Kim Cattrall is finally revealing why she never planned to return to her famous “Sex and the City” role.
The actress who immortalized the role of sexually freewheeling publicist Samantha Jones on the iconic HBO series infamously walked away from the franchise after six seasons and two blockbuster movies.
Late last year, the Michael Patrick King-produced series was rebooted into a 10-episode “And Just Like That” series for the HBO Max streaming service, which kept the character alive and ignited more interest in why Cattrall — who has mostly remained mum on her reasoning — didn’t take part.
Now she’s broken her silence.
“It’s a great wisdom to know when enough is enough,” the Golden Globe Award winner told Variety. “I also didn’t want to compromise what the show was to me. The way forward seemed clear.”
As far as the notion that she would take part in the reboot, she revealed she was never asked to be part of it, adding that she made her feelings clear after approached about a third movie.
“I found out about it like everyone else did — on social media,” Cattrall said about “And Just Like That.”
The 65-year-old Liverpool native described the new series as “basically” what the third movie was supposed to be.
“That’s how creative it was,” she cracked.
Cattrall also confirmed how “heartbreaking” it was to read in the script that the teenage son of Cynthia Nixon’s character was to send her unsolicited private photos.
“Why can’t Samantha, who owns her PR company — maybe she had to sell it because of financial woes?” she asked. “2008 was tough. Some people are still recovering. She had to sell it to some guy who’s wearing a hoodie, and that’s the dilemma she has. I mean that’s a scenario that was kind of off the top of one of my reps’ heads, and I thought that’s a great idea. That’s a conflict. Instead of an underage boy’s …”
“I would have preferred for all of us to have some kind of event to warrant a third film. That didn’t happen,” she added.
Cattrall admitted she was conflicted how producers decided to keep the character alive despite her making it clear that she was done with the role.
“It’s odd, isn’t it? I don’t know how to feel about it. It’s so finite for me, so it doesn’t continue,” she shared, making referencing to her latest plum gigs — which ironically are reboots of popular series. “I think I would ponder it more if I didn’t have something like ‘Queer as Folk’ or “How I Met Your Father.’ That’s kind of where I’m centered around. This feels like an echo of the past. .”
The character who put the sex in “Sex and the City” will always remain a treasure to “Porkys” and “Police Academy” alum.
But she made it clear that the decision to walk away was the right one.
“I haven’t deserted anybody,” Cattrall said. “Can you imagine going back to a job you did 25 years ago? And the job didn’t get easier; it got more complicated in the sense of how are you going to progress with these characters? Everything has to grow, or it dies.”
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