The show must go on.
Sarah Jessica Parker returned to the set of HBO Max's Sex and the City revival on Monday, Sept. 27, almost a week after her co-star Willie Garson died. The actress somberly appeared in a mauve coat, striped skirt and brimmed hat as the crew filmed scenes for And Just Like That... in SoHo.
She changed into a second ensemble for a different scene, stepping out in bright purple fish-net stockings and a plaid dress, which was cinched at the waist by a belt.
Parker's appearance on the New York set comes just three days after she spoke out about Garson's surprising death. She wrote on Instagram that losing her co-worker and best friend was just "unbearable."
"Sometimes silence is a statement. Of the gravity. The anguish," she said. "The magnitude of the loss of a 30 + year friendship."
She said their relationship was filled with good times and bad, noting how their work together allowed them to laugh "late into the night as both Stanford and Carrie and Willie and SJ."
These tender moments make it all the more difficult for Parker, who Garson said he spoke to almost everyday. "Willie. I will miss everything about you. And replay our last moments together," the 56-year-old actress shared. "I will re-read every text from your final days and put to pen our last calls. Your absence a crater that I will fill with blessing of these memories and all the ones that are still in recesses yet to surface."
Parker ended her tribute with a message to his 20-year-old son Nathen: "You were and are light of Willie's life and his greatest achievement was being your Papa. These were his last words to me. 'Great bangles all around.' Yes. Godspeed Willie Garson."
Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall, Mario Cantone, Cynthia Nixon and more Sex and the City stars spoke highly of Garson following his death, which was caused by complications from pancreatic cancer.
It seems that those who knew Garson were aware of his private cancer battle, with White Collar's Matt Bomer writing in a tribute that he learned "so much about courage and resilience and love" from Garson. "The last thing you did when we said goodbye was pull down your mask (I hate covid), smile, and wink at me," Bomer recalled. "I know that it wasn't reflective of the pain you were going through, but it was indicative of everything you were and are to me: someone who lifted me up, who made me better, and who always, always made me smile."
Though Garson has passed, he lives on in Sex and the City, White Collar and more shows, including the upcoming first season of And Just Like That, which he filmed scenes for prior to his death.