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Kim Cattrallsays she was “ready” to walk away fromSex and the Cityyears ago.
In an interview withVarietyfor the magazine’s Power of Women issue, the actress who played sex-positive PR maven Samantha Jones said she “would never want to look back on that [character] with anything other than pride.”
But after six seasons and two films, Cattrall said, “Everything in me went, ‘I’m done.'”
In 2017, sheturned down a script for a never-produced thirdSex and the Citymovie— a decision that seems to have ultimately led to her not being invited to join HBO Max’s rebootAnd Just Like That….
“I made my feelings clear after the possible third movie, so I found out about [the reboot] like everyone else did — on social media,” she said.
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Not that she was entirely bothered not to revisit the iconic role.
“Can you imagine going back to a job you did 25 years ago?” she asked, adding, “And the job didn’t get easier; it got more complicated in the sense of how are you going to progress with these characters?”
Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max
Cattrall confirmed that much of what was supposed to appear in the scrapped film — including themajor plot pointsof Mr. Big’s (Chris Noth)sudden deathand Carrie’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) mourning period — found their way into the reboot: “The series is basically the third movie. That’s how creative it was.”
She added thatAnd Just Like That…“feels like an echo of the past.”
And though she felt “ultimately protective” of Samantha, Cattrall said she knew it was time to step away when she realized her character was moving forward, tellingVariety, “Everything has to grow, or it dies.”
Even during the original series, which ran from 1998 to 2004, bringing originality to her storylines became “a b—-,” she said, “because I had to know my lines backwards and forwards. Because she had already been there and done all those things; she was always talking from the mount. … I always wanted to make it as honest as possible, but also make it Samantha. I remember saying to a girlfriend of mine: ‘Oh s—! I have to fall on the bed again. How am I going to do it this time? Am I going to sing opera? How am I going to make it unique?’ That’s how much fun I was having with it. And then when that was dampened, it was time to move on.”
Put more simply: “I don’t want to be nude anymore. I’m 65. I’m in great shape. But I’m just not interested. I feel like I filled my quota on that one.”
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Cattrall further acknowledged she never felt intimately connected with costars Parker,Kristin DavisandCynthia Nixon: “I think we were colleagues. My colleagues aren’t my friends. It was professional.”
She noted, “It’s a great wisdom to know when enough is enough. I also didn’t want to compromise what the show was to me. The way forward seemed clear.”
She added, “I’ve come to the conclusion that really the greatest compliment I could have as an actor is to be missed.”
source: people.com
