Before the Harvey Weinstein scandal/crime spree blew up several weeks ago, one of the big gossip stories about was Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker. Go here to read our coverage of the back-and-forth. Basically, SJP blamed Kim for killing the third Sex and the City movie. Kim said that she never wanted to do the movie in the first place and that SJP “could have been nicer” about all of it. There were several stories – which seemed to be leaked by SJP – about how Kim was a diva, demanding more money and favors, etc. Personally, I thought SJP came across like a Mean Girl and Kim came across like someone who had enough with her crap. Anyway, Kim has a new interview with Piers Morgan, and they talk about all of that and more. Some highlights:
Why she chose not to have children: “That was my early 40s and I had just started filming Sex and the City, the chances of getting pregnant with these procedures was, everyone was talking about it. But I thought to myself, ‘wow I have 19 hour days on this series, I have weekends where I finish at Saturday morning. My Monday morning would start at 4.45am and go to one or two in the morning. How could I possible continue to do that, especially in my early 40s?’ And then I realised what a commitment it was just to the procedures. I thought I don’t think this is going to happen. It was the first moment, it was extraordinary, in my life where I thought maybe I’m just not going to do this.”
On her SATC costars: “We’ve never been friends. We‘ve been colleagues and in some ways it’s a very healthy place to be because then you have a clear line between your professional life and relationship and your personal. They all have children and I am ten years older and since specifically the series ended I have been spending most of my time outside of New York so I don’t see them. The common ground that we had was the series and the series is over.”
She last spoke to her SATC costars years ago: “It must have been at some event, I don’t even remember… And that’s another thing that’s really disappointing is that nobody ever picks up the phone and tries to contact you and say, ‘how you doing?’”
Why she’s done with Samantha Jones: “That was part of turning 60. That was a very clear moment of, how many years do I have left and what do I want to do it, what haven’t I done. I feel that the show is the best when it was the series and the bonus was the two movies. I haven’t killed Samantha, I have released Samantha. I swear, she will never reappear. Me playing her is definitely, that I can assure you will never happen. For me it’s over, and it’s over with no regrets. I remember so clearly making that decision. Last December I got a phone call and it was concerning that and I knew exactly, I could feel it, and the answer was simply, ‘thank you but no, I’m good’. This isn’t about more money, it’s not about more scenes, it’s not about any of those things. This is about a clear decision, an empowered decision in my life, to end one chapter and start another. I’m 61. It’s now. The other girls are 10 years younger than me, you know, and that is their choice.”
I feel her about the we’re-not-friends thing – I think the reality of their friendships or lack of friendships was disappointing to a lot of fans of the original series. SJP and Cynthia Nixon were friends before the show and they’re friends after, but Kim wasn’t particularly close to any of them and that’s fine. She came in and she did her job and what’s wrong with that? Kim called this whole thing “toxic” and that’s what it became, right? The way Sarah Jessica tried to bully Kim in the press, the way Kim was supposed to put aside her own desires just to “come back” and pretend to be friendly with these women? She just wasn’t feeling it on any level.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
This isn’t a new interview. The comments made at the height of SATC threequelgate were leaked quotes from this interview.
This is the full interview finally being aired and the media picking it up as ‘new quotes’ and or KC refusing to let go of this beef when the reality is that the comnents in earlier articles are leaked quotes of a yet to be aired TV interview that was finally aired in full last night.
if you go to the articles in the DM quoting these KC, there are set pics with Piers Morgan and video cuts from the interview.
Yeah I was gonna say that I recognized several of these quotes! Thanks for clearing that up, LAK…was confused for a second.
Yes, I was about to mention the same thing. Kim Cattrall has been very mature about this. It isn’t as if she has gone to numerous media outlets to complain about her former castmates. Most of the quotes circulating for the past month have been from this one interview with Piers Morgan.
I love Kim.
Why do they always make an actress who hasn’t had children, explain why? I hate that she gets asked why she doesn’t have children. I don’t see why it’s a big deal, these days especially with so many choices.
