Sex and the City stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis have recalled a “near-death experience” that took place on set while they were filming season three of the iconic series.
The cast, who reprised their roles as Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbes and Charlotte York Goldenblatt, respectively, in the upcoming season two of And Just Like That, reflected on the filming of the original show during an appearance on The Writers Room podcast.
During the conversation, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of the show, the co-stars spoke with Sex and the City writer-director Michael Patrick King, who recalled one “terrible” moment in particular that stuck with him.
According to King, the incident took place when the cast was in Los Angeles filming two episodes during season three, with the director explaining that the scene in question had seen Parker trying to drive a rented blue Mustang convertible up a hill with co-stars Nixon and Kim Catrall, who played Samantha Jones, in the car.
To shoot the scene, King said that the crew had “rigged” a standard car to park it on the steep hill. However, the cast encountered trouble when the brake line “broke” and the car began rolling backwards.
“Carrie rented a blue [Mustang] … and they were on a hill, the three of them, Charlotte wasn’t there, and a terrible thing happened,” King remembered. “Cynthia’s in the back seat, Kim’s in the right, and Sarah Jessica’s behind the wheel.
“And the brake line broke and the car took off down the hill backwards, and Sarah Jessica steered it somehow. At the bottom of the hill it stopped, and everybody was screaming and panicked.”
According to King, as soon as Parker got out of the car, her security “grabbed her and took her up,” while Cattrall “got out full Blanche Devereaux, collapsed, like, ‘I’ve just had a collapse of near-death…’”
“Well, she was right,” Parker interjected of her co-star’s reaction.
As the co-stars laughed, King then recalled how Nixon, who’d had a sightseeing map in her hand, had calmly gotten out of the car while the rest of the stars were being “carried away”.
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“Everybody carries Sarah Jessica and Kim away, Cynthia gets out the backseat by herself, folds the map, hands it to the prop people, and walks up the hill by herself,” King said.
After the recollection was met with laughter from the co-stars, Parker then remembered how Nixon had been “screaming” at her in the car to “brake”.
“Cynthia was screaming at me in the car. Not like screaming at me … I remember her saying: ‘Hit the brakes! Hit the brakes!’” Parker said. “And I was! I could feel my foot on the ground hitting the brake. At one point I was like: ‘I’m going to try any pedal!’”
The memory of the incident prompted King to claim it was a “near-death experience,” with the director recalling how everyone had gone home and “collapsed” while wondering whether they should “keep filming” because the experience had been “so tragic”.
However, according to King, Nixon was largely unbothered by the incident, as he recalled that, “that night Cynthia was back on the ball”.
Season two of And Just Like That will premiere on Max on 22 June.
