Sarah Jessica Parker Initially Didn't Want to Be on Sex and the City? Find Out What Seth Rudetsky Said!

He made his comments in his Playbill column

By Corinne Heller Aug 26, 2015 4:07 PMTags
Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the CityHBO/Craig Blankenhorn

Apparently, that giant photo of Sarah Jessica Parker almost didn't end up on the side of that New York City bus.

Sarah Jessica Parker almost didn't star in Sex and the City...by choice, according to Seth Rudetsky.  In his weekly column posted on Playbill this week, the Sirius XM radio host and Broadway performer, who recently performed with the actress and her husband Matthew Broderick in the Broadway @ Town Hall show in Provincetown, Massachussetts, talked about what he said she told him regarding her concerns about the HBO hit series.

"We, of course, talked about Sex and The City and turns out, she was reluctant to do the pilot because she didn't really want to do a series," Rudetsky wrote. "However, she loved the script so she filmed it and then forgot about it. Months later, she found out the show was picked up and she completely wanted to get out of it. I mean, completely. She really didn't want to be tied down to one job because she loved going from gig to gig and being, what she called, a 'journeyman.'"

"She tried various ways to get out of it including telling HBO that she would film three projects for free if they'd release her from her contract!" he added. "Basically, they convinced her to honor her deal, and she now has no regrets."

Parker has not commented.

Sex and the City aired from 1998 to 2004 and all four main actresses—Parker, Kristin DavisKim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon—reprised their roles as Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda in two movies that served as sequels.

Rudetsky wrote in Playbill that Parker loved playing Carrie. And also, it appears there's good news for Sex and the City fans.

"She told us that there may be a project coming up involving all the ladies!" he wrote.

"I'll tell you who it probably won't involve: me," he added. "I auditioned for the first movie and decidedly did not get cast. I'll also tell you, however, whom it might involve: my mother! She auditioned for the film and got a call back." 

Parker was not the first choice to play Carrie. Desperate Housewives alum Dana Delany was.

"Well, it wasn't even a script yet. [Sex and the City creator] Darren Star was a friend of mine," she said on NBC's Today show. "I had just done so many movies about sex. I said to him, 'I can't do another one. I can't. I can't.'"

Also, Davis also reportedly had a chance to possible play Carrie. The Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald said in 2009 that Star had invited the actress to audition for the role but that she refused, describing it as "very different" from the Carrie that viewers know and love—much harder and more cynical.

Meanwhile, Parker is returning to TV, specifically to HBO. The actress appears in the new comedy Divorce, which also stars Molly Shannon, Talia Balsam and Thomas Haden Church. The cable network has ordered the project to series.