Cynthia Nixon spoke about what it was like to shoot And Just Like That without Kim Cattrall after six seasons of Sex and the City and two films with her as part of the four core films.
In a surprising turn of events, it was announced in May that Cattrall would reprise her role as Samantha Jones for a top-secret cameo in the season 2 finale of AJLT. Nixon told Vanity Fair that she read the script for Cattrall Returns but hadn’t seen the episode yet. She was also open about how things were different in the first season without Samantha.
“It felt very different, partly because we have these new amazing characters, we’re older, and our fictional kids are pretty much grown now,” actress Miranda Hobbes told the publication. “A lot of things felt different. But the most important thing that felt so great was that everyone who was there really wanted to be there. That’s just the bottom line.”
She continued, “We all love each other, we love our show, we wanted to do more of it.” And we all wanted to be in it. So that makes a tremendous difference, not walking on eggshells with someone who is unhappy for reasons that are difficult to understand.”
Nixon’s comments follow news that Cattrall would briefly return to the SATC universe after a potential third film fell through in 2017. At the time, reports indicated that Cattrall had made demands that Warner Bros. was not happy with. So she dropped out, and Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kristin Davis didn’t want to do the film without her, so that didn’t happen.
When plans for AJLT hit the actress’ desk, they decided they could move on without Samantha because they knew what showrunner Michael Patrick King wanted to do and loved it, Parker explained to in June 2022. She also revealed that they have not approached Cattrall to return for the sequel.
“She made it very clear that she didn’t want to pursue that and that we didn’t feel comfortable anymore so it didn’t cross our minds,” Parker said on THR’s Awards Chatter podcast. “It doesn’t mean ‘beat them up’, it’s just about learning. You have to listen to someone, and when they’re speaking publicly about something, and that doesn’t mean it’s a place they want to be, or a person they want to play with, or an environment they want to be in want to be, you get to an age where you’re like, ‘Well, we heard that.’”