Kim Cattrall reveals she first heard about And Just Like That on social media

Kim Cattrall revealed she was never asked to be a part of the new Sex And The City reboot And Just Like That… and was heartbroken over a plotline in a pitched third film which involved her character receiving unwanted ‘dick pics’ from Miranda Hobbes’ 14-year-old son Brady. 

‘I was never asked to be part of the reboot. I made my feelings clear after the possible third movie, so I found out about it like everyone else did — on social media,’ the actress, 65, told Variety. 

When asked how she felt learning about the reboot, she replied, ‘I was like, “Ooooh.” How’s…’

The interviewer offered, ‘How’s that going to work?’

‘You said it. Not me,’ Kim replied.

‘It’s a great wisdom to know when enough is enough,’ Kim said of not returning to the show. ‘I also didn’t want to compromise what the show was to me. The way forward seemed clear.’ 

Kim famously played sex positive publicist Samantha Jones in Sex And The City and allegedly skipped out on the spinoff due to a long-running feud with her co-star Sarah Jessica Parker.

Kim says she read the script for the third film and was disappointed to see how Samantha’s story would play out. Apparently, Samantha was to be sent unwanted ‘dick pics’ from Mirandas’ 14-year-old son.

‘It’s heartbreaking,’ Kim said of the storyline.

Kim would have rather liked to have seen Samantha being forced to sell her PR company to ‘some guy who’s wearing a hoodie’ as a result of the 2008 financial crisis.

‘Why can’t Samantha, who owns her PR company — maybe she had to sell it because of financial woes? 2008 was tough. Some people are still recovering. She had to sell it to some guy who’s wearing a hoodie, and that’s the dilemma she has. I mean that’s a scenario that was kind of off the top of one of my reps’ heads, and I thought that’s a great idea. That’s a conflict. Instead of an underage boy’s…’ she said.

Ultimately, Kim decided not to take part in the third film after seeing her character’s lack of progression.  

‘I would have preferred for all of us to have some kind of event to warrant a third film. That didn’t happen. But also, I was ready. And this is exactly what I wished for: to be in different places playing different characters because I’m a character actress. 

‘And as difficult as it was, and as scary as it is to stand up and not be bullied by the press or the fans or whomever — to just say, I’m good. I’m on this track. It was so great working with you. I so enjoyed it, but I’m over here.’

She shaded the new series, claiming it was essentially the same as the script for the third film, which also saw Mr. Big die.  

‘The series is basically the third movie. That’s how creative it was,’ she said.  

Kim was really ready to throw in the towel after filming the second SATC movie.

‘Everything in me went, “I’m done,”‘ Kim said.

Yet she does appreciate fans noticing her character’s absence. ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that really the greatest compliment I could have as an actor is to be missed.’ 

Kim also addressed her relationship with her co-stars, whom she was allegedly at-odds with during their time filming the show. Kim said they had a professional relationship yet never considered them friends. 

‘I think we were colleagues. My colleagues aren’t my friends. It was professional.’ 

Kim does not ever plan on reprising her iconic role.  

‘That’s a no,’ she said of a potential return. ‘It’s powerful to say no.’

Despite having no desire to return to the show, Kim had fond memories connecting with Samantha and fleshing out her character. 

Kim also revealed she turned down the role three times before finally joining the show. 

‘I turned it down three times. I didn’t think I could do it. At 42, I really didn’t think I could pull it off. I finally said, “You’re making a mistake here.” We did the pilot — it was good but it wasn’t there. And then it started to find its way. I realized, because I’d never done a series before, the more you play the character, like in theater, the more you add to it and change. I remember one day, a laugh came out, and I thought, “Holy s**t, that’s great. Sam just got a new laugh.”‘

Kim admitted it was ‘odd’ watching the show continue Samantha without her.

‘It’s odd, isn’t it? I don’t know how to feel about it. It’s so finite for me, so it doesn’t continue. I think I would ponder it more if I didn’t have something like “Queer as Folk” or “How I Met Your Father.” That’s kind of where I’m centered around. This feels like an echo of the past. 

‘Other than the really wonderful feeling of — it’s rare in my business — people wanting more, especially at 65. That feels powerful, that I’ve left something behind that I’m so proud of. I loved her. I loved her so, so, so much. It’s tough competition. The original show is in all of our imaginations. But for me, it feels clean.’

Elaborating on her ‘clean’ break, she said: ‘Yeah, it was years ago. It was 2017 when all this was happening. I just thought to myself, “No, this is right.” And you can’t go against that feeling. I don’t ever want to be on a set and not want to be there.’

Kim also said she was unaware of remarks made by Sarah, who said she wouldn’t be OK with Kim returning as Samantha again.

‘I don’t think I read it,’ she said.

‘It wouldn’t happen anyway,’ she added. ‘So nobody has to worry about that.’

Unsurprisingly, she has not seen any of the new reboot.

Kim has been embroiled in a public feud with Sarah for a while now – calling her former costar names like ‘cruel’ and ‘toxic’ over the years – and many people believe that’s why she didn’t want to participate in the new show.

According to Cosmopolitan, Sarah earned a much larger salary than her costars during her time in the show – which eventually led to it going off the air in 2004.

‘I felt after six years, it was time for all of us to participate in the financial windfall of Sex and the City,’ Kim said in a 2004 interview about the pay-difference, right after the series came to an end.

‘When they didn’t seem keen on that, I thought it was time to move on.’

However, for years after Sex and the City concluded, Sarah and Kim denied that there were any hard feelings between them, and they even went on to film two SATC movies together.

But in 2017, things came to a head when Kim decided she did not want to be a part of the third Sex and the City movie.

‘The answer was simply: “Thank you, but no. I’m good,”’ Kim explained at the time during an interview with Piers Morgan.

‘This isn’t about more money, it’s not about more scenes … This is about a clear decision, an empowered decision in my life, to end one chapter and start another. I’m 61. It’s now.’

Many of the stars of the show took to Twitter to share their disappointment over the third movie being canceled, and Kim called her former costars ‘toxic’ for not reaching out to her privately.

She continued: ‘We’ve never been friends. We’ve been colleagues, and in some ways, it’s a very healthy place to be.

‘Nobody ever picks up the phone and tries to contact you and say, “How you doing?” That would have been the way to handle it. This is, it feels like, a toxic relationship.’

Sarah later responded to Kim’s claims while chatting with Andy Cohen.

‘I found it very upsetting because that’s not the way I recall our experience. It’s sad, but I always think that what ties us together is this singular experience,’ she said.

‘It was a professional experience, but it became personal because it was years and years of our lives, so I’m hoping that that sort of eclipses anything that’s been recently spoken.’

In 2018, Kim slammed Sarah in an Instagram post after her brother, Chris, suddenly passed away from suicide.

According to Kim, Sarah tried to reach out and send her condolences, but she called it a ‘painful reminder of how cruel she was’ during their time in the show.

‘Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now,’ she wrote.

‘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.’