As critics and audiences alike continue to moan over the Sex and the City spinoff And Just Like That, someone close to the production has spilled some major tea about the show’s leading lady.
Author Candace Bushnell, whose sex and relationship column in The New York Observer inspired Sex and the City in all its iterations, spoke about the spinoff to the podcast Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef. During the interview, she let slip that actress Sarah Jessica Parker–whose character, Carrie Bradshaw, is a thinly veiled version of Bushnell–had extreme reservations about doing the spinoff.
“SJP did not want to do it, right? So after she shot the pilot, she did not want to do it. And I remember that vaguely,” Bushnell said. “And I think at one point they were saying that I should have played the part. And now I’m like, ‘Yeah, I should’ve played the part!'”
Bushnell further revealed that Chris Noth, who plays Carrie’s late husband “Mr. Big” also did not want to return for the spinoff.
“He didn’t even particularly want to do it either, you know? I mean, he really only signed up to be a guest star,” Bushnell explained.
“I think people tuned in to watch the show because it was really about, specifically, this new kind of woman, which is something that I outlined in the book. A lot of people tuned in to see Chris Noth, you know, that’s another sort of, like, unknown factor.”
Related: The stars of ‘And Just Like That…’ weigh in on Chris Noth allegations
Subsequent to his appearing in the first episode of And Just Like That–and having his character killed off–three women accused Noth of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault going back to 2004. Though Noth denies all the allegations, producers for And Just Like That deleted his flashback scenes from later episodes.
In addition to Parker and Noth’s reluctance to return to their Sex and the City characters, actress Kim Cattrall, who played fan-favorite character Samantha, also refused to sign on to the new show, claiming she had outgrown the role and calling the work environment “toxic.”
As always, amid all the backstage woes, Twitter has thoughts…
I’ve tried…I wanted to like it… #AndJustLikeThat pic.twitter.com/56jVjl6QA4
— ??? (@mrosss74) January 13, 2022
My god! Why are they making Steve just the bumbling and confused husband!? I hate this turn for Miranda and Steve! #andjustlikethat #AndJustLikeThat pic.twitter.com/0BkPrWv68z
— NayNai (@NayNai11019315) January 13, 2022
While Miranda is jumping into bed with the hideously arrogant, Che, let’s remember she’s actually cheating on her husband. She’s becoming less and less like the principled Miranda we knew and loved. WTF have they done to her? #andjustlikethat pic.twitter.com/uuwXxI1YWj
— Best Foot Forward (@toomanydeejays) January 18, 2022
I'd hoped #AndJustLikeThat would be like pizza – good even if it's bad – but it's a steaming heap of garbage. #AJLT pic.twitter.com/xgVgODYm9C
— Noël Marie (@mz_locknload) January 14, 2022
Who is responsible for this Che and Miranda storyline? #AndJustLikeThat pic.twitter.com/jqiQHhFQsP
— Linda (@mzcaramelbunni) January 13, 2022
This is Carrie script #AndJustLikeThat pic.twitter.com/SIeJhfprtW
— B??????A??????D??????D??????I??????E??????? (@RHOTheGays) January 14, 2022
I can't believe they are doing this to this beautiful couple that went through a lot and planned to be together for 30+ years #AndJustLikeThat pic.twitter.com/wzSUpXPwgF
— Elena Loor (@ElenaLoor91) January 13, 2022
nitejonboy
Wouldn’t be surprised if the late in life Lesbian Cynthia Nixon had something to do with Miranda’s hideous new storyline…but Cynthia forgets that more straight women watch SATC than gay women and they are going to be mighty pissed that she is breaking up this happy marriage with Steve ( who, personally, as a gay man, was always IMO the sexiest of the SATC men ) just to try some fish tacos for a bit. Miranda a lesbian ? Yeah right! And even so, Miranda has better taste than to date that dog.
Caine
As everyone bemoaned everything else, I kept thinking if they make Miranda a lesbian I am out. Of course Cynthia Nixon probably insisted on that. It is about as compelling as her joke of an attempt at politics.
