In bringing “Sex and the City” to the screen, writer-director Michael Patrick King, Sarah Jessica Parker and the rest of the cast felt a great sense of responsibility to their characters Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, because each of the women is reflected somewhere in the audience. Therefore, in New Line Cinema’s highly awaited sequel “Sex and the City 2,” even though they vacate their daily lives and take an exhilarating romp in a stunning locale, the women continue to face very human, true-to-life concerns, as voiced by the ever-questioning chronicler, Carrie (Parker). (read more below)
“Carrie is truly the heart and soul of it all,” says King. “Even when the story focuses on the other women, we hear and see it from Carrie’s perspective to some degree.”
When we first glimpse Carrie and Big in their home together, Carrie Bradshaw—now also known as Mrs. John Preston—is feeling a bit unsettled in her settled, married life, wondering “what happens after you say ‘I do.’” And because Carrie is also a writer, she has even gone so far as to express her feelings about the idea of marriage in her new book, I Do, Do I?, a collection of comic essays in which she lampoons the idea of traditional wedding vows.
“Carrie has spent her career writing about being single, and for the first time she’s writing about a different topic, being married,” Parker observes. “The truth is, she doesn’t know a lot about it yet. But she’s learned that there’s a difference between having a wedding and being married. She’s been married for a very short time and she’s not quite wearing it as comfortably as she wants to.”
Miranda Hobbes, having gotten past Steve’s infidelity in the last film, finds herself finally comfortable and secure at home. It’s her job that’s causing her grief. She’s grown increasingly frustrated at work, where her obvious talents are being thwarted by her arrogant and clearly chauvinistic boss.
“Miranda has always defined herself as a career person,” says Cynthia Nixon. “Men might come and go; maybe she would be a mother, maybe she wouldn’t, but she was a lawyer. Now she’s made partner in a great law firm, she has a terrific salary, but she has a new boss who can’t stand the sight or sound of her. We all have our breaking point, and Miranda is reaching hers. To all of a sudden be set adrift and to try to figure out, ‘If I’m not a lawyer, who am I? What else is left of me?’ That would be a big deal for anybody, but particularly so for someone who has defined herself through her career for her entire adult life.”
Also a wife and mother, Charlotte York-Goldenblatt has spent the last two years in the midst of her growing family, and now finds herself in the middle of the “terrible twos” with her daughter Rose. “Things are not going smoothly for Charlotte,” admits Kristin Davis. “She still really wants everything to be perfect, and it’s hard for her to accept the fact that it’s not…and that she’s not perfect either. It’s been her ongoing struggle throughout the life of the character. It’s a continuous battle as to how overachieving she can be and how many surprises have to be thrown her way before she can actually let go a little bit and stop this pursuit of perfection. And now baby Rose is the biggest challenge of all, even if Charlotte can’t admit it.”
The most outgoing of the foursome, Samantha is a smart hedonist who lives life on her own terms. However, this time around, life is throwing the sexy blonde a few curveballs as she is forced to deal with the idea of aging and what locking horns with the first symptoms of menopause means for her liberated lifestyle. Cattrall looked forward to approaching this fact of life from a comedic point of view. “For me, incorporating comedy into a menopausal storyline was incredibly gratifying, because you hear so many negative stories about what women have to go through at that time of their lives,” she comments. “I feel we’ve taken that subject and mined gold out of it by making it human and funny and accessible. Samantha has a tremendous lust for life and she’s a powerhouse about her sexuality; she enjoys it and integrates it into every aspect of her life. So when that part of her is challenged, she fights back with all she’s got.”
“These four actresses embody something very special, something everyone relates to,” says King. “Whether people feel that they are like Carrie, or Miranda, or they have a friend who is like Charlotte or Samantha, the audience has an investment in these actresses and their characters, and in the emotional journeys they take.”
Opening soon across the Philippines, “Sex and the City 2” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures in association with New Line Cinema.
