Sarah Jessica Parker: Carrie's Growth as a Character - Interview

When the first season of “And Just Like That” debuted, the series was met with mixed reactions. While longtime fans were delighted to see Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw), Kristin Davis (Charlotte York Goldenblatt) and Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes) slipped back into their beloved characters seamlessly, many criticised the storylines for being messy.

Now that we’re more than half way through the second season of “And Just Like That”, it looks like the show has redeemed itself. The plotlines are dramatic, comical and timely without going over the top. In this interview, Sarah Jessica Parker shares her thoughts on the challenges in filming “And Just Like That” season 2, and whether she has a favourite Carrie Bradshaw moment so far.

Q. How does it feel to be back in Carrie’s shoes, in her wardrobe, in her apartment?

Sarah: Last year, when it was our ﬁrst time back, it felt familiar and not familiar. And it feels ever more so familiar than it did the ﬁrst season, certainly of this show. It’s always a very happy, creative, often wonderfully challenging, interesting, joyful place to be – among a crew and cast that are fantastic and talented. And the streets of New York have welcomed us back, and the many boroughs in which we’ve shot have been fantastic and new to us. It’s been a really wonderful experience again.

Q. The last series was crazy with fans and paparazzi surrounding those outdoor shoots on the streets of New York. Was it like that again this time?

Sarah: Oh, yes. Probably more so because, at the end of our last time spent with these characters, there was no social media. So if you can imagine how many more people have phones with cameras. It’s a much more intense crowd than it used to be. It’s certainly as large, if not larger, especially on certain streets that people are familiar with as locations. And that’s been a challenge for us, logistically speaking. As a producer, it’s challenging to get all of our equipment on small streets in New York City, make space for our crew and a video village. Block the scene and still have room for pedestrians and onlookers, who are certainly allowed to be there, and try to explain to them that talking and ﬂashes destroys takes.

When you’re doing a long take and it’s a really important scene, which involves cars and cranes and tears and cabs, and timing of that person walking in, and then somebody ﬂashing – even though you’ve asked them so many times, It destroys the whole take, and it can happen time and time again. Or the noise of a shutter of a camera. It’s really challenging for us. But that’s our cross to bear. And so we sort it out but it’s actually quite costly and time-consuming. So it’s a much more intense experience now with cameras and phones. It’s a diﬀerent kind of attention.

Q. Sounds like a logistical nightmare.

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Sarah: Well, none of this is a nightmare. But it poses challenges, you know, that we’re familiar with, but that doesn’t mean that every time it happens isn’t a new problem with a new solution needed.

Q. How is Carrie recovering from the events of season one?

Sarah: She’s feeling hopeful and much more buoyant. I don’t know that there’s a shelf life or a period in which you’re allowed to grieve. From what I understand about it, it’s very diﬀerent for diﬀerent people. And, as Carrie says in one episode halfway through the season, she thought she had managed pretty well and gotten through that period. But I think grief creeps up on you and surfaces when you’re not expecting it. On the whole, she is doing really well, and she’s happy and rediscovering what it means to be single in New York City after a long relationship. Times are radically diﬀerent than when last she was single. But it feels like a very happy season. It feels like a season that’s got a lot of promise and discovery in it for everybody. Not just for Carrie, but for everybody.

Q. It does feel hopeful.

Sarah: I think so. Carrie is, fundamentally speaking, a pretty hopeful person, a pretty optimistic person, even as she internalises and asks a lot of questions. She believes in New York and relationships and the sustenance of intimacy with people and friends.

Q. How do you feel she’s changed or grown as a person?

Sarah: In the way all people grow and change. Life experiences and professional experiences and romantic experiences and experiences of commitment… It’s not radically diﬀerent to how any person grows and changes over the course of 10 years. The big experience that doesn’t make her unique, but is singular among her friendships, is the death of her husband. So that certainly informs the way she wakes up and lives every day, and deals with memories. But I think that’s pretty standard fare for human beings, to have loved.

Q. You’ve been with this character for such a long time. Do you feel like you’ve learned anything from her?

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Sarah: I don’t know that I’ve learned anything from her but the way she conducts her friendships has been inspiring to me. I don’t have the same kind of time that she has to devote to her friendships. That remains a mystery how these people manage to carve out time for a lot of lunches. But that’s been inspiring to me; the kind of friend she is. What the friendships mean to her. Even if I’m not able to devote the same kind of time and attention to my own. I’ve enjoyed experiencing her life and getting to make the kind of bold choices she makes that I wouldn’t make, or dress the way I wouldn’t. It’s a life I’ve lived in parallel to my own, and that’s been really interesting.

Q. What do you think is about these characters that make them so important to so many people?

Sarah: I’m happy to tell you that I don’t spend a lot of time trying to answer those questions because it’s too academic an exercise. I count on Michael Patrick and his extraordinary writing room to create really interesting stories. It started with Darren Star and then he handed oﬀ the show to Michael, second season. And I think they’ve always been so good at simply telling the stories that seemed interesting. Michael has always been excited about digging further into the characters and that means for everybody, including our new cast members. So it’s strange speculating on why has this show had some impact, or why do people relate to us. If that’s what I’m paying attention to, and being results-oriented, or thinking about that and trying to recreate things that may or may not have connected with an audience…

What we do know, and what I’m happy to share, is that it was simply a network that allowed for very candid, forthright, salty, intimate conversations among women. That hadn’t been done anywhere and we were allowed to use language that was typically not allowed to be used on commercial broadcasts, for all the reasons that we know exist within that industry; the guidelines and the government’s standards.

So that’s the ﬁrst thing. And the second thing is that women do have these kinds of friendships and they simply hadn’t seen them represented on TV yet. And the backdrop of New York City playing such an integral role, and the costumes playing such an integral role, those things wrapped around really good storytelling. Scripts that made you stop, and create a standing date with that show at that time.

Q. Do you have favourite Carrie Bradshaw moments?

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Sarah: No. It’s all accumulative. I could tell you something’s my favourite as it’s happening. And then there’s a new experience or scene, and then that’s my favourite. Picking favourites is hard: I’ve never been good at choosing a favourite book or a favourite shoe, certainly not a favourite child or favourite family member. Because it’s the entire experience, as a whole, that’s been so fulﬁlling.

Q. So I guess there’s no point asking you if you have a favourite outﬁt from the show?

Sarah: I love the hits, and I love the misses.

Q. I love the JW Anderson pigeon bag in the new series.

Sarah: That was an amazing little item to hold. And I could ﬁt far more in it than I ever would have imagined possible. The space in the body of the bird is more generous than it looks.