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The reported feuding between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall is a tale as old as time. Interest in their falling-out has only escalated with Cattrall’s absence as Samantha on Sex and the City’s revival, And Just Like That... Now Parker is revealing exactly why she was missing from the show and dispelling rumors of a “catfight” between the costars.
“It’s very hard to talk about the situation with Kim,” Parker said on The Hollywood’s reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, before confirming that a third Sex and the City movie “fell apart” because of Cattrall’s contractual requirements. “[Warner Bros.] didn’t feel comfortable meeting where she wanted to meet, and so we didn’t do the movie because we didn’t want to do it without Kim,” Parker said. “Were we [she and costars Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon] disappointed? Sure. But it happens.”
But ties officially severed between Cattrall and the Sex and the City universe when she began publicly criticizing Parker. In various interviews, Cattrall claimed that she had “never been friends” with her costars, suggested that Parker “could’ve been nicer” about the situation with the third film, and even slammed Parker for “exploiting” her brother’s 2018 death by sending condolences publicly.
“There were just a lot of public conversations about how she felt about the show,” Parker told THR, many of which she found “very painful” because they didn’t mirror her and her other costars’ experience. “I’ve spent a lot of years working really hard to always be decent to everybody on the set, to take care of people, to be responsible to and for people, both my employers and the people that I feel I’m responsible for as a producer of the show,” Parker said. “And there just isn’t anyone else who’s ever talked about me this way.”
Given how much Cattrall had publicly distanced herself from the foursome, Parker said the And Just Like That… creative team “felt comfortable moving on without her.” Cattrall shared her side of the story last month, telling Variety, “I was never asked to be part of the reboot. I made my feelings clear after the possible third movie, so I found out about it like everyone else did—on social media.”
Parker confirmed that Cattrall was never invited to join the revival. “We did not ask her to be part of this because she made it clear that that wasn’t something she wanted to pursue, and it no longer felt comfortable for us, and so it didn’t occur to us,” the star and executive producer explained. “That’s not ‘slamming’ her, it’s just learning. You’ve got to listen to somebody, and if they’re publicly talking about something and it doesn’t suggest it’s some place they want to be, or a person they want to play, or an environment in which they want to be, you get to an age where you’re like, Well, we hear that.”
Despite the discord, Parker said that it takes two active parties to constitute a proper feud. “It’s so painful for people to keep talking about this ‘catfight’—a ‘fight,’ a ‘fight,’ a ‘fight,’” she said, adding, “I’ve never uttered fighting words in my life about anybody that I’ve worked with—ever. There is not a ‘fight’ going on. There has been no public dispute or spat or conversations or allegations made by me or anybody on my behalf. I wouldn’t do it. That is not the way I would have it. So I just wish that they would stop calling this a ‘catfight’ or an ‘argument,’ because it doesn’t reflect [reality]. There has been one person talking.”
Originally published in Vanityfair.com
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