‘Sex and the City’ Kim Cattrall Would Only Play Samantha in the Original Series Under 1 Condition

Fans of Sex and the City have been buzzing since it was announced that the show would be making a return to HBO Max. The new show, titled And Just Like That… will feature all of the show’s original stars—minus Kim Cattrall. The talented actress has had a years-long feud with Sarah Jessica Parker and refuses to work with her again. 

Although Cattrall’s character, Samantha, has often cited as one of the most interesting on the show, she initially had no plans of starring in Sex and the City. She turned down the role numerous times and only changed her mind after a very specific requirement for her character was met.  

Kim Cattrall was not interested in the roles Hollywood offered women in the late ‘90s

Prior to accepting her Sex and the City role, Cattrall had become disillusioned with Hollywood. She was frustrated by the lack of meaningful roles being offered at the time, she revealed in a 2014 interview with Whistler Film Festival.

“40 in Hollywood was you were dead. … You were crazy aunt or the mother” Cattrall said. “And it was the mother that never really had much to do other than, ‘Oh honey,’ or [shrieks hysterically]. It was like an ugly, two-dimensional evil character witch. Or you were like, so complacent that it was—there were no roles there.”

Instead of taking roles on the big screen, she was ready to get on stage and do plays. 

“So I was perfectly happy in thinking, ‘Well, you know, I’ll do theater,’” Cattrall said. “I’ll become a journeyman actress and I’ll play those great roles that I didn’t play so much in my 20s and 30s because I was concentrating on film.”

She wasn’t interested in starring in ‘Sex and the City’ initially 

Early in Sex and the City’s development, creator Darren Star knew he wanted Cattrell for the role of Samantha. However, she kept turning him down. 

“Darren just would not take no for an answer,” Cattrall said. “And Darren’s boyfriend called me about a month before they started shooting—and they had hired another actress, who shall be nameless. And he said, ‘Why did you turn that role down?’”

Cattrall told him that she felt like she couldn’t play the role of “sexy broad” anymore, but he refused to believe her. He kept telling her that she was wrong, which stuck with Cattrall. 

That night, she couldn’t go to sleep because of the conversation and decided to revisit the script with a new perspective. 

“I had taken the script and I had put it behind some books in my bookshelf, and in the middle of the night I got up and found it and I drew it out and I started making little notes on the script,” Cattrall recalled. “I’m thinking, ‘Well wait a minute, I could do that. I think I could do that too. And I could make her vulnerable this way.’”

Kim Cattrall changed her mind about the role, with 1 condition 

After reading the script again, Cattrall decided she was down for the role, but under one huge condition.

“So I had another meeting with Darren Star, very long lunch,” Cattrall said. “And I said, ‘Just promise me one thing.’ And he said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘She will never have children.’ And he said, ‘I think I can promise you that,’” Cattrall added. 

Cattrall knew that it wouldn’t be true to her Samantha’s character if she ended up having kids on the show.  

“I knew that Samantha should never have a child, or children, to be true to herself,” Cattrall said.