Sarah Jessica Parker

Emmanuel Itier: First of all, the dress…

Sarah Jessica Parker: The dress is Versace and the jacket is Halston.

EI: And the shoes?

SJP: Um, I can’t pronounce the name correctly. It’s Brian Atwood.

EI: And the bag?

SJP: The bag is Fendi. [Everyone laughs.] What’s more important? There’s an election going on! [Aside] And I am all me, for better or for worse. Less of me than I was a few days ago.

EI: How are you feeling?

SJP: I’m much better, and I’m so…in a million years, I would never miss work. But you wouldn’t have wanted me here.

EI: Okay, let’s jump in here, okay?

SJP: Sorry, sorry.

EI: So yesterday, all the girls were talking about how you’re the sex therapist, basically, and people approach you on the street and say, “Well, this is what happened to me…”

SJP: Well, I wish that were true.

EI: It’s not?

SJP: No, not really. Not anymore. I mean, when the show first aired, people would be not unkindly confrontational, but they would be very frank and candid and just tell me very personal and intimate details of their lives, and–really men and women, honestly. But that is…really people weaned themselves off that need, and more so now, they’re just approaching in a general convivial way.

EI: How did you react when that happened? What’s that like when a complete stranger pours his or her heart out?

SJP: Gosh, it was like ten years ago. I think, for me, because it’s not my nature to be that way, of all the women, I’m the least candid and forthright about any kind of…that conversation to me is very…it’s not anecdotal to me. So it’s very surprising, but I understood why. I think that is the nature of television; it creates an intimacy very quickly for people. It’s in their homes, and I think they establish relationships, and I knew that this show…I mean, at that point, even then I understood that this was the first time there was that voice and that women were responding to it. So I understood the point of reference for them, but it was odd because I’m not good counsel. I’m not–I mean, I try and keep my own counsel, but I wouldn’t ever–you know, whether it’s tips on motherhood or being a wife or a parent or a daughter, or a therapist of any kind, it’d be, I don’t know, just fraudulent. I have no answers! But I was always kind of touched at people’s…that they identified that way. I was always touched by it, but it’s stunning when you hear a stranger’s intimate, really graphic–it can be graphic…

EI: So how was it for you to get back into this role? Was it easy, and was there a favorite or most difficult scene?

SJP: It was amazing. I started working on putting this movie back together in the spring of 2006, so by the time we started shooting on September 19th, it was so unreal to me that we had managed to get all the parts and pieces together. And myself and Michael Patrick [King] especially had worked endlessly for the last year, prior to shooting. So to get there, the role really got short shrift for a minute because everything else was so complicated, and to produce this movie was a massive undertaking, and all of a sudden there we were on September 19th, and it was a dream. Honestly, it was. And it was very–you guys haven’t seen the movie yet, have you? Oh, I can’t wait for you to see it. Michael Patrick did a beautiful job. He wrote a wonderful story and he really gave me the part of a lifetime, so it was a thrill, honestly.

EI: How did you move it on, Sarah? Because the series was very much of its time. It sort of hit the Zeitgeist, and you’ve got a three-year or four-year gap now. How do you make it cinematic, and how do you keep it pertinent?

SJP: Well, I think Michael Patrick would be far more quick to answer the question, because it’s really his storytelling skills that address that very question. First of all, he started it four years later. It doesn’t pick up right when the series left, which makes everything, well, just in terms of Carrie’s life specifically, much more is at stake. There’s a lot more time invested in her relationship with Big, and obviously her friendships, her career, and what she thinks is the destination point in her life, and I think he really addressed that time with all the characters so that everything has more value. You know, as you get older and people become more important in your lives, and the necessities of your life become much more clear, and the frivolity and the whims, they’re marginalized because you’re grown up. And so I think that’s what’s relative about it. It’s less so about what is a hot club or…Zeitgeist is peripheral, because you can’t write with that intention. You can’t hope to be that result-oriented. You kind of just have to just write a great story, hopefully, and I think that’s what he did. And it’s up to us now to have screwed it up or not. But I think he did a beautiful job.

EI: But will it retain that eyebrow-raising shock value that it had?

SJP: I think that’s always hard for me to say because I think that’s not for us to say. I think that’s for you guys and the public, and whoever’s spending their hard-earned money to say what is shocking to them, or did we maintain… I mean, I think we knew what the audience has. I think the expectations are very clear to us, but you can’t write for expectations. That’s a no-win situation. It would be like trying to start your article with, you know, “This is what’s going to happen in this interview, and how a person is going to respond.” You just kind of have to let a story happen, because if you write hoping to please the audience exactly and give them everything they need and live up to something, I think that’s an impossible scenario.