Jere
I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that Nixon has come out as a lesbian in real life and Miranda is also engaging in an affair with a non-binary, female-presenting character. But I don’t have a problem with AJLT ruining the Miranda/Steve relationship. The show is about resetting your expectation when life take unexpected turns in your 50’s when you thought you were settled in. Of the three leads’ long term relationships, they clearly meant to kill off Big immediately, so Carrie is dealing with widowhood and all that comes with it. That left either Miranda’s long marriage or Charlotte’s long marriage to be upended and I think that Miranda’s was always the most likely candidate. Without her marriage to Harry and her kids, Charlotte literally wouldn’t exist, so her upheaval couldn’t ultimately damage those relationships. So Miranda it was. Regarding the Miranda/Steve relationship, lots of long term relationships peter out over time and die while the spouses/partners are going through the motions. It’s not unheard of at all. Their kid is mostly grown, if not out of the house, and she is coming to realize that without Brady at the center of their life, they don’t really HAVE a life together anymore. They clearly never cultivated their relationship as a couple apart from their relationship as parents over the past two decades. So here they are. She’s unhappy, but hadn’t realized she was unhappy until she met this other person. There are thousands of real-life examples of this happening. So I get it.
ehs355
Yikes. No. Straight here and that marriage has never been super happy. Also, straight women are actually capable of appreciating growth and change in later life. LOTS of straight married women w children are dying to reinvent themselves.
The problem is not Cynthia Nixon, and you all sound like assholes insisting that it is. Even it it WERE her idea for Miranda to be gay, it’s THE WRITERS who suck, and who ruined literally every storyline.
But thanks to all of you who commented on this sub thread, you’re dickheads.
Cam
Nixon was kind of crappy to her actual husband so I’m not surprised that they ran the storyline like this. Also, why did they turn Steve, who was an athletic, outgoing vigorous guy into behaving like he is an 80 year old with dementia?
Critifur
Yep, same for me. I dream of a Steve for me.
IanHunter
I agree totally Steve is the cutie pie.
cuteguy
This spin-off is complete garbage. Thank Goodness Samantha isn’t in this pile of turd.
Jere
I call BS on any number of things here. First, Candace Bushnell is not an actress, so I cannot believe that anyone associated with either show ever seriously suggested that she play Carrie Bradshaw. That sounds to me like something that was said as a joke one day (“LOL…well maybe YOU should play Carrie instead…LOL) that she somehow took seriously or is pretending here that was an actual serious thing. And, secondly, if SJP didn’t want to do AJLT, it would not have happened. Period. In fact, if NONE of the other cast wanted to return and SJP did, they’d have figured out a way to do the show with JUST her. Maybe Carrie would have been the one moving to London to start a new life. And I have no idea what to say about Noth. If he really didn’t want to do it, they clearly could have done it without him and just opened the show post-funeral. This whole interview really smacks of Candace Bushnell striving for some attention on the back of a project that doesn’t really have anything to do with her. She needs to cash the checks and move on. If she wants to be relevant again, she needs to come up with a new act.
Caine
I cannot say that I disagree with anything said but – I am still liking And Just Like That… Maybe it’s nostalgia.
whateverokok
What sucks then, still sucks now. Not that hard to figure. I just can’t believe people still waste their time on this garbage.
SPEEDOSWIMMER
Dingbat writers…
Joshooeerr
Candace Bushnell had clearly had a few glasses of wine before that interview. There are no circumstances under which anyone would consider have the author play her character on screen, much less take over the role from a major star in a series that ran successfully for years. It’s hilarious that she thinks somebody might buy this. And nobody held a gun to the heads of SJP or Chris Noth to make them sign on for the re-boot. They’re all rich enough to have developed some integrity (like Kim Cattrall) and said “no”.
Fahd
I watched just the first episode and then couldn’t go further. Sounds like I made the right choice in trusting my instincts.
Jack
Hang this shhh show up. The only reason I would co-sign on another season of AJLT is to make some attempt to not end a 30 year cultural revolution with THIS buh-shtt. Candice Bushnell should be more discrete though. She road the gravy train for 30 damn years. Sit, girl.
Peter
Bushnell may be a writer, but she talks like a teenager who spends too much time in chatrooms. I’m forcing myself to watch AJLT; it’s painful.
Cam
They could have gotten more diverse without turning the show into some maudlin affair. There isn’t any joy in the show, and they’ve made the characters really odd. I mean Charlotte having a meltdown because her daughter wanted to paint her bedroom wall? Come on.
Miss Adjusted
Honestly, I don’t mind that it is doing a late-in-life sexual orientation switch storyline. And I think Miranda makes a good choice for who it happens to. The first time I watched SATC back when it first aired, a part of me always got that vibe from her, especially with some of the insecurity she felt with the other women and how deeply she could feel sexual rejection from them. As I got older and rewatched, I could see it going either way.
