Sarah Jessica Parker opened up at great length about the rift in her relationship with Kim Cattrall. They are known for being one of the four principal stars of the landmark HBO comedy series ‘Sex and the City‘. It has two big-screen adaptations. Cattrall played Samantha alongside Parker’s Carrie.
For the first time, Parker detailed why Cattrall was not asked to be part of ‘And Just Like That‘. The SATC revival series recently had its first season on HBO Max.
Sarah Jessica Parker On ‘Fight’ With Kim Cattrall
Speaking to Scott Feinberg on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Parker acknowledged that “it’s very hard to talk about the situation with Kim,” but that she wanted “to kind of run through how it happened” to clarify why it is actually not the two-way “catfight” that the media has portrayed it to be. As she put it, “There has been one person talking.”
In Parker’s view, the issues with Cattrall date back to 2017. At the time, a third ‘Sex and the City’ movie was being contemplated but “fell apart” over contractual demands that Cattrall made of Warner Bros. The studio was to finance and distribute the film.
“They didn’t feel comfortable meeting where she wanted to meet, and so we didn’t do the movie because we didn’t want to do it without Kim,” Parker recounted. “Were we [she and co-stars Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon] disappointed? Sure. But it happens.”
Parker and Cattrall Had Never Been Friends
After this, Cattrall began publicly slamming Parker, accusing her of having behaved cruelly toward her during the original run of ‘Sex and the City‘. She went around claiming that the two had never really been friends [and saying the same about her relationship with Davis and Nixon]. She even rebuffed Parker’s extension of condolences after Cattrall’s brother died in 2018.
“There were just a lot of public conversations about how she felt about the show,” Parker told Awards Chatter — conversations Parker found “very painful” because they did not reflect “our experience” [hers, Davis’ or Nixon’s].
“I’ve spent a lot of years working really hard to always be decent to everybody on the set, to take care of people, to be responsible to and for people, both my employers and the people that I feel I’m responsible for as a producer of the show. And there just isn’t anyone else who’s ever talked about me this way.”
Sarah Was Comfortable To Move Forward Without Kim
While Parker readily acknowledged that Cattrall “was a huge contributor to the success” of the ‘Sex and the City‘ series and films, she also explained, “We did not ask her to be part of this [And Just Like That] because she made it clear that that wasn’t something she wanted to pursue, and it no longer felt comfortable for us, and so it didn’t occur to us. That’s not ‘slamming’ her, it’s just learning. You’ve got to listen to somebody, and if they’re publicly talking about something and it doesn’t suggest it’s someplace they want to be, or a person they want to play, or an environment in which they want to be, you get to an age where you’re like, ‘Well, we hear that.’”
Parker continued, “We felt comfortable moving on without her and without that part because we knew what Michael [Patrick King, the AJLT showrunner] wanted to do. And we thought he handled it beautifully.” [On AJLT, Samantha’s absence is attributed to a falling out that she had with Carrie after Carrie informed her that her services as a publicist were no longer needed.]
Parker concluded her remarks about Cattrall with a plea to the media to stop mischaracterizing what has occurred. “I just want to say one thing, because you’ve allowed me this opportunity: It’s so painful for people to keep talking about this ‘catfight’ — a ‘fight,’ a ‘fight,’ a ‘fight.’ I’ve never uttered fighting words in my life about anybody that I’ve worked with — ever. There is not a ‘fight’ going on. There has been no public dispute or spat or conversations or allegations made by me or anybody on my behalf. I wouldn’t do it. That is not the way I would have it. So I just wish that they would stop calling this a ‘catfight’ or an ‘argument,’ because it doesn’t reflect [reality]. There has been one person talking.”