EI: You had the fear that Carrie was perceived by the audience as only a fashionista, like a superficial character. That isn’t it…

SJP: No, I don’t have that fear. I think sometimes I wonder if people confuse me and that that is the most important part of my life, you know? But these are the things that come along with having played that character. So I think there’s obviously a lot of substance to Carrie Bradshaw, and I realize that a great part of her loves fashion and has a great relationship with clothes, but it’s not really the sum of who she is. If that had been the case, I don’t think the show really… I think novelty can’t keep a show on the air for that long. I think it has to be more of an emotional investment.

EI: How has it been for you to play a role model for single women all over the world, when you’ve been married the whole time yourself?

SJP: I don’t know. I don’t know if so much of this–that my character is that, or if it’s really that the relationship of the women has been such an important thing for single women. I think those kinds of relationships have been very meaningful for a lot of women, and I’m thrilled that people have responded that way and they have that connection, and that they have interest enough to want to see a movie.

EI: So why do women feel such a strong connection to Carrie, do you think?

SJP: I’m not entirely sure. Once again, I think part of it has been the kind of writing, the storytelling, and creating a character that’s not having anything to do with me, but creating a character that lives in a sort of hyper-real place, you know? New York–we kind of painted this portrait of this city. It’s not really New York City. I mean, it is, but it’s sort of hyper-real, the way we want to see New York. It has this kind of poetry and idyllic…all this potential and romance and architecture and literature, and then she’s living it. And I think that was very exciting for women. But I think also she’s kind of, you know, she was a wreck of a person for a while. She’s sort of flawed and she’s very curious about people and has deep commitments for friendships, and I think those are interesting qualities to possess. But I don’t know if that makes her necessarily a role model/ I just think it’s good writing and it’s a great character.

EI: Speaking of friendships, what kinds of friends do you have: long-term, short-term? Is there a coolest thing that they’ve done for you? Kristin spoke about a birthday party celebration. Could you just cover friendship very briefly?

SJP: Yeah, I have. Most of my friends have been my friends for 15-20 years, some of them 30 years. I come from a very big family and I’m one of eight children, and so a lot of my siblings are my friends, and of course I’ve known them a very long time and we still like each other very much. It’s hard to illustrate with one story what a friendship or what one friend has done for me.

EI: You’ve got to help me out here. I’ve got a one-on-one that I’ve got to fill up.

SJP: But I—oh, I wouldn’t be able to pick one. My friends are my family. When you grow up and you become an adult, this is the family you choose. It’s hard to describe. I couldn’t begin to describe what they mean to me, or hopefully what I mean to them. I have deep, intimate relationships with people, to really splay it out there, but they’re everything to me, and I hope I’m the friend that they are to me.

EI: Great. Thanks.

SJP: But a party, I don’t—it’s hard to describe specifically. I’ll try to think of something while I’m talking.

EI: The TV series has represented a kind of second feminist revolution.

SJP: Really.

EI: You have this kind of responsibility…

SJP: I have the responsibility?

EI: Yeah.

SJP: For the feminist revolution?

EI: Yes. Sex and the City.

SJP: Wouldn’t you hand it off to the writing more?

EI: No.

SJP: And we’re just the lucky recipients of the words? Honestly. There comes a point in time when you have to recognize the source. Yeah, we just got to play the parts. I mean, we just got lucky, honestly, because it could have been anybody. But it’s also very hard to be somebody who talks about our legacy because it just seems really unattractive. For us to say, “Well, I should speak for myself,” it would be not my nature for me to say, “Yes, we were responsible, we were part of this revolution,” or, “What is the legacy of the show?” It sounds really…uh…

EI: Really?

SJP: I don’t think it’s for us to say. I think it’s for others to…

EI: Um, okay.

SJP: I’m not deflecting. I’m just saying I think it sounds braggy.

EI: Okay.

SJP: Do you know? Am I clear? Because I’m not disagreeing with you, but I’m also saying that it’s hard for us to say we were part… It’s also very early. I mean, who knows? It might look dated…

EI: I thought that was ironic.

SJP: Okay, good. Well, in that case, with humor, yeah, I see four women walking down the street together in lots of different countries and I recognize its provenance. And in New York City, I see four girls—there’s an intention of how they’re behaving with each other, and I recognize that we had something to do with that, for better or worse. Sometimes it’s, unfortunately, a woman showing a thong, and I think, “Well, that’s the bad part of our legacy,” but…does that address it better?

