Kim Cattrall won’t feature in new Sex and the City series: Here’s all the drama behind why
by Jennifer McShane
11th Jan 2021
11th Jan 2021
SATC fans rejoiced at the news that Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis have agreed to star in a 10-episode series on HBO Max called And Just Like That detailing their characters from the iconic series, but a key figure is missing: Kim Cattrall’s Samantha. It shouldn’t come as too big a surprise, after the disaster that was the SATC 2 movie, Cattrall was always open about the fact that she wouldn’t do another film, but chances are, it’s more than likely due to the fact that she has never seen eye-to-eye with her former co-star Sarah Jessica Parker (SJP). Here’s what we know happened
Essentially, Cattrall has been clear in the past that she no longer wants to be involved in Sex and the City amid a public falling out with co-star SJP.
It was confirmed in 2004 that all was not exactly as rosy on set as the series had depicted.
In an interview on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2004, Kim revealed that a pay dispute was a factor in the show ending. “I felt after six years it was time for all of us to participate in the financial windfall of Sex and the City. When they didn’t seem keen on that I thought it was time to move on.”
SJP tried to publically downplay any drama saying, “When you’re on set, you’re working 90-hour weeks, you’re never home, you’re exhausted. There are times when all of us have been sensitive, and sometimes feelings get hurt. But I don’t have any regrets about how I’ve treated people,” she said, adding in another interview some years later, “These were my sisters, these were people that I grew to love and admire.”
“Never been friends”
However, in 2017, in an interview with Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, Kim revealed she and Sarah had “never been friends” while making the series. When asked if the third Sex and the City movie was canned because of ‘diva’ demands (as was the rumour at the time), she responded: “We’ve never been friends. We’ve been colleagues and in some ways, it’s a very healthy place to be because then you have a clear line between your professional life and relationship and your personal.”
She also rejected her being branded a ‘diva,’ adding that it was SJP that drove the issue.
“This is really where I take to task the people from Sex and the City and specifically Sarah Jessica Parker, is that I think she could have been nicer. I really think she could have been nicer. I don’t know what her issue is,’ she said. ‘The thing that still bothers me is this feeling of being in some way made to be the baddie. I never asked for any money, I never asked for any projects, to be thought of as some kind of diva is absolutely ridiculous.”
Then in February 2018, SJP responded to the comments, saying that she was “heartbroken” over Cattrall’s comments.
“[I’m] Just…heartbroken,’ she told Andy Cohen. ‘I mean that whole week, you and I spoke about it … I found it really upsetting because that’s, you know, that’s not the way I recall our experience.”
“So…it’s sad…I always think that what ties us together is this singular experience is the thing. It was a professional experience but it became personal because it was years and years of our lives. So I’m hoping that that sort of eclipses anything that’s been recently spoken.”
‘Nice Girl persona’ vs ‘The Badie’
Around a week later, the sad news broke that the brother of Cattrall had been found dead after going missing from his home in Alberta, Canada.
SJP wrote on an Instagram post: “Dearest Kim, my love and condolences to you and yours and Godspeed to your beloved brother. Xx.”
To which Cattrall, presumably seething from the apparent hypocrisy of it all, responded with…
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Being fair to Cattrall, SJP has generally always depicted herself as the ‘nice one’ in rumours of any feuds, leaving Cattrell to be branded the diva who makes unfair demands, so one can understand her response made in a time of grief. And we have no idea what really went on during the filming of SATC.
Soon after, SJP insisted there was “no catfight” between the two over the third SATC movie.
Speaking to Vulture, she said: ‘I’d just like to remind everybody that there is no catfight. I have never uttered an unkind, unsupportive, unfriendly word, so I would love to redefine it. I’ve always held Kim’s work in high regard and always appreciative of her contributions. If she chooses not to do the third movie, there’s not a lot I can do to change her mind and we must respect it.’ She added: ‘I’ve never fought with someone publicly in my life, nor would I,” she said.
Just Like That
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After a commenter noticed that Parker did not “tag” Cattrall in her announcement of the reboot on Instagram, as Cattrall isn’t appearing in it, another commenter wrote: “They dislike each other”.
Parker then replied to the user, writing: “No. I don’t dislike her. I’ve never said that. Never would. Samantha isn’t part of this story. But she will always be part of us. No matter where we are or what we do.”
Kim Cattrall has yet to comment on the new series, but make of all that what you will…