Sarah Jessica Parker Felt Leaving ‘Sex and the City’ Reminded Her of When She Was Kicked out Her Home
Sarah Jessica Parker spent a lot of time on Sex and the City. Deciding to end the show wasn’t an easy decision for the actor. She once even equated it to leaving home at an early age.
Leaving ‘Sex and the City’ behind was like leaving home for Sarah Jessica Parker
As the HBO series’ star and executive producer, the fate of Sex and the City rested in Parker’s hands. Despite the financial security the show gave her, Parker convinced herself that the show ran its course.
“What a hard decision it was to end the show,” she once told Oprah. “I kept asking myself, How’s the party faring? And how am I faring? Right now the party’s in full swing, and I hope the audience feels the same. But I don’t want to crawl across the finish line with bloodied hands. And as scary as it is to leave—and as lucrative as it would be to stay—sometimes you have to do what’s risky.”
To Parker, it reminded her of leaving home. Her mother forced her to leave the house when she was only 17. She didn’t have to completely fend for herself, as her mother would still provide help when it was necessary. But there was a lot of uncertainty that came with being on her own at such a young age. Sex and the City‘s ending made her relive that journey.
“It’s terrifying, but I thought that was why it was necessary. I mean, it’s such a strange thing to be so happy, so content and to know therefore you should leave. And I guess that it is like leaving home because there’s every opportunity for failure,” she once told Chud. “Especially in relation to that particular show and the kind of success even while we were only on cable, the kind of success that show had.”
Sarah Jessica Parker disagreed with ‘Sex and the City’ creator Darren Starr about the ending
Original Sex and the City creator had a few issues with how the show ended its run. Starr initially acted as showrunner until his departure, and handed off the series for Michael Patrick King to lead. Because of this, he had no control over how Sex and the City ended. If he did, the finale would’ve been completely different.
“For me, in a way—and I didn’t [write] those last episodes—if you’re empowering other people to write and produce your show, you can’t…say certain things. At a certain point, you’ve got to let them follow their vision,” Starr said in a Kindles Singles interview (via Self). “But I think the show ultimately betrayed what it was about, which was that women don’t ultimately find happiness from marriage. Not that they can’t. But the show initially was going off script from the romantic comedies that had come before it. That’s what had made women so attached.”
But Parker disagreed with Starr’s take on the ending, and thought Carrie Bradshaw had a fitting conclusion.
“As I recall, the way Carrie and Big married was something she wanted rather than a feeling that life was slipping away and she best settle quickly,” she said. “I don’t think of it as someone diminishing herself by letting a man marry her—it always felt that she had arrived at that on her own. But the beauty is we can all have lots and lots of opinions about lots of choices Carrie made that we object to or that we stand by. If that’s Darren’s feeling, I think it’s interesting!”
Sarah Jessica Parker revealed ‘Sex and the City’ had 3 different endings
According to Parker, there was more than one way to end the series. In an interview with Larry King, Parker confided that they had three alternate finales in mind.
“But what’s odd about it is the scene that we shot the three endings where we might have shown the audience various scenarios was cut from the final episode. So there’s not a point in time that any viewer could look at the final episode and say, Oh, that’s the ending they chose,” she said.
She even gave a glimpse into what one of those scenes was.
“There was a coffee shop scene that we — when we were actually editing the final episode, we realized was unnecessary and so we didn’t use it,” she said. “But in that coffee shop scene, Carrie has come back from Paris and she says to her three women friends, she says — and so, you know, Big is coming back from Napa and we’re going to make this, you know, real attempt at an adult relationship. And then the next scene was, so Petrovsky is flying in on Friday, and I think I would like you ladies to be my — you know, part of my wedding party. And there’s great tears of joy and some mixed emotions from some different, you know, characters. And then the final scenario was, So it’s just me and the city, gals, back at home a single lady.”
