You would think with Sarah Jessica Parker being such a busy lady, what with starring on the HBO series Divorce and launching her own book publishing label, she wouldn’t have time to sit around and entertain wild theories. Well, she’s managed to carve out some free time and has come up with a whopper about the show that made her a star. No, not Square Pegs – although that was my favorite show starring SJP.
On Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist poscast, the 51-year-old actress mused that her Sex and the City cohorts Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda, played by Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon, were the products of Sarah’s writer character Carrie’s imagination. She told Chris:
“I used to wonder if Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda were real. That that wasn’t just her column.”
“They’re such perfectly archetypal characters. So you’re writing a column about sexual politics and observations of female-male, primarily, heterosexual relationships, so you’re picking one type. You’re saying, ‘This type is this and this,’ and then you complicate it more, like any good writer does. So I’m not entirely sure they are real…What we are seeing isn’t necessarily what happened in New York.”
So, basically, Carrie just had a lot of imaginary friends? I always thought the characters, especially Samantha, were over the top, which does lend some credence to Sarah’s theory. If the characters were figments of Carrie’s imagination, that would definitely explain the second SATC movie.
The SJP news I’m more excited about from this week was talk of a sequel to Hocus Pocus. This is something I can definitely get behind. On Watch What Happens Live last week, Andy Cohen asked Sarah about the possibility of getting together with Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy to reprise their roles as the Sanderson sisters, she replied, “I would love that. I think we’ve all been fairly vocal about being very keen, but that hasn’t created any groundswell of movement.” Oh, please make this happen.
Photo credit: WENN.com, Getty Images
So, it was even more all about HER character?
It does makes sense for Carrie to “make up” nice friends, no one would want to have that selfish person as a friend.
And did she invented her lovers as well?
Oh no, she didn’t make up her lovers. All the men looooved Carrie and were so real. But the other women were made up. There is no room for friends in Carrie’s life with her oh so busy career and all the men who fell for her.
You could think I hated SATC, but I actually really liked it. Just couldn’t stand Carrie and Charlotte.
I always felt that for the purposes of the story being told, the 4 women were distillations of aspects of women.
You had the work woman (Miranda), the sexual woman (Samantha), the romantic woman (Charlotte) and the messy woman (Carrie).
Individually they were grating, but combined they made a hell of a woman, but that would have made a confusing show, better to separate these aspects into 4 women and tell their stories according to the aspect they had been assigned.
Having them co-exist and friends cemented the fact that these different aspects of a woman do exist at the same time.
I agree with LAK. And actually agree with SJP on this.
That’s how I saw them as well LAK, each had a characteristic of a woman that we either celebrate or disdain (depending on society.) I hated all of them. God that show was self indulgent and overly precious to me but I do get why some people liked it. In reruns it seems particularly dated and out of touch (which I felt it was at the time too.) I like SJP but hated her character.
A Hocus Pokus rewind I can get behind! I still watch that every Halloween.
YEah, the one who spends her mortgage money on shoes and has a friend give her a million dollar ring to cash in. Pure imaginary.
Is Divorce any good? It’s about to start on TV here in the UK and I don’t know whether to give it a go or not.
I’m a diehard SJP fan. Since the 80s, so i’m going to give this show a go regardless of reviews.
Here here.
I loved SJP since day 1.
‘Divorce’ is written by Sharon (Pulling, Catastrophe) Horgan. I can’t imagine it being anything other than darkly and hilariously brilliant.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/oct/09/sharon-horgan-queen-of-difficult-women
I’m the same as Guesto – Sharon Horgan wrote it, I’m definitely giving it a go. I adore Catastrophe.
@Lurker – I adore her! Loved her since ‘Pulling’, and am so happy to see her career on the upward international trajectory that it deserves.
I only saw the first episode of season 2 of catastrophe but it was a horrible show full of horrible people. That nasty fight they had that was just brushed over then their terrible attitudes about the dog… PASS. I think I’ll give this one a miss which is a shame as I love Thomas Haden Church.
Right. Will set it to record and give the first episode a go! Thanks!
It’s great! I love SJP, there’s something so genuine about her and I think it comes through in all of her roles. You know what else is great? Insecure!!!!
I really liked it and Molly Shannon was hilarious. do wish it started earlier in their relationship to see how they grew to ‘Divorce’ but think it has a lot of potential.
If anything, Carrie was the most unrealistic/fantasy-driven character.
Not only was she living in a Manhattan-centered fantasy land, but there’s no way she could afford to live the way she did by being just a relationship columnist. Endless wardrobe and endless funds to actualize it. The others were two high-caliber career women who had well paying jobs, and one 1%er trophy wife.
Carrie was the fantasy! There are women who live like her in every city, but it is usually their daddies or boyfriends who keep footing the bills for them.