EI: I understand. But it was a way to say that women have learned through Sex and the City that sex toys are cool, and so…you understand.

SJP: Yeah, I know.

EI: It’s funny!

SJP: It is funny, but I also think, or hope maybe, that there’s also been the bigger byproduct is this idea about friendship. I think that really is, because I think the sex toys and the candid talk and the salty stuff, that’s funny and fun, but it’s cotton candy. That goes away. So if it was only that that people responded to about the show, I just don’t think it would have lasted, because that’s just kind of—it’s like empty calories. I think it’s fun and funny and it’s titillating, but it’s the journey, dare I say, honestly, that people–especially women–really connected to. And then all the dirty stuff was fun too.

EI: I have to ask about the gay sensibility of the show. Michael Patrick King and Darren Starr were the original creators, and obviously it’s got a huge gay audience. Were you aware of the gay sensibility, and why do you think it’s so popular with gay audiences?

SJP: I don’t think I recognized it until it was told to me, because I’m from a metropolitan city and I grew up in the world of theater. I always think that the gay community is part of culture. To me, it’s a natural progression of creating art or culture and entertainment, and obviously it’s a show about women in a city that has a large gay community, so yeah, it’s a natural. But I will say it became clear to us early on that they were a committed audience early, certainly before straight white men, definitely. But I don’t know so much. It’s hard to know, because there were a lot of women writers on that staff that worked. Michael Patrick was the head writer, and Darren was there for the first season and then he went off and did other things. But I think it became sort of this idea about it being run by gay men, but really it wasn’t. It was very out of balance, actually–female to male. Michael Patrick was the only man on the writing staff, and everybody else was a straight woman, mostly single.

EI: As producer, are you thinking that you are going to have a series of movies?

SJP: Of Sex and the City?

EI: Yeah, or are you thinking, “Well, this is going to be it”?

SJP: I think it would be putting the cart before the horse to talk about another…I mean, I’ve produced movies, and this isn’t the first and hopefully it won’t be the last. I mean, this is the biggest thing I’ve been a part of producing, just in terms of the effort and what’s at stake, but I don’t know about another Sex and the City movie. But I definitely loved producing it.

EI: Fashion is a big deal in this movie and everybody calls you a fashion icon, and I know you’re very modest and say, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

SJP: No, it’s not that I don’t want to talk about it…

EI: …But I need it for my article.

SJP: I’m going to give you every answer I can. I’m not letting you go back home without…

EI: We heard that you brought in Patricia Field. How aware were you that people see you as a fashion icon, and what was your fashion sensibility before?

SJP: Well, I met Patricia Field on another movie–on a movie called Miami Rhapsody that David Frankel wrote and directed, and he really gets the credit because he brought Pat on because they’re both Florida kids. So he brought on Pat, and after I worked with Pat…the pilot I didn’t get to bring Pat on to, and if you watch the pilot, there’s a vast difference in the role that fashion plays, and so we really wooed Pat. And I always say that I think Pat’s work on the show was as important as the storytelling, in many ways, because fashion was part of the story, as you’ve said, but also because I think she’s very good at telling a story with the fashion. She really thinks about it. She has a really great sense of fashion, historically.

EI: So did you learn anything from her?

SJP: I learned a lot from her.

EI: For instance?

SJP: No rules. All rules should be thrown out the window. I mean, by doing that, you take great risks and people make fun of certain things, and the hits are enormous and the misses are comical.

EI: Did you ever say no to her?

SJP: She’ll tell you the same thing. I’ve never said no to Pat, because here’s the thing: If I was dressing for myself, I will always try something on, but I would say no. But for Pat, I would rarely say no, but I would always try it on. Pat will tell you–I will stay in a fitting for 10, 11, 13 hours. I will try on everything on the rack because I think she has a point of view. And even if something looks absurd to me, nothing is funnier than an absurd outfit at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning after a 14-hour day on the set. Nothing is better than a fitting with Pat. So I’ve learned an enormous amount from her. And really, this idea that I’m some kind of fashion icon is, in large part, due to Pat. You have to look and say, “This birth of this idea had a lot to do with my collaboration with Pat.” So I’ve learned she’s a remarkable person. And don’t be fooled by the red hair–she’s no Hostess Twinkie. She’s a really smart woman, and we begged her to do the movie. She was booked a million different ways and we really had to woo her. We had to court her for months.

