‘Sex and the City’: Kristin Davis Wanted to Play Charlotte Over Carrie
Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) was always the more traditionally-minded friend on Sex and the City. While Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), and Samatha Jones (Kim Cattrall) often embraced their singleness, Charlotte was determined to get her husband and children.
Interestingly enough, Davis was initially asked to audition for the role of Carrie. However, the actor quickly discovered that Charlotte would be a much better fit for her.
Charlotte York was only supposed to be a recurring character in ‘Sex and the City’
When the creators and producers were first developing Sex and the City, they wanted to focus on the core three, Carrie, Samantha, and Miranda. Initially, Charlotte was just supposed to be a friend of Carrie’s who was around sometimes.
Charlotte was slated to initially be a recurring character, but that quickly changed. The writers decided that she also had to be a part of the core four. Charlotte was so different from Carrie, Miranda, and Samantha that she offered a different perspective on varied situations across the course of the series.
Kristin Davis asked to portray Charlotte instead of Carrie
When he first developed the idea for Sex and the City from Candace Bushnell’s novels, Darren Star considered Davis for the role of Carrie Bradshaw. However, when Davis received the script, she immediately gravitated toward Charlotte over Carrie.
In the book, Sex and the City and Us, Davis explained that she could not get past the character description for Carrie. It described the writer/fashion-lover as having “the body of Heather Locklear and the mind of Dorothy Parker.”
According to the book, “All Davis could think was, ‘I am never in a million years going to have the body of Heather Locklear … Carrie’s fantastic, but I’m Charlotte.’”
Looking at it now, Davis obviously made a perfect choice.
Charlotte had one of the worst boyfriends on ‘Sex and the City’
All four women in SATC had their share of failures regarding love. Some fans even argue that Carrie’s choice to marry Mr. Big was wrong after all the chaos and pain he caused her. Charlotte, who had always dreamed of having a husband and children, thought she had hit the jackpot with her first husband, Trey MacDougal (Kyle MacLachlan). However, their fertility issues, sex life problems, and his annoying mother quickly ruined their marriage.
Still, Trey loved Charlotte and wanted her to be happy. One of the art curator’s worst boyfriends was Ned, the widower.
Charlotte met Ned in season 2, episode 5, “Four Women and a Funeral.” She found him mourning the loss of his late wife. Kind-hearted, Charlotte bent over backward to support Ned, only to discover that he was exploiting the death of his late wife to sleep with several other women.