Let’s be honest, this sort of thing happens all the time, especially from that generation where homosexuality was still so taboo. Miranda is good at denial and her pushing away early feelings of attraction for women and forcing herself to act like the Good Straight, especially in an environment as male-driven and competitive as the one where she ended up, where her being a lesbian could give a second obstacle on top of her being female in a field dominated by men? Totally consistent with her.
I don’t take issue with the plot. I take issue with the way they are bending her character to do it.
Miranda is ethical, loyal, and dedicated. Her values are important to her. She doesn’t cheat and is very hard on people who do, even people she loves. She is very confrontational, as well. Some of this is to the point of making her goddamn obnoxious sometimes.
The idea that she would 1) not be totally open with Steve about their failing marriage, 2) allow herself to be drawn into an affair, and 3) become an alcoholic with so little self-awareness and then just overcome it on a whim is all so disingenuous and unlike her. None of that is like the woman we spent so much time getting to know.
Then there is Che.
People keep calling them the “worst character on TV”. I can’t really agree with that, but I do see where people are coming from. Seeing Miranda becoming some sycophantic comedy groupie (already a weird enough sentence on its own) is painful. And Che’s blatant disregard for everyone around them under the banner of some kind of self-acceptance and “this is how I am” crap sucks. It isn’t the best face to put on a character meant to finally be representative of a smaller subset of the LGBTQ+ community.
The way “diversity” in general is being done on the show sucks. I physically cringed when Anthony uttered the words “Black Charlotte”. Then Miranda gets another embarrassing characterization by being unable to stop running her mouth every time she is around her professor. And Charlotte rushing to find another Black couple to come to dinner just so they thought she and Harry had Black friends? I choked on my coffee when she tried to get the number of a totally random hookup from Anthony’s past. Only to find out that this other couple was having the same worry about none of their friends being White?
Are the writers serious? After the decades of criticism about their lack of diversity in a show set in modern-day Manhattan, this is the best they could do? Clumsy interactions that look like none of the ladies have seen a person with darker skin before. A non-binary character who is aggressively obnoxious at all times and is helping to ruin a family. A gay married couple that can’t stop bickering over the color of suits and a sudden divorce.
The only character that seems to be doing well is Seema Patel. Just because she seems like an actual person, and not a cartoon or a walking allegory.
After saying all of this, my point is this: I think on a show where so much is a horrifying mess, the fact that Miranda’s sexuality is still stealing the spotlight and holding 90% of the discourse really shows how terribly it is being presented.
Jimsie
“Let’s be honest, this sort of thing happens all the time, especially from that generation where homosexuality was still so taboo.” I read this sentence from the above commenter and wonder how old this person is–but even more than age, I wonder about life experience. Gay Liberation has been around since the 60s and millions of people have been out since then. I’ve been out and enjoying a full life since 1973. It’s no big deal and the problem with Hollywood is that it thinks being queer still IS a Big Deal, a matter of whispers, finger-pointing, and hush-hush. Big Deal enough to put on TV and lure in salacious, closeted or ignorant viewers. As MAD TV said of of series in one of its most infamous skits, “It’s porn with Emmys!”
Jimsie
“Let’s be honest, this sort of thing happens all the time, especially from that generation where homosexuality was still so taboo.” I read this sentence from the above commenter and wonder how old this person is–but even more than age, I wonder about life experience. Gay Liberation has been around since the 60s and millions of people have been out since then. I’ve been out and enjoying a full life since 1973. It’s no big deal and the problem with Hollywood is that it thinks being queer still IS a Big Deal, a matter of whispers, finger-pointing, and hush-hush. Big Deal enough to put on TV and lure in salacious, closeted or ignorant viewers. As MAD TV said of the series in one of its most infamous skits, “It’s porn with Emmys!”
just now
Beachman
The show has grown on me. I wasn’t a fan at first, but as the season evolves I am liking it.
And you people clearly don’t know/understand what you are talking about. Candace Bushnell had nothing to do with the spinoff, and very little to do with SATC. She took her check and ran! The rest of them are directly deposited!
It’s really SJP and Michael Patrick King’s vision and show. That’s who’s driving the new series, and MPK was the real force (along with Darren Starr) behind the original.
And it’s my understanding that HBO signed on for 2 seasons. It isn’t really worth it for them for just a single series (that’s why almost all HBO series go for at least 2 seasons).
Did people really think they were going to do a series about 3 post menopausal women in their 50’s boozing it up and sleeping around? Who would watch that? That would get boring really quickly…..
The new series is great, and I’m looking forward to seeing these characters get older like the rest of us.
cuteguy
You make as much sense as “This is Che Diaz”….barf