Sex and the City: The Gossip, the Glamour, the Truth!
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THE GIRLS
Carrie
Kristin Davis: The Carrie in the pilot was much more like Candace [Bushnell] herself, with some Samantha mixed in— like, she smoked and swore nonstop. I think the description was that Carrie has the body of Heather Locklear and the brain of Dorothy Parker.
Michael Patrick King: The whole reason I agreed to do the series was the last moment in the pilot, where Carrie's left alone in the street after Big drives off. I thought, Wow, that's a big moment—that surprise of the know-it-all who suddenly knows nothing was amazing. And at the end of the first season, when Carrie said to Big, "Just tell me I'm the one," we set up a phenomenal roller-coaster ride: Will they ever be in the same place at the same time?
Darren Star: The idea that we argued about in the room was that Carrie was going to become this really flawed character. Mr. Big's gonna get married, but then Carrie and Mr. Big are gonna have an affair. It was not something you see with stars of prime-time comedy series. The question was, "Are we gonna hold the audience's sympathy for the character?"
Cindy Chupack: There was a lot of debate as to whether, if Carrie ended up with anybody at the end, it would undermine the whole point of the series—that being single, being alone, is OK. I felt like, if we can't write a happy ending for these people then there's no hope for any of us.
Samantha
Kim Cattrall: When I was first sent the script, I didn't think Carrie was the role for me. I thought, I'm too old. I also thought I was too old for Samantha. Then I picked up the book, by Candace Bushnell. I read about half of it and I literally threw it across the room. It was such a distressing scenario. Most of the girls were hard to connect to, and the guys were all jerks. I was dating at the time, so it was the last thing I wanted to hear or read.
Darren Star: So I cast another actress in the role of Samantha. but after seeing her, I felt she was too young.
Chris Albrecht: Before we started shooting, there was the very distinct possibility of still getting Kim, and I said to Darren, if she's right, let's pay off this other actress, whatever her guaranteed fee was for the pilot, and go get Kim.
Kim Cattrall: Six weeks before they started shooting, I got a call from Darren's boyfriend saying, "You know, I'm just curious why you said no to this. They gave the part to somebody else, but it doesn't fit." I had a really sleepless night and when I woke up, I called my rep and said, "Why don't you call Darren."
Michael Patrick King: Samantha was crazy, fearless, fun, independent. We let her have as much fun as we wanted.
