As fans will know, most Sex and the City viewers have a love-hate relationship with Carrie Bradshaw.
Despite being incredibly relatable at times, Carrie’s romantic affairs and questionable decisions — both in life and in fashion — have seen her branded as everything from a bad friend to an irresponsible narcissist.
“Our choices have been so radically different. There are certain kinds of pillars that fundamentally are different,” SJP said in 2015, commenting on the deeply rooted associations between her real-life self and the character she portrayed in six seasons of the show and two subsequent movies between 1998 and 2010.
And now that she’s back on our screens for Season 2 of And Just Like That, SJP is once again grappling with the Carrie comparisons.
In a profile for the New Yorker published earlier this week, Sarah Jessica admitted that Carrie’s chaotic and raunchy lifestyle as a sex columnist, addicted to shopping and nicotine, was “completely unfamiliar” to her.
“I could never do any of that stuff in my life,” she said. “It would be immoral. It would be unprincipled. An affair, husbands, kissing, buying, drinking — whims, whims, whims!”
Despite their differences, SJP’s association with Carrie runs so deep that many fans struggle to shake it off when watching her on other shows — including HBO’s Divorce, which, according to the the New Yorker, “never quite caught on.”
Addressing this, SJP said: “I think it was just really hard for people to allow me to be somebody who isn’t joyfully tripping through Manhattan with opportunity.”
Of course, as true fans of SATC will know, Carrie is actually based on Candace Bushnell, the author whose New York Observer column turned book inspired the show in the first place.
Darren Star — who adapted Candace’s book to create SATC — initially wrote the part of Carrie with Sarah Jessica in mind. Although, she was initially reluctant to take it, fearing that she might become “too famous.”
And while SJP obviously accepted the role, Candace told the New Yorker that the actor — who’s been happily married to Matthew Broderick since before she was even cast in the show — was essentially the opposite to the character of Carrie, who, by comparison, makes a living by writing about her turbulent dating life.
“She’s never really been a single woman. She’s always been successful,” she said of the actor, who she feels “projects a lot of warmth.”
Despite all this, it’s evident that SJP still loves playing the divisive Carrie, even if it brings complications to her real life.
Ahead of the release of AJLT’s second season on June 22, SJP sat down for an interview with Extra TV, where she revealed that her twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha, have never seen a single episode of the original show.
Being that they’re about to turn 14, it’s fair to say that SATC might be a little out of their age range. However, it sounds like the twins still don’t have any plans to tune in any time soon.
“Thus far — maybe that’s unique given the complication of me being their parent — thus far, it’s not been something that’s crossed their viewing radar, and perhaps it never will,” Sarah Jessica said, before making it clear that she wouldn’t be offended if they never ever saw an episode.
“They are aware of the show to the degree that they are interested. It’s not a paramount topic in their lives,” she added.
For her part, SJP has previously stated that watching SATC isn’t something she tends to do in her spare time, regardless of the show’s immense popularity.
“I watch tons of TV, but I never watch anything I’m in,” she said in 2018, before admitting that she’d “never, ever, ever” watch a SATC rerun if she stumbled upon it.
