Kim Cattrall Finally Gave Her Unfiltered Thoughts On “And Just Like That” And Addressed Sarah Jessica Parker’s Comments About Not Wanting Her On The Show

Kim Cattrall has finally spoken out about And Just Like That. And, despite having not watched it, she has a lot of thoughts about where the show may have gone wrong.

Gracing the cover of Variety‘s Power of Women issue this week, the actor opened up about the Sex And The City revival for the very first time since it aired on HBO Max late last year through until Feburary.

While disappointing, Samantha’s absence in the revival came as no surprise to fans of the show, who’ve been closely following the messy feud between Kim and her costars for years now.

And before we get into her new comments, here’s a quick timeline of how we reached this point.

Ever since SATC first aired back in 1998, there have always been whispers about the real life relationships between the show’s central foursome: Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw), Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbs), Kristin Davis (Charlotte York Goldenblatt), and of course, Kim.

The alleged off-screen tensions between the costars — namely Kim and SJP — had long presumed to be centered on money, with Sarah Jessica being paid significantly more than the other women, prompting Kim to negotiate a higher salary.

Interestingly, on numerous occasions throughout the 2000s and 2010s, both Kim and Sarah denied rumors that they didn’t get along, with SJ once calling the “narrative” about their supposedly strained relationship “heartbreaking.”

Despite this, their low-key discord seemingly wound up getting personal — and a lot more public — a number of years later in 2017, following claims that Kim was the reason that a third SATC movie had been scrapped at the last minute with a script and production at the ready.

Not long after this, Kim elaborated on her feelings during a candid interview with Piers Morgan, in which she detailed her “empowered” decision to leave SATC in the past.

“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 told Piers, before going on to clarify once and for all that she and her SATC castmates were “never friends.”

Sarah Jessica responded to Kim’s statements a year later in 2018, revealing that she had been “heartbroken” by her costar’s claims of a “toxic” onset relationship. But sadly for her, things would wound up getting a whole lot messier just a few days later.

With all this in mind, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise to hear that Kim would not be joining the other women in the revival, which was announced in January 2021.

What’s more, it now seems that Kim wasn’t even given a choice in the matter, revealing in her brand new interview with Variety that she was never even asked if she wanted to participate in And Just Like That.

“I was never asked to be part of the reboot,” Kim said, broaching the topic for the very first time. “I made my feelings clear after the possible third movie, so I found out about it like everyone else did — on social media.”

Before now, this had not been widely confirmed by the show’s executives, many of whom had been vocal about the fact that Kim would be welcomed back to the franchise if she ever wanted to return. However, SATC creator Michael Patrick King did admit that he’d ruled out the possibility of a comeback.

“You have to look at the reality of something: You can literally not make an actress play a part,” Michael said during an in-depth interview with Variety ahead of the show’s season finale in February.

When asked if he’d left the door open for Kim, he answered “no,” saying matter-of-factly: “There was no thought that Kim would ever participate in And Just Like That, because she’s said what she had said.”

“I have no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again,” he added.

If you’ve seen the show, you’ll know that even without Kim’s participation, the essence of Samantha Jones was certainly felt. Throughout And Just Like That’s 10 episode run, Samantha — whose absence was explained by a move to London after an argument with Carrie — was brought back to life using texts and messages sent to her former besties.

Addressing Samantha’s crafty revival, which writers said was done as a way to “respect the legacy” of the character, Kim — who, unsurprisingly, has not seen the show — wasn’t quite so onboard with the writers’ ideas. Namely, Samantha’s messy fallout with Carrie.

“That feels different than the Samantha that I played,” she said of the onscreen feud, before going on to say she found it “odd” that the writers made the choice to continue her character, presumably in favor of killing her off.

And in reality, just as onscreen, Kim and SJ’s decade spanning rift is continuing to bubble quietly in the background of the show’s legacy.

Since Kim’s Instagram diss in 2018, both women have remained tight-lipped on the drama, with Kim last addressing their relationship during an interview with the LA Times in 2020, admitting that she has “no regrets” about the way things played out.

Sarah Jessica — who, over the course of their relationship has said less about the dispute than her costar — made a rare statement about her dynamic with Kim earlier this year, telling Variety that she wouldn’t be on-board if Kim was ever to reprise her role.

“I don’t think I would,” she said when asked if she’d be okay with Kim signing on to And Just Like That. “I think there’s just too much public history of feelings on her part that she’s shared.”

When asked this week about SJ’s comments, Kim said simply that she hadn’t read the reports. Adding that her costar need not worry, because her return would “never happen anyway.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Kim suggested that the new show’s storylines had been recycled from the third SATC movie, which she turned down in 2016 after feeling unhappy with the script.

“The series is basically the third movie. That’s how creative it was,” she said, going on to confirm an alleged storyline from the scrapped film — where Samantha would receive unsolicited nudes from Miranda’s fourteen-year-old son, Brady — calling the idea “heartbreaking.”

In spite of feeling that she was ready to leave Samantha in the past when the prospect of the third movie was offered up to her, Kim did say that she would have been more inclined to sign on if she’d felt inspired by Samantha’s future.

“Why can’t Samantha, who owns her PR company — maybe she had to sell it because of financial woes?” she suggested when asked about her hopes for the character. “She had to sell it to some guy who’s wearing a hoodie, and that’s the dilemma she has.”

“I would have preferred for all of us to have some kind of event to warrant a third film. That didn’t happen. But also, I was ready,” she continued, before expanding on the courage it took to step away from such a beloved franchise.