This reboot, which was planned to be a miniseries or limited series, has found in its diversity, its new narrative and its updated topics to modernity, something that remained as a pending account in its predecessor.
And, in this second season, we will see more of the unfinished business Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte left behind, re-entering the streets of New York, new romances and many more adventures for the trio of friends. With Sarah Jessica Parker we had the opportunity to talk about the arc of the season and how this year the show is closer to its origin. With the second season of ‘And Just Like That…’ releasing on June 22 and the return of her most beloved character, Carrie, now her Spanish fans can celebrate this premiere toasting with the wines of the actress herself, whose brand is called Invivo X, SJP.
Q: Your wines are in Spain?
A: Yes. I do love Spain. In fact, we know that wine plays an important role in Spain, both in production and consumption and we are excited to see how they respond to Invivo X, JSP. We believe this market will be pleasantly surprised and we sincerely hope they fall in love with our wines as much as we do.
Q: Have you ever been to Spain?
A: Yes, many times. I’ve been in Madrid and Barcelona with my family. We had a really great time there.
Q: Do you speak Spanish?
A: I’m more fluent in French than Spanish but I can say “No Parsley” in Spanish as I don’t like that herb
Q: Any Spanish favorite author?
A: Yes. I read ‘The Woman from Uruguay’ and found out that the Argentinian author Pedro Mairal is absolutely fascinating
Q: Carrie is going through a lot this season and it is clear that she is very much grieving for her husband and comes with tons of emotional scenes. How was it to shoot those moments for you as an actress?
A: I feel that Carry is very buoyant this season. I think that loss reveals itself when you think that you have recovered. That is what Carry articulates and expresses. This season feels really joyous to me, but there are a couple of ocasiones where she is reminded, as everybody that I know that has suffered or experienced loss, July Houston that plays Misty, lost her husband recently and she was talking about this about how you can have great days, or great months and being able to go through an entire year and all of a sudden you are overcome with pain. For the most part, Carrie has felt happy this season, but there are occasions when the pain is revisited in ways that are unexpected. I think she is better at dealing with it, and also is more comfortable talking about why she wants to internalize as well feeling that she could be a burden for her friend.
Q: In this season romantic partners are not the issue, but life is the issue. Her choices are very radical in terms of women's choices. Was this a conscious decision?
A: yes. Michael was very interested in the way that Carrie is single again and is not the way she imagined arriving at that familiar point that now is completely unfamiliar. More so, the question is: What do you want? How do you want to exist in the world? With whom do you want to be in your life? We have more choices now than we used to have. Before, we were compelled by rules or ideas or obligations that Carrie feels that are possible but different. So, Yes. It is radical to say, maybe I don’t need anything from that staff anymore, but it is not an arriving point of view as much as an exploration of getting to an answer. Do I or Don’t I? Do I want some of it and not all of it? And what it means to be intimate with someone after being so monogamous to one relationship. Everybody is asking that question this season.
Q: I want to ask about your work behind the scenes, not in front of the camera. You are an executive producer. How is the show created? Do you have influence in the plot of the show?
A: I’ve been an executive producer of the show for many, many, many, many years. I came first as an executive consulting producer, no because I was prepared or accepted just because they simply offered and said that I should. Being an executive producer has been a part of my job, and in a very big way for many many years. The job is not radically different in this version of the show as ever was. I’m not nor I want to be not I would be able to be influential in any history. That is the soul of Michael Patrick King and he is been in charge. the ways I contributed is that Michael comes to me before he goes to the writers room and he in essence pitches me the season, in particular my character and shares what he has for other characters and is interested in my response and ideas. I’m not a writer, I am not an editor, I’ve never written a script and I don’t have idea of how to do it. But Michael and I work on ideas together, work on scripts together as ideas. All of us came to Michael with ideas.
Q: Last season it seemed that the show was catching up with the times in terms of representation, diversity and inclusion. Is this season a come back to the essence of ‘Sex and the City’
A: Yes. We were very excited from the minute that Michael Patrick King and I started to talk about revisiting these characters, it was 2020 I think. We always wanted to show the completion of the show and I mean that in every way. We knew the show had been to white, we wanted to bring it more characters, no because it was a mandate of the studio, I don’t know if that was ever discussed, but we did it because it was important to us and we were fortunate enough to get people that we knew wanted to be part of it. They brought a huge amount of talent and skill and richness not just to the screen but to the characters that already existed. The loss dictated the tone of the first season because it was hard to escape even if we were tempted to escape. Because grief deserves enough time and attention especially when it is a well documented deeply loving relationship of Carrie and Big. It takes time to resurface as a woman, as a partner, as a romantic person. I witnessed this in my home, with friends and people of all ages that had lived this and I saw their recovery. This season it is natural and normal that she wants to find buoyancy again and joy. I felt it the minute we started the season, it was not an attempt to feel familiar but it felt familiar. When joy is allowed to surface, we are immediately reminded of the past life’s of these characters. This season is a bridge but not from an intentional act but because that is how life functions.
Q: At what age are you willing to play Carrie?
A: In terms of me playing the character, I will simply say that she is an extraordinary person. Not just for me, as it turns out, but to other and that is because she is lived a life that it is sometimes unpredictable, surprising, she is been inspiring to people, she is been a good friend, a louse romantic partner, a devoted romantic partner, she is had professional success and disappointments. She is falling short of expectations and she has exited them. She is really interesting. Her relationship with the city, love and central politics is unusual and different, certainly was 25 years ago, and helped a lot of women. How long I would play is not something that I expect time predetermined; this was something unexpected. I never thought that Michael and I would have this conversation because we never had it for a lot of years. We were sheltering, missing friendships, and relations in our personal lives, commune and engaged with each other and became clear to me that we could come back as the first time and revisited beyond that I I don’t know
Q: The fascination of the character with handbags?
A: Carrie has had a fever relationship with shoes specially and with handbags to a lesser degree but i do think that Carrie is interested in fashion and always has been. In the history of it , in points of reference that are unique to her. She has handbags that are valuable, others that cost 4 boxes…it has been a companion and there are worse companions I guess.
Q: Do you feel nostalgic from the past when you approach your character?
A: I definitely feel nostalgic for certain things and sentimental and others are happy and joyous, sometimes even silly to remember visually. It has been really interesting to bring all the wardrobe and play such a huge role this season because you can do that with clothes but not with people.
By María Estévez
Correspondent writer
