At first people thought it was a fashion hoax. “Please tell me this is true,” tweeted fans, still sore from speculation Kim Cattrall might reprise her iconic role as Samantha Jones in a crossover episode of Emily in Paris being false.
Then there was the issue of her very definitive: “That’s a no. It’s powerful to say no,” response to whether she would ever return to the Sex and the City franchise during her 2022 Variety cover story.
But then — just like that — the same publication a year later reported that sex-hungry PR mogul Samantha Jones would make a brief cameo in the finale of “Sex and the City” spin-off series “And just like that”.
Considering the very public off-screen drama between Cattrall and her cast mates, particularly Sarah Jessica Parker who played lead character Carrie Bradshaw (more on that later), the news both shocked and delighted fans. Despite 94 episodes over six seasons and two follow-up films featuring the iconic character, there’s still an insatiable thirst for her outrageous one-liners and zero f***s outlook — especially since Jone’s very noticeable absence from the first season.
While fans theorised before the series aired about how they would portray Cattrall’s absence (many thought she would succumb to breast cancer following her Season 6 SATC storyline), the show writers chose to initiate life by pitting the characters in an on-screen feud, too. In the first episode they revealed Jones had moved to London after being fired as Bradshaw’s publicist, which was slammed by fans and Cattrall for being inauthentic to the character, with the two exchanging icy texts throughout the season.
However, in the last episode their text messages had become more cordial, with Jones agreeing to go for cocktails with Bradshaw. Before you get your hopes up, it’s unlikely her cameo will be to film this scene. According to reports Cattrall’s brief appearance was filmed on March 22 in a car park near Silvercup Studios in Queens. Neither SJP, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis or the show’s creator Michael Patrick King were there, and show staffers were equally shocked as her name wasn’t even on the call sheet for the day in a bid to keep the cameo a secret. Cattrall arrived in secret in the back of an SUV with blacked-out windows.
So how did they get Cattrall, who derailed a third movie and made her “no” stance so clear that she wasn’t even originally asked to be part of the re-boot, to agree? According to Variety, it took Casey Bloys, the chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content personally approaching Cattrall and asking her to reprise her role to get her to say yes. It comes after AJLT creator King said last year that Cattrall “said what she has said” and that, “The only place I participate in magical thinking is in fiction. You take people at their word, and you’re a smart producer — you don’t back yourself into a corner. Magically thinking, it’s great to have Samantha. I have no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again.” As well as SJP saying she would “not be ok” with Cattrall returning because “there’s just too much public history of feelings on her part that she’s shared.”
Tensions have reportedly been brewing between Cattrall and the rest of the cast since the start of the show over fees, with SJP paid far more than the others while being spared from the more cringe-inducing nude scenes. “I felt after six years, it was time for all of us to participate in the financial windfall of Sex and the City,” Cattrall said in a 2004 interview about the pay-difference, right after the series came to an end. “When they didn’t seem keen on that, I thought it was time to move on.”
The cast put their differences aside for two more movies before all hell broke loose in 2017 when Cattrall refused to participate in a third movie. “This isn’t about more money, it’s not about more scenes … This is about a clear decision, an empowered decision in my life, to end one chapter and start another. I’m 61. It’s now,” she explained in an interview on her decision.
After plans for the third movie were axed, many of the leads shared their disappointment on Twitter, to which Cattrall called them out as “toxic” for not reaching out privately. “Nobody ever picks up the phone and tries to contact you and say, "How you doing?" That would have been the way to handle it. This is, it feels like, a toxic relationship.”
During an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen”, SJP revealed that she was “heartbroken” and found Cattrall’s remarks “very upsetting”. However days later Cattrall’s brother was found dead from an apparent suicide, with Parker publicly writing, “Dearest Kim, my love and condolences to you and yours and Godspeed to your beloved brother” in the comment section of Cattrall’s Instagram post.
This did not go down well with Cattrall. “Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now,” Cattrall wrote. “Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven’t already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your ‘nice girl’ persona.”
Following the news of Jones’ return fans have praised the lengths that the 66-year-old actress has gone to to return on her terms, with many highlighting a viral comment made by Cattrell in a 2019 Guardian interview: “I don’t want to be in a situation for even an hour where I’m not enjoying myself.”
“Kim Cattrall doing a scene in And Just Like That where she doesn’t have to actually be in the same room or interact at all with SJP is iconic. She probably collected serious coin for it too,” as one fan wrote, “She got offered gobs of money and took it. I don’t blame her,” said another.
A firm fan favourite reknowned for her “trysexual” ways, non-judgemental friendship style and strong sense of self that rejected societal expectations of women such as babies and marriage, countless articles have been written declaring Jones to be the “true main character of Sex and the City”. In fact, the outpouring of love towards Cattrall and her Golden Globes award winning portrayal of Jones might be part of the reason for her return. “I’ve come to the conclusion that really the greatest compliment I could have as an actor is to be missed,” she said in an interview. “That feels powerful, that I’ve left something behind that I’m so proud of. I loved her [Samantha Jones]. I loved her so, so, so much.”
