As And Just Like That nears its sophomore debut on Thursday, stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon have all sounded off on the one thing that Sex and the City fans buzzing for weeks: Kim Cattrall’s upcoming Season 2 cameo. But if you were hoping that this would be the big moment that could heal the feud that’s long divided the cast, well... to quote a certain infamous Post-It note, they’re sorry, they can’t, don’t hate them.
Speaking with The Wrap, Nixon, who plays Miranda Hobbes, said she’s “so deeply disappointed” that word of Cattrall’s character Samantha Jones’ return had gotten out. “It was going to be such a wonderful surprise that, as people were watching an episode, ‘Oh my god! There’s Samantha!’ You know?”
Nixon added that she’s worried that the mounting anticipation among fans could end in disappointment. “I just worry now because it is one scene, and it’s very brief,” she said. “It’s really just kind of a wave, you know shoutout. And I just worry that there’s been all this buildup.”
For years, the reported acrimony between Parker and Cattrall has dominated behind-the-scenes reporting about Sex and the City and HBO’s sequel series. Speaking with Vanity Fair recently, Nixon said the cast was often “walking on eggshells” around Cattrall without fully understanding why.
During her own interview with The Daily Mail, Kristin Davis (who plays Charlotte York Goldenblatt) pushed back against the idea that Cattrall’s appearance might turn over a new leaf for the cast.
“I don’t know that there's a closure or resolution necessarily,” she said. “Those are like, kind of big things that I don’t know that we were going for.”
Speaking with The Wrap, Davis also echoed Nixon’s concern about fans’ expectations, now that the moment has leaked. “I just hope that it hasn’t been built up now and that people are disappointed, because we really did it for the fans,” she said. “We just thought it would be fun if she just showed up all the sudden on the screen. Wouldn’t that be great? But that’s not the world we live in.”
Beyond their roles as lead performers, Parker, Davis, and Nixon are all executive producers on And Just Like That—and they’ve disputed the idea Cattrall’s pop-in had somehow happened without their involvement.
“The idea emerged because of the 25 years and wanting to celebrate that, but also acknowledge the affection that we had for Samantha—that we continue to have,” Parker told E! News. “She’s been present on the show in text form, so it just seemed such a nice way to put a face to the text, and just have a moment.”
As diehard fans likely already know, Cattrall supposedly filmed her cameo separately from the rest of the cast. Evan Handler, who plays Charlotte’s husband Harry Goldenblatt, recently told People, “Apparently, [her cameo] was shot in the garage somewhere with no contact with anybody.” By all accounts, Samantha Jones’ great return to SATC will be no more than a brief phone call. “It's a very sweet, sentimental phone call that happens in a particular time in Carrie's life," Parker told E! News. “And it's just punctuated by this phone call. I hope people enjoy it.”