I can respect Kim’s feelings and decisions. She made a conscious decision that was best for her. And quite honestly, the first two movies weren’t that good and really no one was clamoring for a third movie. Let Sex & the City RIP.
They were kind of painfully bad and cringey.
I like the actors of charlotte and Miranda. Why aren’t they doing good tv work at all? sjp has done a few not so good rom coms right? It seems like people who want to do this just want the fast easy money and are shamelessly blaming kim. The show was good at the time, I saw people mention here that when you watch it now it’s nothing special but it was unique and quality tv then compared to what was on tv at that time. I have a hard time believing that most of the people who liked the (good) show also liked the (bad) movies and want more of them.
Good for Kim. The show is outdated and she knows it. Also, they there were gossips about kim and sjp before. Still puzzled why people used to side with sjp…
My opinion of SIP has really changed, and not in a good way, after all of this backstabbing Kim in the press.
Kim sounds measured and calm and I see her point. SIP appears needy and desperate and vengeful.
My friend use to be good friends with her before the show even came to a party I went to but she said over the years she’d run into her on the street and SJP we need to get together but of course when she made an attempt always blocked by some assistant. sooo they don’t speak now or haven’t in years. That Divorce show I can’t stomach so don’t really watch. I think the person who played Miranda does a lot of theater.
Yeah you can see why Kim wasn’t and isn’t friends with them! I kind of believe the rumours that they mean-girled her on set back in the day. I’ve had that – a group of girls I think are nice enough one-on-one but who turn in to a horrible exclusionary clique when they’re together. Also Kim was the most beautiful and along with Cynthia the best actress. I can imagine some jealousy probably came into play too from SJP who was supposed to be the “star”.
I think there was a huge amount of jealousy on SJP’s part because the character Samantha was always a scene stealer. But that was never Kim’s fault, unless playing a more interesting character well is a fault.
I have worked with some mean-spirited people, both men and women, but women can be particularly petty and cruel when it comes to cliques and friendships at work. Drama and gossip has once led me to leave a job (it was actually a good thing for me – I found a much better job in a better environment and better city), but the interim while waiting to hear back from a new job is torture. I would not go back to that old job or city again, even if they offered me more money than my current job. At some point, everyday happiness and contentment is worth much more than a slightly higher paycheck.
Kim Cattrall put up with the drama for many years to earn her paycheck. She’s done. She no longer needs the money or acting credentials. She has proven herself. I don’t blame her if she wants to relax for the next few decades and spend most of her time in Europe doing theater or British TV shows. Good for her. Many of us would make the same choice if we were lucky enough to be in her position.
I’ve had those moments with co-workers. I’ve gone out for birthdays, going away parties, and such. But have drawn the line when it comes to letting them into my life. I’ve done that before and have gotten burned. Now there is a clear drawn line deep in the sand. I don’t talk about my personal life at work. I keep it all business.
Kim obviously doesn’t care to know these woman and it seems like it was a good decision.
Same here. I’m super-private at my job and I’ve been working at this small family-owned agency for almost 12 years. I see absolutely nothing wrong with keeping personal and professional life separate.
Exactly correct. My work time is one situation. I have always tried to keep my personal/family life quiet and private. At my job, I’m paid to work and be productive and polite. My personal time is my own time and no thank you to spending any extra time with my co-workers.
I recall at one of my early jobs, a new Mum co-worker went to every single female in her department asking if they would babysit on weekends for her. This was over 25+ years ago, and I still don’t agree that she put people on the spot like that.
Kim is taking the high road here. SJP needs to realize SaTC is over. That 2nd movie was crapola!
Me too. Been burned by work friendships before. At my current job, they’re all friends on social media. I told them I wasn’t on anything, then immediately changed all my settings to private.
As they say in reality TV, ‘I didn’t come here to make friends’.
I feel her on not being friends with your colleagues and she’s right. They had their moment and now it’s over, but if that’s the case why would they call her to say “Hi”? I only do that for my friends or family.
Same here: I thought I had found a friend, in my previous work, but at a certain point she started mobbing me. I changed, now everything is better, and colleagues are better, but I do not want to share my private life in the office anymore.
