74 Blissful Seconds with Samantha Jones
Was it worth the wait?
“Everything in me went, ‘I’m done.’” That’s what Kim Cattrall said when reflecting on how she felt after Sex and the City 2 was released in 2010. When And Just Like That… was announced a little over a decade later, Cattrall proved she wasn’t kidding, effectively ending her reign as the beloved Samantha Jones. Her stilted relationship with co-star Sarah Jessica Parker has been well-documented, but a nugget from that same interview has always stuck with me about Cattrall’s complex relationship with the franchise. In discussing her reluctance to sign onto a third film, she described it as difficult and scary to “stand up and not be bullied by the press or the fans or whomever.” It’s the “fans” part I want to put a pin in.
As we later learned, Cattrall was not asked to be a part of the sequel series. “She made it clear that that wasn’t something she wanted to pursue, and it no longer felt comfortable for us, and so it didn’t occur to us,” Sarah Jessica Parker said in a 2022 interview. Asked about Parker’s comments shortly thereafter, Cattrall remained steadfast in her “over it” messaging: “Well, it would never happen anyway,” Cattrall proclaimed, calling the new series “a world that I [once] knew so much about that I now don’t.”
The interviewer then asked the question we were all wondering, and holding out hope for, of whether Cattrall would at least consider reprising the role if asked. “That’s a no,” she responded. “It’s powerful to say no.”
As it turns out, it’s also powerful to say yes — for the right price. The surprise was ruined back in May, when Variety first reported that Cattrall would appear in a single scene on And Just Like That…’s second season. It was Casey Bloys, the chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, that called Cattrall and convinced her to come back. “It was quite an experience, when the CEO of HBO calls you and says, ‘How can I make this happen? I want you to have fun. I want you to be comfortable,'” Cattrall recounted during an appearance on the Today Show shortly thereafter, adding that Bloys said yes to “everything that [she] knew was right for [her].”
What was right for her included recruiting the original Sex and the City costume designer Pat Field (who notably did not return for And Just Like That…), a four-hour, single-day shoot, and alleged stipulations in her contract stating she refused to film with her former co-stars and would not be on set with showrunner Michael Patrick King.
Many involved with the show have gone with the approved message that this is some kind of fan service. “We know people miss her — we get it,” Kristin Davis said in an interview. “We wanted to kind of acknowledge them and try to give them what they want within the story and the situation that we're in.” King even credited the fans as perhaps manifesting this moment. But Cattrall’s comment about bullying by the fans, mixed with her refusal to film with the other women (because, come on, what we (the fans) really wanted was a scene with all four of them together), seems to indicate that this was every bit about cashing a check. A check which, I have to imagine, could outbid Lisette for Carrie’s apartment.
We waited impatiently, and finally it came — and went. But where did it leave us?