Sarah Jessica Parker on a ‘big’ return in And Just Like That…
News of the return of much-loved characters Aidan and Samantha in And Just Like That... have sent fans reeling. But what does it mean for Carrie? Sarah Jessica Parker weighs in.
With her hair in long, loose waves, Sarah Jessica Parker is sitting in her home in New York City. A long silver necklace is draped across her collarbone and tucked neatly into the side of her bra strap, giving the illusion it’s part of the fitted black top she’s wearing.
This is SJP — the Hollywood actor and style icon — in off-duty mode, no hot pink Carrie-worthy Christian Siriano party dress in sight.
Parker is sitting down on the eve of the second season of Sex and the City revival, And Just Like That..., in which she returns as Carrie Bradshaw — who is, again, single in New York City. But for how long?
The AJLT trailer has already teased the much-anticipated return of John Corbett as Aidan Shaw, Carrie’s ex-fiance — a return that has special significance for Parker. “I was excited about, frankly, being on set again with John Corbett,” she says.
“Before the writer’s room started for the second season, [AJLT creator Michael Patrick King] shared this thought … about Aidan — and what a return might mean, and why.”
Of course, Carrie nearly married Aidan in the fourth season of Sex and the City, before abruptly calling off their engagement and ultimately, marrying Big (Chris Noth) – who died of a heart attack in the first episode of the spin-off series (SJP and Corbett were pictured holding hands in character while shooting the second season of AJLT in New York). “I know that there are audiences that feel enormous, profound affection for Aidan, and there are probably people who have strong feelings and maybe object to that relationship,” Parker says.
“And all the ways in which it fell short in the ways it could, and should have been. Carrie has shed grief … this season. It’s a much more buoyant season – like some, not like everybody, Carrie has felt as if she had given the time to grieve [Big], in a way.
“And has wanted and felt more removed from those more acute feelings, and is looking at New York, once again, as a place of promise and hope, romantically and professionally.
“Aidan impacts that because his return means that she is a different person in the city when she is with Aidan, and I don’t want to say what evolves – or what doesn’t evolve. It certainly informed the way she was thinking about her life, and love, and romantic entanglement. I kinda think I shouldn’t say more.”
And Corbett isn’t the only “big” name returning to AJLT — Kim Cattrall, who played PR maven Samantha Jones, will be back for a cameo, despite a very public falling out with Parker (Cattrall shot her return appearance solo, without seeing Parker or co-stars Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis on set).
AJLT returns after a controversial a debut season which made headlines in 2021 for everything from the absence of Cattrall to a real-life sex scandal surrounding Chris Noth (who played Big), to its handling of serious social issues, like racism and gender politics, and the much memed-about introduction of non-binary character Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez), who had an affair with Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon).
“Now we’re more familiar, for all of us, playing these parts again,” Parker says, of the second series. “They [the characters] exist more easily. You need a little reminder when you’re separated for so long. I mean, it’s the same thing as doing Sarah Sanderson in Hocus Pocus — there were a lot of years that I had to like watch stuff and recall, how does she talk? How does she walk?
“We were thrilled that the show [And Just Like That …] was watched to the degree that it was and that we could offer stories that were still worth people’s time. And that people connected to, and they still had such strong feelings about.
“They weren’t always good feelings, and that’s … OK. Not ‘good’, but that’s certainly OK too.”
So how does a single Carrie take on New York City in 2023? “The sort of monumental event in Carrie’s life, the loss of a husband, an unexpected loss of that size, radically changes your life,” Parker reflects.
“But I think that rediscovery, for Carrie, of being single again, in a city that she loves and thought she understood … there is the familiar, but there is also the possibility of the new, and the unknown. And that feels, perhaps to some people’s comfort, like Sex and the City.
“I don’t know what it’s like being single at this age. I’m not single at this age,” Parker – who is married to actor Matthew Broderick – says.
“And Carrie’s version of being single at this age is only one person’s version. She might have an experience that’s radically different to anyone else you might ask. I would say, for Carrie, who has always been curious about being a single woman in this particular city [New York], and who has enjoyed pondering about sexual politics and intimacy, and what appears to be acceptable for women, what is objectionable for a larger group with opinions about women, and I think she’ll be no less interested in that, than she was before. And I think it’s not necessarily so much about an age, it’s about what does somebody want? What are they looking for? What do they think they’re looking for? And when they pursue it, is it revealed that, in fact, no — that was an old idea of what you wanted. And those are the kinds of questions that Carrie will be asking.”
When asked about the enduring impact Sex and the City — which premiered 25 years ago — has had on audiences, Parker pauses, and takes a breath. “The success that the show had helped encourage decision-makers to trust in female-led stories.
“We were allowed to have conversations in ways that commercial television just didn’t allow.
“The kind of language you used, and I’m not talking about swear words, I’m talking about the kind of intimate, salty, candid conversations that were being had among four women about their intimate lives had just not yet been seen.”
Season two of And Just Like That… premieres on June 22 via Binge.