Sarah Jessica Parker Talks And Just Like That... & Having No Fashion Regrets: “What’s the Point?”

Sarah Jessica Parker confesses to a “kind of sentimentality” about Carrie Bradshaw. When the third season of And Just Like That… premiered in May, it had been 28 years since she first shot the Sex and the City pilot. And yet, during the almost three decades in between the original series and its popular spin-off, she’s been one of the few women (maybe the only one) who’s never binged a rewatch on HBO Max. In fact, Parker, now 60, says she’s never watched any episode more than once, and some not at all. “When you’re studying for a test, you just move on and move on and move on,” she tells W’s editor at large, Lynn Hirschberg. Bradshaw, on the other hand, has always been more inclined to look back. Case in point: In the latest season of AJLT…, she once again finds herself in a will-they-won’t-they with Aidan. Here, Parker reflects on her many years as Carrie; why her husband, Matthew Broderick, encouraged her to take the role in the first place; and whether she personally identifies with the character.

What was your first introduction to Carrie Bradshaw? Did you read Candace Bushnell’s book or the New York Observer column?

All of it. I did read the Observer. I was not a subscriber. I’m loath to use the words “back in the day,” but newsstands were a part of our lives. We relied on them. So I came to know Candace’s column. I wasn’t a constant reader, but I was certainly familiar with her work. So when Darren Star came with a pilot script, I didn’t have to be tutored or do a quick master class in the Candace Bushnell POV.

At the time, you were a movie star. Very few movie stars switched to television—you were a bit of a pioneer. Was it a big decision?

Not really. I was very much a journeyman actor, and every actor I admired worked in every medium. If they got a part, they did it. Big, little, it didn’t matter. At the time, HBO was primarily a place for sports—it was male-dominated, and any scripted shows were male-centric. HBO, to me, was like a thing that wealthy families had in their home. I didn’t have it. A pilot for HBO had its own kind of special aura. So when the script was offered for Sex and the City, I found it really compelling. I gave it to my oldest brother, Pippin, and to Matthew. They both read it and said, unequivocally, without hesitation, “You have to do this.” The last moment in particular, I thought, was undeniably arresting—the exchange between Carrie and Mr. Big.

Was the fashion element there from the very beginning?

It wasn’t really. I’ve never seen the pilot episode but once, but the fashion is not dictating. It was only when we decided to go to series that we met with Pat Field, because I had done Miami Rhapsody with her. That’s when fashion started to play a more significant role. We had no budget the first season. It’s all from [the consignment store] Ina, Century 21, and any favors that Pat had. But not favors inside fashion houses—favors inside some friends’ warehouses in Miami and a couple of honeypots in New York. Fashion was a significant part of Carrie Bradshaw’s life, but the ways in which we could illustrate that changed over time.

People identify themselves by which Sex and the City character they resemble. Although you are Carrie Bradshaw, would you say that you’re a “Carrie”?

Who am I? I’m probably a combination. I share some of Carrie’s interests and certainly the way she feels about New York City and, in a less fevered way, her affection for shoes and fashion—but Carrie’s is heightened and otherworldly. As a wife and a mother, I appreciate the things that Charlotte says at times, even though she says them in an often hysterical [way]. I might not communicate in the same way, but there are concerns and ways in which she is a mother and a wife that I can relate to. There are things about Miranda that I really appreciate. She’s also serious and a parent. So I think a bit of each, but, obviously, there’s sentimentality around Carrie that could muddy the waters, even for me.

Do you let your daughters borrow your shoes?

The sad truth is they don’t fit them anymore. Their feet are the wrong size, and it’s not going backwards. Thus far, they’re not really raiding my closet or anything. They’ll be 16 in June, and they like clothing, but it’s not playing an oversize role in their life. They definitely have ideas about how they want to feel and look when they walk out the door, but they don’t seem particularly distracted [by it].

When you were growing up, who did you have a crush on?

Robert Redford. Specifically, in The Way We Were. Hubbell Gardiner. I had a life-size poster of him. He has a magical kind of beauty—I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but when he smiles, the light does flash off his front tooth. In Hollywood, they spoke about doing a sequel to The Way We Were, and I always thought I should play the daughter [of Redford and Barbra Streisand]. There was a rumor about 20 years ago that they had cast somebody else, and I thought I was going to have to be taken to a hospital. I was like, what?! It seemed so obvious to me that I was their daughter.

Was your love for Redford what led to the Hubbell reference at the end of Sex and the City season 2?

No. Unrelated.

That’s a great scene.

I’ve never seen an episode more than once, and some of them I’ve never seen at all. But I always remember that one line: Mr. Big says, “I don’t get it.” And she says, “And you never did.” I remember the dress. We could barely afford it. Pat threw herself at the mercy of the purse strings and said, “We’re going to buy this dress new.” It was a Christian Dior bias-cut dress, which isn’t a very typical Carrie Bradshaw look. It was from, I believe, Bergdorf Goodman. It works really well, because it’s, like, the weirdest dress to be wearing at that time for that scene.

Have you had any fashion moments that you sincerely regret?

I don’t regret any of it, because what’s the point? I’m sure there is a laundry list of things I should be telling you that were mistakes, whoopsie-daisies, wrong, misguided, unflattering. All of it has been a gift; all of it has been ridiculous. All of it has been exhausting; all of it has been thrilling. All of it has been like I’m in a world that is just barely based in reality. What is there to regret?

Hair by Serge Normant for Serge Normant Hair at Statement Artists; makeup by Mariel Barrera at Forward Artists; manicure by Gina Eppolito.

Produced by AP Studio, Inc.; executive producer: Alexis Piqueras; producer: Anneliese Kristedja; production manager: Hayley Stephon; production coordinator: Kaitlyn Fitzpatrick; lighting technician: Eduardo SilvA; lab: picturehouse+thesmalldarkroom; retouching: picturehouse+thesmalldarkroom; fashion assistants: Tyler VanVranken, Amir La Sure, Celeste Roh, Lila Hathaway, Natalie Mell; production assistants: Linette Estrella, Ariana Kristedja, Sammi Kulger, Ryan Carter, Cameron Bevans, Chase Walker, Rory Walsh; hair assistants: Courtney Peak, Austin Weber, Simone Domizi; makeup assistants: Mika Iwata, Anna Kurihara, Nana Hiramatsu; manicure assistant: ​​Rieko Smith; set assistants: Kevin Kessler, Cedar Kirwin, Paul Levine; tailor: Lindsay Amir Wright; tailor’s assistant: Natalie Wright.