Sarah Jessica Parker wanted to keep Samantha’s return a secret for the fans, but things didn’t play out the way she had hoped.
During an appearance on Sirius XM’s , the 58-year-old Sex and the City alum revealed that she had been frustrated that details of Kim Cattrall’s cameo on the series’ revival, And Just Like That…, had been leaked.
Parker confessed she “could not have been more upset” that the surprise reveal had been outed. The actress also called it a “big bummer” as there would have been “fireworks” when loyal Sex and the City fans spotted Cattrall, 66, on screen.
“Also, because we want to make sure that expectations are real,” she continued. “It’s a little exchange that is happy. It says everything about their relationship and other stuff that’s off-camera.”
Noting that their respective characters Carrie Bradshaw and Samantha Jones “talk all the time,” Parker said Cattrall’s appearance “comes at a significant moment in the series.”
Earlier this month, Cattrall made headlines when she confirmed she would be reprising her iconic role in HBO’s And Just Like That.
While appearing on The View this week, the actress shared what led to her highly anticipated cameo.
“It’s very interesting to get a call from the head of HBO saying, ‘What can we do?’ and I went, ‘Hmm, Let me get creative,’ “ she recalled. “And one of those things was to get Pat Field back because I just thought that if I’m going to come back, I gotta come back with that Samantha style. I gotta push it. And we did.”
Per , Cattrall filmed her appearance in New York City on March 22 “without seeing or speaking with the stars of the series,” including Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis as well as series creator Michael Patrick King.
The re-introduction of Samantha comes 25 years after the show’s premiere on HBO — and after some public tension between Parker and Cattrall, who has previously voiced her disinterest in being part of future SATC stories.
In a May 2022 interview with , Cattrall said she never “deserted” her character, adding, “Can you imagine going back to a job you did 25 years ago? And the job didn’t get easier; it got more complicated in the sense of how are you going to progress with these characters?”
She continued, “Everything has to grow, or it dies. I felt that when the series ended, I thought that’s smart. We’re not repeating ourselves. And then the movie to end all the loose ends. And then there’s another movie. And then there’s another movie?”
Cattrall went on to say that after the second movie, “Everything in me went, ‘I’m done.’”
Sex and the City and And Just Like That… can be streamed on Max.