EI: So personally, do you have such a shoe fetish as Carrie does? And how many pairs of shoes do you own?

SJP: [Laughs.] I don’t. I don’t! I’m sorry. [The table laughs.]

EI: It’s disappointing!

SJP: Here’s the thing: It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s just that it doesn’t fit into my life in the same way. I think about shopping. I love shopping. On the rare occasion I get to do it, it’s really a treat. I don’t get the same kind of euphoric high. I mean, I tend to feel guilty afterwards and then return stuff. But I like it because it’s a little bit of a respite. But I find that I have a child, and so any free time I have, if I’d spent that running all the way uptown to a clothing store, I’d just feel crappy about it. It just doesn’t fit into my life in the same way. It doesn’t mean that I have any less affection. I just don’t have that kind of disposable time. It doesn’t mean that I also don’t look through fashion magazines and dog-ear a page and think, “I’ve got to get that shoe or that bag.” I like it and I think about it, but it’s kind of a flight of fancy.

EI: Clearly you’re a million miles away from the character that you portray. Can I just say it? Is there a downside, do you think, to the way that women were portrayed in Sex and the City? Did you ever think about that? You mentioned earlier on about the thong.

SJP: Yeah.

EI: I think that’s such a minor incidental–but that aspirational nature that women are just obsessed with fashion…?

SJP: No, because once again, I really think that if all of that were the thrust of the story, if it was only about women that talked about sex and shopped, and weren’t–if Carrie wasn’t the person that she is–was then, is now–I just don’t think the show would last. You can’t just have a show that’s fun. It’s a comedy; it’s not a drama, but it’s not the substance of what that show’s about, and if it had been, I really don’t think it would have lasted as long and I don’t think people would have invested in the same way.

EI: And you would say the substance was about broader issues–about friendship and about growing up?

SJP: …About friendship and growing up, and the decisions we make and the triumphs, and the massive disappointments and the mistakes, and what you learn and what you don’t learn when you should learn… And when your friends are there and when they actually… I think a lot of this movie that’s surprising to people is this is a grown-up movie. Things happen in this movie that–something happens that’s very…the despair you feel when you’re 20 versus the despair you feel or the loss you feel when you’re 40 are vastly different. And the movie really addresses it, and it really looks at how important your friendships are. But when your friendships can no longer solve those things…you know–when you’re 20, your friends can say, “You’ve got to get out of bed. I know you’re disappointed and I know he broke your heart, but you’ve got to get out of bed and come to the club, or come to the restaurant, or come to my apartment. We’ll watch a DVD or put a video in (20 years ago)…” but there comes a point when you’re a grown-up that even your friends can’t fix it. They can’t distract you from the loss. And I think that’s what people connected to about the show, and that’s what I think Michael Patrick has done so beautifully in the screenplay. It’s really about who they are outside of the…embroidery.

EI: Is there a phrase in the movie that represents the new Carrie? As you said it before, Carrie is now 40 and now different.

SJP: A phrase? That is such a good question.

EI: Or a scene?

SJP: Gosh, I’m trying to think. The movie is so packed. There’s so much that happens; you can’t believe what happens in the movie. I think something major happens that changes who she is–that fundamentally changes who she is, so it’s hard to pick one phrase because she’s a new person in a lot of ways in this movie, because she finds herself at the crucible for the first time, and everything is different.

EI: Will you come to Cannes for movie festival in May?

SJP: We hope so. Oh my gosh, we’d love it.

EI: It’s possible?

SJP: It’s not up to me!

EI: How difficult is it to be a working mother? I’m missing my son’s concert because I didn’t get to go home last night. So you’re juggling, you are really–oh my God. [She and others laugh.] What’s it like for you to have to juggle that constantly?

SJP: The exact same as for you. He comes first. If he’s not content and well-taken-care-of, then everything else kind of just doesn’t have the same… Everything works if he’s all right, and if he’s not, and if he’s feeling–or if I’m feeling worried that he’s not getting the kind of attention that he needs, then everything else doesn’t get the same balance. But that doesn’t mean, as you are telling me right now, that I constantly feel like I’m falling short or someone’s getting the short shrift, or that there’s simply not enough time in the day. But this is the nature of being a mother. If you want to be a working mother, you are constantly in a state. You’re straddling this world of guilt. It’s just the nature of being a working mother. But the truth is that’s my fault, because I like to be a working person and I like to think that it makes me a better mother. But I get to spend a lot of time with him, and I’m so sorry that you’re missing your son’s concert. I’m sorry! I know what that’s like. I don’t even know what to say.