Sarah Jessica Parker laments the passing of Old New York. So how did she become the poster girl for the New Manhattan?
This article originally appeared in the May 12, 2008 issue of New York Magazine. We’re republishing it here in celebration of Sex and the City’s twentieth anniversary next week. “Excuse me,” she says. “I’m your biggest fan.”
“Well, all right,” says Parker finally, giving in, the jeans dangling from her hands like a fish from a hook. “Thank you very much. Don’t get hit —” Because Sarah Jessica Parker’s biggest fan is already running away from us, back into the traffic streaming down Seventh, her hair flying behind her, yelling out a final passionate “I love you!”
And truth be told, even as they were filming those last scenes in Paris, Parker and her collaborator, writer-director Michael Patrick King, were kicking around a movie concept. King’s original pitch sounds like a palate cleanser intended to follow the hype surrounding the series finale — it was a light, summery, Bob Hope–style road movie, with the girls following separate paths. “Then the deals weren’t happening,” King tells me. “And the money people didn’t believe in it.
And Parker had an intuition that time was running out: “It had this shelf life.” The resulting film, which opens May 30, is no summery lark. Instead, it has a surprisingly serious tone, exploring questions of forgiveness in long-term relationships. The trademark elements are all there — rat-a-tat dialogue, sex scenes, and unsettlingly orgasmic excitement upon access to designer goods — but the mood is bittersweet.
Parker and Broderick keep a running count of these changes, a mutual mourning for the transformation of their neighborhood into a luxe, tree-lined shopping mall. She knows this sounds absurd coming from her, that people blame Sex and the City for the ruination of the West Village; even Broderick says, “That’s your fault!” when he sees a thong poking up from low-slung jeans, and her close friend John Benjamin Hickey, an actor, longs for the days before “those girls on buses.
She can be hilariously unguarded about saying things that, when taken out of context, might seem absurdly suggestive. For instance, when I talk about my husband, who like Broderick is a science geek and a gadget-hound, she suggests that we should set them up as friends. “Matthew doesn’t have enough friends,” she tells me, sounding very mother-hennish and adding that Matthew has mostly gay friends in New York.
That Sarah Jessica was, despite her newcomer status, a very New York type: the ethnic girl nerd with crazy hair, a schnoz, big eighties glasses. It reminded me of my first reaction to Sex and the City, which I hated on sight: Those women seemed so brittle and scary, batting their eyelashes at the finance hounds I thought were such bores. That was before I watched a few more episodes, perhaps three. And suddenly I was hooked, enthralled! With each season, I loved the show more; the scariness I’d sensed, the anxiety and the anger, was still there, but so was a sweet fantasy of female friendship.
It’s one of those damp days when Manhattan seems to flip straight from January to August. We head toward Bleecker Playground, passing three teen girls who do a New York triple take: confirmation — feigned indifference — giggling. I’d wondered if Parker would prefer to skirt this notorious strip, the wormhole that marks the intersection between the series and its social side effects.
“They’re always, always kind,” Parker emphasizes about her fans. “And I think to see me on the streets of New York, in a place that they might imagine the character would be — it makes people feel good.” Now Parker does have those contracts on her desk. “It’s an eye-opener,” she says. “I do understand that it’s a necessity.” And then there’s her own brand, of which she says she tries to be “unconsciously conscious.” Ten years ago, she says, actors who created products were a rare breed, like Liz Taylor. Today it’s common, either as a covert layer of income — doing commercials in Asia, like George Clooney — or an open one.
Still, I can’t help but wonder if a little more shamelessness might not be a good thing for her — a bit more direct ownership of the culture of appetite her show so famously celebrated. One night I watch Parker on Conan, her hair scraped into a tight ponytail, talking seriously about how she hates the subject of sex or even thinking about it, how she avoids anything “ribald, salty, cheeky.” Conan teases her for sounding like an eighteenth-century preacher.
But that’s not what Smith recalls about the episode. Instead, he remembers “that beautiful scene where it had just snowed. And I was like, ‘I can’t take this test, because I have to stay’ — that’s how much I love New York. Of course I had to tell my mom and everybody that I took it. But I couldn’t take it, because I cannot leave here. It’s hindering me from getting promoted, because if you get promoted, you have to leave the borough. And I can’t leave lower Manhattan. I can’t go to the Bronx.
“Isn’t it glamorous? Do you want a potato chip?” She offers me both Classic Lays and barbecue. “Do you want any, sir?” she asks the driver.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Sarah Sanders to Turn Propaganda Skills on Herself in Forthcoming BookThe former press secretary is reportedly chaining herself to the Trump train with a flattering account of her time at the White House.
Read more »
The creative executive behind some of TV’s best female-centric shows - Women’s Media CenterIn an excerpt from Sarah Barnett’s interview on “Women’s Media Center Live With Robin Morgan,” which aired June 9 and is available by podcast at wmclive.com and other podcast platforms, Barnett talks about her work promoting women on screen and in TV’s executive suites.
Read more »
‘1BR’ Clip: A Dream Apartment Goes To Hell In Exclusive Horror PreviewA dream apartment in Hollywood feels like a new lease on life for Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) in the feature film 1BR but that changes when the terrified tenant starts to wonder if she’s actu…
Read more »
How to Get Over the Need to Be Liked by Everyone You MeetHere are some psychologist-endorsed (and actually helpful) tips for caring a little less about being liked
Read more »
I Accidentally Liked My Ex-Boyfriend's New Girlfriend's Instagram PostWe've all accidentally DMed the wrong person...right? Ahead, check out these cringeworthy Instagram faux pas — and be careful next time you double-tap.
Read more »