape all my stuff," he shares. "Funny enough, we shot [Shining Vale] at first in a very haunted house out in Pasadena, seriously, and then we moved to Warner Brothers and the first studio stage that we worked at Courteney's like, 'Yeah, I did Friends here,' and the whole thing came rushing back to me that she has this incredible legacy with the show."

"But I had a great time doing it," he continues. "Unfortunately, I didn't get to work with Courteney. I had to wait for Shining Vale but it was all wonderful in the end."

Shining Vale is about a family who moves from the city to a small town -- Shining Vale, Connecticut -- after Patricia, a depressed author (Cox), is caught cheating on her husband, Terry (Kinnear). Things turn spooky when the family moves into an old Victorian mansion. 

"This show is about a family that is trying to start over after an infidelity, and they don't have a good ... it doesn't seem like they have a shot," Cox tells ET about the show, which premieres March 6 on Starz. "They have two kids and they move into a house that is haunted. And Pat, my character, gets possessed but my family thinks that she's just depressed. And it makes for a lot of humor and a lot of fear."

"It's one of my favorite jobs for sure and I love working with Greg and I love the other actors on the show, but this character is so layered, and I get to go through so many things that are, you know, that women go through besides maybe the possession," she adds. "But, you know, I can relate in a lot of ways and in lot of ways I can't, but I love playing it and it's the best role."

Meanwhile, Kinnear shared why he's thankful his three daughters with his wife, Helen Labdon, haven't seen him on the show.

"I don't think that Terry is a great ... listen, I don't think he's a bad dad," he notes. "I think he's doing everything that he can, he's trying. I think he's trying to heal his pain through optimism and kind of will this family that has had this situation come into their world, he's trying to will his way to the other side and make it all OK."

"And listen, I guess people gotta use whatever tool you got in the tool kit so that's what he’s working on now," he continues. "But the kids from the Shining Vale family are much more difficult on their parents than the Kinnear kids are on the Kinnears, I'm happy to report."

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