WARNING: This interview contains spoilers for the first two episodes ofAnd Just Like That.
Television giveth, and television taketh away.
for the character who has done nothing but tried to find love from this one person.
Sarah Jessica Parker on ‘And Just Like That’.Craig Blankenhorn/HBO
I also felt comfortable because the DNA is the same.
People forget, Carrie never had Big in the series.
She had him briefly a minute or two.
And she doesn’t have Big now.
It’s just a different circumstance.
It’s more final.
People are like, “How could you have done this?”
The last voiceover in the series is why I did it.
And if you find somebody else who sees you, that’s fabulous.
Tonally,And Just Like Thatdiffers fromSATC it’s darker and the episodes are longer.
The rest of it feels like so much of the old franchise.
It’s colorful and bright and comic and wide and glamorous and New York.
The last three minutes are devastating.
Now the second episodeshouldhave that feeling [of darkness].
We lost somebody we love.
We’re building an entire series on Carrie’s loss.
But even in that second episode, Carrie is holding it together.
And as you go on, it gets lighter and lighter and lighter.
I mean, I have no interest in leading the audience into a dark woods and leaving them there.
I don’t wanna depress anyone.
I want to shock people.
I want them to feel.
I want them to go through stuff.
Carrie fell down on the runway and got up, kept going.
Carrie fell down here; Big fell down.
She’s gotta get up and keep going.
And how we do that with the help of her friends is really the journey.
Because to me there’s nothing more significant than the strength you get from friendships in the bad times.
They’re not your family but they’re more than your family.
It doesn’t mean you’re dead just ‘cause Big died.
What is interesting to you about approaching Carrie and Co. from that perspective?
Well, I love a show that has a villain, and the villain is society.
And as an outsider myself, I love to buck society.
I love to say, “Oh, is that what you think?
I’m gay, so I should be invisible?
I should feel bad?
I should feel shame?
Oh, is that what you think?
Watch what I do with my life.”
I have actress friends who are 50 who have to go up for grandmother parts.
And then we have these three amazing actresses.
I mean, Charlotte says, “I’m 55.”
Miranda says, “I’m 55.”
We’re not pulling any punches.
Like, go ahead, come at us.
We’re telling you the truth.
We’re not ashamed.
We’re single, we’re not ashamed.
The ensemble ofAnd Just Like Thatdefinitely reflects the world we live in more than the original series did.
First of all, we were never coming back without them.
It wasn’t like, “Oh, we’re coming back now.
How do we fix this?”
It was endemic to where the world is.
We’ve always tried to reflect society where it is.
That’s what society told you: to find people like you to be with.
The world isn’t like that now.
The world’s like, “You’ve got to open up.”
The scene in the premiere when Carrie and Miranda are talking about missing Samantha was really emotional to watch.
It feels like maybe you’re leaving the door open for a Kim Cattrall return.
It’s not a tease saying Kim Cattrall’s coming back.
Samantha lives in London.
Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha have had a little bit of a split.
So really what it is, and why it resonates, is because everybody believes those friendships were forever.
The audience believed those friendships were forever, and so did the main characters.
We’re trying to mirror that feeling, but it’s not an invite.
It’s a story point.
Finally, what did you think ofPeloton’s statementabout Big’s death?
What was Peloton’s statement?
That’s true [laughs heartily].
He was in great shape.
He had a history of heart problems in the series.
It’s in the series.
Well, they’re good sports.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