Exactly! Carrie was the most unrealistic character. Maybe the most annoying as well (but Charlotte was painfully annoying as well).
But of course a woman like Miranda, who is a hard working lawyer and later a working mom who struggles to keep her career and her family going is an unrealistic character.
Carrie did have financial problems. She almost lost her apartment when she broke up with Aidan because he had bought the apartment next door and joined them and she didn’t have the funds and couldn’t get a loan to buy it from him. Miranda handled her bankruptcy filing and Charlotte gave her the money to save the apartment after selling the engagement ring from her first marriage.
Well, that is what happens when you live in a studio rental but spend 15K on a cornflower blue Birkin or 5K on a Chanel jacket. Or 10K on a Bulgari necklace or 100K on a gold diamond Rolex. You run into debt.
Esp. if your sole income is some column.
I thought Charlotte was the most annoying of the bunch but yes, Carrie was up there too.
SJP has been an excellent Carrie.. but i will never forgive Carrie for dumping Aidan.
Mr Big was the worst choice as well as the most predictable.
Casting is everything. Mr Big worked because of the actor who played him. Compare him with Samantha’s Richard. A character equally as successful and just as much as horrid as Mr Big. If he had been cast with as charming an actor as the one playing Mr Big, he might have gained as many fans.
Aidan was everything! Carrie never deserved him though.
I thought that was the point about Richard, though. The SATC were on point when it came to casting, so the fact that they went with someone who came across as slimy must have been intentional.
Aw, that top picture of the SATC cast makes me smile.
I love SJP. Her voice is so cute and I love that she has never gotten a nose job which apparently is very unusual in Hollywood.
I was never that crazy about Sex and the City but I do wish that it was still around considering how many right wing nuts there are around now. It would feel positively lighthearted and refreshing.
I always had the idea that the 4 women were different personalities of the same woman.
we all are sometimes dreamy, sometimes housewives, sometimes cynical career driven and sometimes sex crazed.
I need Hocus Pocus 2 in my life.
Here for a Hocus Pocus sequel. Make it happen somebody!
When I first watched the show I adored Carrie. Everyone wanted to be “a Carrie.” When I watched the show as an adult, I found her exhausting, unlikeable and ridiculous. Honestly, the best moments of that show are the examples of selfless friendship that Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda exhibited amongst each other and the very undeserving, selfish Carrie. One of my absolute favorite scenes is when Charlotte finds out she’s infertile and is upset with Miranda for being “lucky” enough to have an unplanned (unwanted) pregnancy herself. In the scene, they bump into each other on the street and Charlotte wanted to be alone and was upset and jealous of Miranda, so Miranda walked behind her all the way home… that scene chokes me up every single time– that is friendship, at least in my book.
Love SJP but this is a huge no for me. It was a show about a sex columnist, NYC, and her friends, not “The Sixth Sense.”
Yes, THAT is friendship. : ) It was beautifully done.
And no, I don’t believe SJP’s theory holds water either.
Miranda and Steve were the best part of the show for me so if those two aren’t real…then ugh.
Carrie was the WOOOORST. So whiney, so selfish. All the crap she pulled with Aiden, and then basically wanting Big because he treated her like crap. That character was my least favorite part of the show.
The first three seasons of SATC rocked and were groundbreaking in terms of their portrayal of modern single women. The fourth season was spotty and then it all went downhill, acting included. I always wondered why, I had heard rumors it was behind the scenes fighting.
That would make sense.
I could never buy into the idea that those 4 women would be close friends. I could buy that they would all be friends with Carrie, she was such a nothing character she pretty much works paired with anyone, but take her out of the equation and would those 3 have ever given each other the time of day? If Carrie didn’t come in every week with a new topic of discussion, would they have had things to talk about? There were whole seasons where the show would forget the other 3 were meant to be close and when together they basically just served as a focus group for Carrie. Some dramatic moment where they look out for each other sans Carrie would be shoe-horned in, and then we’d go back to a string of episodes where they barely even talk to each other and just all talk at Carrie.
I’ve known women who still have those high school friendships where they like one person and tolerate the group that person comes with, and Charlotte was maybe the sort of person who’d keep that dynamic going, but Miranda and Samantha? No way. In real life neither would have tolerated Charlotte for more than 5 minutes.
That’s actually a good theory, and Carrie was a writer after all, she could be writing fiction instead of real-life events.
But that’s an old, old theory… I’ve read about it years ago (and yes, it was said to be SJP’s theory). Why write about it now?
SJP needs to stop with the fucking eyeliner. It makes her look like a zombie with no eyeballs. Its freaky.
that show was so god awful they told the audience to be drunk to watch it.