One of the biggest hits of the year, Sex and the city is out on DVD this weekend.
It was one of the surprise hits in Irish cinemas this year. While SATC always had a reasonable audience on TV nobody expected the sold-out crowds that queued up in cinemas around the country to catch up with the four New Yorkers. The success was astounding to everyone but Sarah Jessica Parker.
Sex and The City: The Movie puts Sarah firmly back with the old gang but the details of their adventures, their conquests and more importantly what they’re wearing are being kept strictly under-wraps until opening night.
But with 81 costume changes for Carrie alone, the film promises to be as fun and fashion filled as before. Here Sarah talks about that row with co-star Kim Cattrall, how to walk inkiller heels and why she loves middle age . . .
Q: How do you manage to walk in those mile high things, what is your secret?
A: “Um, I’m pretty accustomed to it by now. I’ve just basically destroyed my feet. So they feel nothing. I have no feeling in my feet! But it’s cool.”
Q: A lot of the appeal of Sex and the City is the fashion – what was it like working on the fashions in the film with Patricia Field?
A: “Yeah, the women are older. They are not on the market in the same way, romantically speaking. Patricia is a great storyteller with clothes. She also understands the desire for eye candy. She has the ability to balance those things. You just can’t do it without her. She has such an integral part now in this whole process.”
Q: Are you now keeping the outfits from the movie?
A: “Anything that is not borrowed I have now archived!”
Q: Now, about your fabulous white wedding dress in SATC…Is it true you wore black at your own wedding to Matthew Broderick?
A: “I did, I did. As an actor, a lot of attention is paid to you. And for some reason, I felt on that day, that I should not bring attention to myself. And my husband kinda had the same attitude about it. I think we were embarrassed to be a traditional bride and groom. We wanted to throw a party, and deflect attention off us. We thought, oh we have plenty of attention in our lives. So we did as much as we could to diminish the conventional ideas.”
Q: What do you think guys get from watching the show and now this movie?
A: “Um – from what I have gleaned! It’s something they can do with a girlfriend, or a wife. And they were maybe pulled kicking and screaming to
the television but I kinda get the impression that it’s something they do with a woman in their life.”
Q: I think you are the only actress around who can do a love scene still in your bra and underwear. And pull it off.
A: “Thanks!”
Q: And with pearls on! How did you get away with that, when everybody else
was making love naked in the movie but you?
A: “I’ve got a ‘no nudity’ clause! It’s been there since I was eight.”
Q: And it’s never become an issue?
A: “No, no…”
Q: Would you say the film is probably the final chapter of Sex and the City?
A: “It has taken the last two years of my life to get to this point. To ask for anything beyond that, honestly, we would have to be greedy. I don’t really even feel that it’s in our control.”
Q: In stealing a line from the movie, what are your twenties, thirties and forties each for?
A: “Well, I’m never one to give advice to people. But I tend to think that your twenties should be about improvisation. And travel. You know, curiosity. And not making any proclamations about who you are, or what you’re gonna be. Or who you’re gonna date or marry. But rather, about whim. And flight of fancy. And I think it’s unfortunate that so many people feel they have to come out of college, and buckle down. Because I think it’s the thirties that are really for getting those ducks in a row, you know? And then saying okay, this was liberty. And now I’m kinda developing an interest in something. And then the forties are the meaningful part of those two decades, to me. It’s like yeah, I’m smarter now, and I know so much more. And I’m glad I didn’t know that then. I’m so glad I made those mistakes. And now I get to pursue a meaningful life based on those twenty years.”
Q: What was the first scene like, having all four of you girls back together again? And, what was it like to be in your old SATC outfits?
A: “The first scene was in chronological order. It was the scene of the four of us on Park Avenue. Kim Cattrall is in the red, I’m in the white Ralph Lauren, and it was one of the most unforgettable days of my life. It was this perfect September day and the streets were lined with hundreds and hundreds of people watching. We had three cameras set up that day. The paparazzi were surrounding us. Kim had yet to be on the set and Cynthia Nixon had yet to work. Neither of them had walked on the set yet. It’s just kind of unforgettable. They had no dialogue that day, I had shot in the morning and continued to shoot afterwards, but it was like being in an alternate universe for about two hours.”
Q: Were there ever any tense times on the set with you and Kim?
A: “Why would you think it was tense?”
Q: Probably because of the numerous reports that Kim was the lone cast member holding up production on the movie of Sex and the City for several years.
A: “Yeah, but you’ve got to let people make their choices. You have to respect a person’s decision. Were we disappointed? Yes. But would I have, as a producer, made that movie without her? No. Would I have made it without Cynthia? No. Kristin Davis? No. Big? No. A person has to be allowed to say ‘No’ to a movie. That has to be okay. It was really important to me that we all be together, that it be an environment that everybody wanted to be a part of, and a story that everybody wanted to tell. I could not wait to send the first email to Kim and say, ‘We have a green light, we are making this movie and I will see you at the table read.’ No, the story is so old and boring, and it does not define the last ten years.”
Q: What made Kim finally say ‘Yes’ to do the movie?
A: “You would have to ask Kim. It wasn’t my business. It was just important to me that it was right, that’s all I cared about. I wanted her to be there and be happy.”
Q: Now for the mystery of how these women came together in the first place. Do you know the secret to that, or have any clues?
A: “No, I still have none. And I never ask!”
Q: And what about Big and Carrie? What do you think makes them so irresistible?
A: “I don’t know. I love the writing, and I can only respond to that, I couldn’t tell you if people like them. I just don’t know. I think great writing is everything, especially great story telling. I’m very bad at trying to speculate as to why something works.”
Q: After playing Carrie all these years, was it difficult to let go and say goodbye to the character when you finished shooting the movie?
A: “No, I think that maybe it’s because I’ve always sort of looked at this as literature. Maybe it’s because we have had so many chapters to tell. It’s always bittersweet, but I never have felt a need to do beyond what had been on the page.”
Q: How do you think fans will react to Carrie’s decisions at the end of the
movie?
A: “I just don’t know. So far, people have been really happy with this particular story and how we’ve told it. I hope people will be happy, but the odds are that you can’t please everybody.”
Q: Has Matthew seen the film?
A: “He has. You know, Matthew isn’t particularly demonstrative. And when the lights came up, he said, ‘not a false note, baby.'”
Q: And how did that make you feel?
A: “I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ I was so relieved, you know? He was really, really proud.”
Q: You have been pretty busy – do you miss your son James when work is so
hectic?
A: “Oh god, I haven’t seen him for two days! He’ll say, ‘Do you have to go to work now for that Sex and the City movie?’ But he has no idea what anything means, except for ‘And The Movie,’ you know? So he just knows we’re actors. And for a while, he thought everybody’s parents were actors! But now he knows. Slightly!”
Q: So are you taking a break now from movies to be with him?
A: “Yes! And I cannot wait.”
‘Sex and the City’ is out on DVD in Ireland from September 19th