For years, there have been rumors of a feud between Kim Cattrall and her Sex and the City co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristen Davis.
The actors have all gone out of their way to dismiss the rumors as pure invention, the fantasy of jealous critics who, in Cattrall’s words, “don’t want to believe that we get on” because they “have too much invested in the idea of strong, successful women fighting with each other.”
Now, however, Cattrall has come clean about the feud—said to date back to the discrepancy between Parker and Cattrall’s pay packets in the final season of the HBO show—calling her relationship with the other stars “toxic” and declaring she had nothing in common with them.
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In an astonishing broadside worthy of the tirades delivered by her outspoken character Samantha Jones, Cattrall told interviewer Piers Morgan that she would never play the role again, saying: “For me it’s over, it’s over with no regrets. I just wish that Sarah had been nicer.”
She also said, referring to Parker, that she doesn’t “know what her issue is,” and “never” has.
The comments were made during taping of Morgan’s British TV show, Life Stories, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Cattrall adds: “I’ve moved on, this is what my sixties are about, they’re about me making decisions for me not my career, for me. And that feels frickin’ fantastic.”
Cattrall also moved to deny reports that she was blocking production of a new Sex and the City film by holding out for a higher pay packet, telling Morgan she was angry that her former co-stars hadn’t reached out to her.
“Another thing that’s really disappointing is that 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.
“And usually what happens in a healthy relationship is that someone, or a transaction for a job in my business, is that someone says, ‘Are you available?’ and you say ‘Yes’ and here’s the job and you say ‘Yes but thank you very much but I’m sort of over here right now but thank you very much,’ and that person turns to you and they say ‘That’s great, good luck to you, I wish you the best.’”
Cattrall then added: “That’s not what happened here, this is, it feels like a toxic relationship.”
Cattrall said she was speaking out despite concerns that fans of the show would be upset.
“I don’t want to in any shape or form ruin the ideal of [the show], because it does stand for empowerment and it does stand for women sticking up for each other—but not always.”
Cattrall suggested another actress could take over her part: “I want them to make the movie, if that’s what they want to do. It’s a great part. I played it past the finish line, and then some. I loved it and another actress should play it, maybe they could make it an African-American Samantha Jones or a Hispanic Samantha Jones?”
Cattrall added: “I don’t feel like a victim, I feel like I came out of this on top. This has given me a fantastic platform. Sarah Jessica, she could have been nicer, she could have in some way. I don’t know what her issue is, I never have.”
Ouch.