We laugh a lot, there’s a good atmosphere, and that’s all.
It is hard to draw the line sometimes. I have made some amazing friends at some of my jobs. Good friends who I still keep in touch today even if we are thousands of miles away. I always recognize how lucky I was to forge those friendships, but I have also come across some very horrible two-faced people at work. We all have to use our judgement, and definitely be on our toes in the first year at a workplace. It does take a while to get to know everyone’s character and whether or not you can trust them. It is a good idea to draw the line with most people at work. I’ve seen so many people who live for office gossip because they are lazy workers or have nothing else good going in their lives. Unfortunately, there are horrible people and assholes that we will all come across. I have learned to be a “team player” and cordial at work, divulge some information that isn’t so important but will make me appear amiable, but I keep a lot of things to myself. Most of them I would never want to hang out with after work hours. Kim Cattrall felt the same and I can’t fault her for that. If she and the rest of the cast didn’t hit it off, so be it. She did a great job on screen pretending to be best pals with them.
I am usually the same way.
Then a co-worker literally moved in across the street from me and begged me to carpool. Logically, it made sense so I said ok…until she turned kookoo. One day she called me after work and said that she was in the office restroom earlier in the day and heard me pee, and thought I was trying to avoid her because I stayed in the stall too long after I was finished urinating. Seriously. (Reality was that I was offered a promotion that my direct supervisor didn’t know about and I was considering the long term implications in the only place I could find privacy). Narcissists turn everything into being about them!
After that, never again will I blur the line between co-worker and friend.
I can see why SJP was upset. She found out she was not the sole reason to green light another film. Kim was more that happy with them writing her out of film 3 and the studio was all, ummmmmmmmm.
That can crush anyone’s ego. SJP was in the wrong and this will drag her for years to come.
Team Kim. I’ve watched SATC almost from the beginning and I’ve never liked SJP. Now I know why. She is indeed fake and “very important”. And a very, very bad actress.
Team Kim.
Lol no shit! The year they were at an awards do and Kim was seated across the aisle from the rest of the girls said it all.
Its like how Teri Hatcher was isolated from her castmates. It must be so stressful working in that environment. I don’t blame Kim at all. It might be disappointing for the others but lets face it they are doing it for a big pay out and to boost their careers. No pity at all. Plus it sucked!
This whole narrative with Kim is so above it all and SJP is just a big meany is eye rolling. This latest of not having a baby because, in part, of this is a tipping point for me. SJP and Cynthia Nixon both had kids during the course of the series, and if I recall during the shooting break Kim Cattrall was out promoting her various books on sexual intelligence and discussing her choice not to have children. Neither handled this particularly well, but whenever someone pulls the no one picked up the phone to call me card my response is always why didn’t you initiate the effort? Perhaps I’m jaded as friends living in NYC see SJP out and about regularly and say she is always warm and friendly, while their couple of experiences being around KC was not as positive (this was just during the course of their daily routine).
@MMC
“friends living in NYC see SJP out and about regularly and say she is always warm and friendly, while their couple of experiences being around KC was not as positive….”
I’ve heard this EXACT same thing actually….although my friend worked on set with them during seasons 2-4 (or so). She said everybody got the sense that Kim was constantly trying to compete with SJP and struggled with the fact that she (SJP) was the “lead” character and was sometimes treated as such.
And that Kim is not very nice or warm (on set at least).
I just think it’s very sad that things ended in such a sour note for such an iconic show.
I’ve met Kim a bunch of times when she was doing theatre here, and no one in the theatre world has a bad word to say about her.
I dare say SJP is lovely to fans; that doesn’t mean she’s not a backstabber to those she works with.
Good points…..i bet the satc set was also divided into camps as well, so the stories you heard would depend on what camp the storyteller belonged to.
