The Sex and the City gals are back on the big screen and better than ever. We caught up with the ever so gracious and talented Sarah Jessica Parker in the magnificent shoe department at the luxury department store, Bergdorf Goodman in midtown Manhattan.
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sex and the city: The fab four
SheKnows: Can you talk about Carrie’s storyline in Sex and the City 2?
Sarah Jessica Parker: Well, there was a wedding and now there has to be a marriage. And the two are very different. As Carrie finds herself at the top of the movie, she’s starting to ask questions as she typically does. And the big theme for the movie, for all of us in our own way, is tradition. How do we define traditions for ourselves? How do our friends redefine these traditions? Do we want to? And what better place to ask these questions than the Middle East [laughs]?
SheKnows: What’s the most empowering thing you find about being a fun, fearless woman and depicting them in Sex and the City?
Sarah Jessica Parker: In this culture there’s this beacon where women are really unkind to one another and call each other all kinds of horrible names. There’s a vernacular that our ears have adapted to which I find really objectionable. I really, really love how these women love each other. I love how decent and honorable they are towards one another. I love how they were never made to be friends. Their DNA is so radically different from one to the next and they’ve found this improbable friendship. I like that we have someplace that we still like to illustrate that women would much rather be allies than adversaries.
SheKnows: Why do you think that gay men are excited to see Sex and the City 2?
Sarah Jessica Parker: I think that it’s hard to deny that there is this wonderful search, this endeavor, for love. There’s an emotional ingredient that when I talk to people in the gay community — the clothing is fun, it’s the cherry on the sundae, it’s the souffle — but I really think it’s this ability to articulate emotion, embarrassing and candid and intimate and a humorous way of observing our emotional journeys that a lot of my gay friends really, really love. And I think they’re really comfortable saying that and I think it’s taken maybe the straight community a little bit longer. At the luggage carrier they [straight men] used to say [under their breath], “I love your show.” Or, “My girlfriend or my wife forces me [to watch].” They seem to volunteer more freely that occasionally they even watch it on their own.
Sex and the City: getting wiser
SheKnows: What about for date night? What will men learn from this when they go with their wives or girlfriends?
Sarah Jessica Parker: It’s wonderful how many men I’ve spoken to — straight men — they may think that this whole franchise is an anathema. But they’ve loved it. There is not a villainous move by any man in this movie. Any consequence is from us [women]. And the choices that we’re making, or our cavalier attitude about cultural standards, it’s all us and we come home frankly a little wiser.
SheKnows: What was it like shooting in Morocco?
Sarah Jessica Parker: It was laborious and it was Herculean but it was one of the great experiences of my professional life. To live and work with this cast and that crew, to see the sun rise and set in the most far-flung places, to lie in a bed all day with these women exhausted and laughing and to be on a camel with Kim Cattrall…just amazing.
SheKnows: Were there any interruptions?
Sarah Jessica Parker: We didn’t even have a bathroom. There were literally no interruptions [laughs]! I’m telling you, it was indescribably wonderful, to be so far away in such a wonderfully foreign place and have this incredibly cinematic experience. Yes, it was hard, but we couldn’t have done it any other way but this way.
Sex and the City: The fun
SheKnows: What is your favorite memory from filming in Morocco?
Sarah Jessica Parker: The thing that I cherish most of about it, and of course the most vivid memory, was that I got to live with this cast. We were removed. We were shooting out of the country for the first time. We’ve never done that. We had this chance to live together and we had the opportunity to live with each other in a way that we never got to do in New York. In New York, we go home to our friends and our family and our children and our animals. For me it changed everything. I just came away loving them more than I ever have because I got to see them in a new way and I’m so reliant upon them and they became ever more necessary. I was so challenged by the work that they were doing and how good they were and what thoroughbreds they were. Nothing could get us down.
Read on for more Sex and the City 2
Sex and the City 2: Who’s got the look?
Sex and the City 2: Which man suits you?
The don’t-miss Sex and the City 2 trailer
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