Inside the ‘Sex and the City’ cast drama that killed the show
The Sex and the City cast to the public were just like their characters, four best friends living large. However, life doesn’t always imitate art and in this case, there was more foe than friend between two of the main cast.
Sex and the City became immensely popular in its six-season run from 1998 to 2004. Fans weren’t quite ready to let the characters go and the result was two Sex and the City movies. But behind-the-scenes it wasn’t all Manolo Blahnik pumps & Gucci handbags. A long-standing feud had blossomed onset between Sarah Jessica Parker who played Carrie & Kim Cattrall who portrayed Samantha.
The rivalry between Parker & Cattrall grew from the very beginning of Sex and the City to the second season of the show, even causing the cast & crew to take sides. Take a look at how the bitter feud was the undoing of Sex and the City.
A feud is formed
The bad blood between Sarah Jessica Parker & Kim Cattrall began when Cattrall’s character Samantha rose in popularity in the first season of Sex and the City. Cattrall had a reputation as a scene-stealer and that didn’t sit right with Parker as the lead. Tension formed between Parker & Cattrall and the other two stars Kristin Davis & Cynthia Nixon, who played Charlotte & Miranda respectively, took Parker’s side.
The trio of Parker, Davis, and Nixon formed a clique that excluded Cattrall, even going so far as to not utter a word to her beyond their lines in the script and reportedly turning the makeup artists against her. Cattrall’s one ally, creator & producer Darren Star, left after the second season.
More rumors about exclusionary behavior plagued the set of Sex and the City, including an incident where Parker, Davis, and Nixon stayed together in a house for an Atlantic City shoot, leaving Cattrall to find her own accommodations. By the time Parker took ownership of the show as executive producer, her relationship with Cattrall was not looking good.
Money, money, money
Kim Cattrall still agreed to return to the Sex and the City cast for the two films. Cattrall asked for more to appear and as a result, the public labeled her as greedy. Cattrall, at the time, was dealing with divorce & her father’s failing health and felt she needed to be fairly compensated for her time.
One of the reasons Sex and the City ended after the sixth season was because Cattrall left when the show refused her request for higher pay. Cattrall stated, “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.”
The final nail in the coffin
For a while it appeared as if Cattrall and Parker had made amends, saying in interviews for the Sex and the City movies that they were friends and there was no bad blood. Parker gushed about Cattrall, saying, “I don’t think anybody wants to believe that I love Kim. I adore her. I wouldn’t have done the movie without her. Didn’t and wouldn’t.” And Cattrall noted that people were trying to make it like she and Parker were enemies.
However, things came to a head in 2018 when Cattrall’s brother, Chris, suddenly passed away and Parker reached out on social media to offer her condolences. Cattrall lashed out at her, writing, “You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your ‘nice girl’ persona.”
Parker & Cattrall’s relationship had once more grown rocky when Cattrall pulled out of the third Sex and the City movie, again due to money issues. People took sides, some accusing Cattrall of being a diva, others accusing Parker of being a bully.
Whoever the antagonist and protagonist of this story were, one thing was for sure, it was the death knell for any hopes of the Sex and the City cast reuniting.