Not at fan of the show or of SJP or Kim Cattrall in particular, but these latest leaks against Cattral has interested me since they came out last month. Who cares what they were like when so and so met them? The leaks stand as evidence alone. It’s established SJP leaked against Kim to punish her for making a perfectly reasonable choice about her life, her career. HER life, HER career. Incredibly vengeful and petty to have it played out in public. Cattrall made it clear she did the one interview with Piers Morgan to rebut the anonymous slandering.
This, this, THIS!
“whenever someone pulls the ‘no one picked up the phone to call me’ card my response is always why didn’t you initiate the effort?”
OMG, yes to this.
I like both Kim and SJP so Team Neither Lady from me.
I feel like every f*cking interview Kim gets asked about either being single/having kids/both. I would absolutely lose if I had to answer that question over and over again at sixty-something years old. Let the woman LIVE FFS.
I don’t know a lot about Kim Catrall, but yesterday I went back to check the names on the Polanski petition and was surprised to find her on there. Do you happen to know why she signed that petition?
She was in Polanksi’s The Ghost Writer with Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Hutton.
Did you notice how many MEN signed that petition compared to women. De Press Ing.
Thanks Kitten!
@moe Yes, I think there were only a couple of women. Every now and then I try to refresh my memory on things like this, because names that didn’t mean anything to me the first time become familiar. Aronofsky for instance.
I agree, and think it’s a shame more people can’t simply RESPECT a woman’s right to choose childlessness.
@ Kitten, I can’t agree more. I like both ladies & won’t pile on either of them.
Also, since I’m middle aged I have been asked numerous times “when are you gonna have a baby”? Uhhh….how about never. But more importantly, how about you never ask those questions to a woman again.
Everything she says is valid, nothing seems nasty, and in no way has she stopped them from making their terrible sequel. They can still make it without her. Based on all we know about SJP, I’m sure she’d love to have a scene where all the characters mourn Samantha, who has died from Old Age and Being Mean.
Team Kim.
I think SJP misread this whole situation. I believe she felt that SIC fans would be clamoring for a 3rd movie and she could quietly tar KC and start a grassroots campaign to pressure her at the most or tarnish her at the least. Big backfire, I also can appreciate KC’s honesty re: their friendship, she’s not going to participate in mythologizing their relationship.
SPJ needs to give it a rest already….
Agree, and why SJP would think people wanted a third movie is beyond me. The second movie was an embarrassment,
I don’t think Kim had to bring up babies and pregnancies…she made her decision and it’s nobody’s business. But after getting Mean Girl-ed by SJP (for the whole duration of the series, it sounds like) I don’t blame her for anything she has said.
Everyone hated the 2nd movie and thought it was racist. Why she thinks anyone would have wanted a third movie is fascinating to me.
I agree with all of you. The first movie was painful. I never saw the second and sounds like it was a good thing.
Team no-one. There is no reason for this to still be a story.
But if they were not friends and it was professionally healthy why is she disappointed nobody picked up the phone?
Word.
And why didn’t she pick up the phone herself?
Because they’re the ones who want something from her, they’re the ones pushing the whole SATC sisterhood thing, but they can’t even be bothered to feign a tiny bit of interest?
I totally get what she means. It really, really sucks to be judged as the cold, unfriendly person in a group when actually no one else has ever made any effort with you.
I think its maybe in general that its dissapointing how you drift apart form people used to spend a lot of time with. I certainly am bad with keeping in contact with other people since every time I try it goes nowhere and I get discouraged.
LoL, MTE.
I feel like the no friendship thing is true for far more costars than we like to think. They need to act like friends for promos and interviews and some do connect for the duration of the filming but if you play attention most go on to live completely unrelated lives.
As for having children, I’m glad she said this. I’ve always thought getting married and having kids was something I had to do until I realized this wasn’t the same as wanting that. I’m not opposed to having children but as years go by I have more and more doubts about whether I want to or should.
SATC was terrible people doing terrible things, just like Seinfeld. Nonsense.
Just curious. What shows did you like?
@Freewhitebaby, The West Wing
Frasier was a good show.
I kind of agree with you. And I say this as someone who spent my teen years loving Seinfeld and watching all of the seasons of SATC. Like every iconic television show of each decade, they are a time capsule of what was acceptable back in that era. Looking back, time as well as new things we learn about the actors and relationships on set do put things into perspective. I do see the meanness of some of these characters that I did not realize before. Maybe it was okay back then, but with what has happened in the world since then, a lot of the things those characters did no longer seem funny or all that groundbreaking twenty years later.
Plus the excessive consumerism doesn’t sit well with our apocalyptic climate change mood now (hopefully we’ll avoid that fate).
NYC is a tough town and both shows really did have the vibe of NY’ker’s. Ny’ker’s can be blunt and harsh, it’s not a soft town, but I love both shows.
They weren’t mean, imo, just self centered and could be harsh.
Mean is living in a city where there are gangs and people are scared to walk their kids to school or go out to get grocery’s.
I’m not really friends with any of my coworkers either and I thought I was maybe the strange one since a lot of my coworkers follow each other on social media. A few follow me on Twitter and Instagram but I haven’t friended any on Facebook and I’m fine with that. I don’t enjoy social work gatherings because I really don’t have much in common with a lot of these people. I’m friendly and professional but I don’t socialize with anyone outside of work. I prefer having friends outside of work because I can then complain about my job without repercussions or watch what I’m saying all the time. I can’t begrudge Kim for being like that at all.
It’s kinda sad that after working together for several years they are barely even acquaintances. No desire for a third movie though.
I always found SJP to be girlish and fake. That’s how her character came across in the show too, which didn’t reflect well on empowerment and womanhood.
Maybe if Kim’s character had been allowed to grow and enjoy her age (as Kim herself seems to do) and be a happily single woman with a career and lots of friends who enjoys men but doesn’t embarrass herself to be with one, well, then maybe Kim would have had a different answer when they called. But SJP and company turned Sam into a caricature. Kim had enough respect for herself and Sam to not let that happen again. Good for her.
In the second movie, they made Kim’s character a sweaty menopausal mess, who was popping pills and looking for a man to hump. It was soooooo embarrassing and CRUEL what they did to Samantha the character.
I would hate to see what they were planning for her now. In fact, they acted like Kim_Samantha was so old, she was not that much older than SJP.
Love Kim! I’ll miss Miranda, but I totally respect Kim’s choice. I love that she says I’m 10 years older than these women, there is a big difference between your mindset at 50 then at 60. She’s the same age as my mom, so I get what she means. There were ways they could have written around Miranda’s absence if they really wanted another film. I do miss the series, but that’s why we have reruns.
Poor Kim, so many big ol meanies sabotaging her career, what’s a gal to do?! I can’t wait to see who she complains to next.
This is the only interview she’s done about this topic. The press have been mining all of her quotes about a third film from this same interview over and over again before it was even released. Her career is fine.
Samantha was my favorite character, I liked her free spirit – but she was also the target of the shows jokes and misogyny. As though she had to be humiliated for loving sex without getting “serious.” Can you imagine what the writers would have subjected the character to now? She’s moved on with her life and so should SJP and her minion Stanford actor.
I agree with others. I am not team anybody. And picking up the phone goes both ways. Also, I have a close friend ten years younger than me and one six years older than me. You can have closer relationships while working together, very true, and they fall away after. But she doesn’t seemed to have been close with them during the filming. I like Kim. She’s a class act. But I like all of the women and I enjoy following their lives since the show has ended. All four are really great women, I feel, in their own ways and live productive lives.
And a big shoutout for Kristen Davis for all the work she has done with Oxfam and UNHCR and also a wildlife trust she has been involved with for years also regarding orphaned elephants.
Liked the show, tolerated the first movie, HATEDHATEDHATED the second movie. A third should not happen, so kudos to Kim for staying away from that possibility.
I am probably the only human alive that LOVED SJP’s theory that the other three ladies were imaginary. Carrie made up these female archetypes (the professional, the romantic, and the free spirit) for the sake of her column. That would explain why the friends don’t seem to care that she uses their names in her sex column.
oh! that theory is super interesting! haha makes the sjp character seem a little crazy though but whatever works for her writing, right?