How the “Sex and the City” TV Series, That Every Girl Watched Avidly 20 Years Ago, Was Made

In 1998, the explicit TV series about the lives of 30-something women conquered many viewers’ hearts, while the 4 actresses playing the main roles became stars. Sex and the City raised many life questions that few people dared to speak about out loud at the time. The girls portrayed different behavior types, like the emotional Carrie, the outspoken Samantha, the smart Charlotte, and the ambitious Miranda. The TV series won 7 Emmys and 8 Golden Globes.

We at Bright Side love this TV series and, of course, the interesting facts about how the movie was made haven’t left us indifferent.

The plot is based on an autobiographical book.

The author of Sex and the City book, Candace Bushnell

• Candace Bushnell’s book was based on her personal experience and her experience as a journalist. When the producers of the series decided to film the story, they bought the film rights for $60,000. And though the movie used the book’s main characters as the base, scriptwriters still came up with completely new stories for those characters. Only several episodes were made according to the initial topics that the writer raised.

• Mr. Big, or the man of Carrie’s dreams, had a real prototype: Ron Galotti, a magazine executive. “He was one of those New York guys with a big personality — you just notice him as soon as he walks in the room. I called him Mr. Big because he was like the big man on campus,” shared the writer.

• Many fans of the TV series who rushed to read the book after watching the series were quite disappointed. They said the book was boring, illogical, and didn’t have a clear structure, often comparing it to a series of magazine articles.

Carrie Bradshaw could have been totally different.

• Sarah Jessica Parker continued to turn this role down for quite a long time, which is why the filmmakers almost approved the now-famous actress, Lisa Edelstein (Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the Fox medical drama series, House).

• Sarah Jessica Parker couldn’t decide on the role because she had reservations about doing a series. It was the actress’s husband, Matthew Broderick, who persuaded her to just do it.

• The opening credits that display Carrie wearing a pink tutu getting mad after mud splashes on her by a bus could’ve been different. In the alternative variant, the actress was wearing a blue dress and flirting with a guy who was passing by.

Casting for other roles wasn’t easy at all.

• Actress Kim Cattrall, who played Samantha, also didn’t decide to take on the role right away and turned it down twice before reconsidering.

• Cynthia Nixon, in her right, wanted to get the role of Miranda and she had to change the color of her hair for it. Producers only saw this character with red hair, while Cynthia was naturally a blonde.

• Alec Baldwin was initially supposed to play Mr. Big but the director changed his mind after meeting Chris Noth. He shared that, initially, he thought it would be Alec Baldwin who would fit the playboy character of Mr. Big. But later he met Chris Noth and realized he matched the role perfectly.

• Kristin Davis could’ve also played Carrie — she was even offered the role. But she ended up turning it down to play Charlotte York.

The main characters’ outfits were an important part of the series.

• The series’ main characters love fashion, which is why immense attention was paid to the characters’ outfits. But not all of them were expensive. For example, Carrie’s famous tutu was bought in a secondhand shop for $5.

• Some of the outfits have hidden meanings. For example, the actress Bridget Moynahan, who played Natasha, Carrie’s opponent, was always wearing white. This was meant to symbolize that she was too “vanilla.”

• Sarah Jessica Parker had to wear high heels 18 hours a day and it was extremely exhausting. One of the series’ mysteries was also connected with shoes. The viewers didn’t understand why Carrie was wearing different shoes in the scene below. Turns out, the actress put them on because the costume designer decided that shoes in both colors matched her dress and they thought this approach would look fresh.

• Kim Cattrall also insisted on wearing heels, even when they wouldn’t be visible in the shot, just to help her get into character.

Funny facts about the filming process

• An uncredited actress, Suzy McCoppin, also known by the alias Julian Wells, was Kim Cattrall’s body double for explicit scenes for 2 seasons.

• Cynthia Nixon’s pregnancy was written into her character’s storyline. Her baby bump in the episodes where she is pregnant with Brady is real.

• In the 5th season, it was Sarah Jessica Parker who got pregnant. Her pregnancy wasn’t written into the storyline of her character, instead, they hid the bump under her clothes and shortened the season.

• In the 6th season, Carrie runs into Aidan, who’s carrying a baby in a sling. That baby is Sarah Jessica Parker’s real son. The very baby she was pregnant with while shooting the 5th season.

• It’s surprising that the real reason why Carrie broke up with Aidan was that Candace Bushnell’s mother hated the character played by John Corbett. She kept wondering why Carrie was together with Aidan and not Mr. Big, and insisting that they get rid of Aidan. The producers of the series agreed with the writer’s mother.
• Sarah Jessica Parker shared an interesting story. Once, she saw an antique cabinet at a market, but decided not to buy it right away. When the actress eventually returned to buy it, it turned out that it had been sold already. After several days, when Parker went to the shooting set for the series, she saw the exact same cabinet among the decorations of Carrie’s apartment.

The series had several alternate endings.

• The series had alternative finales. In one version, Carrie tells her friends that she broke up with Mr. Big and ends up without a relationship. In another version, she would end up with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s character, Aleksandr Petrovsky. In all 3 endings, however, she resides in New York.

• But still, the fact that Carrie and Big became an iconic couple while shooting the series urged the producers to make this the happy ending.

What the further destiny of the series’ actresses was like:

• In 2008 and 2010, 2 full-length movies, Sex and the City and Sex and the City 2 were released. They talk about the continuation of the characters’ life stories. There were negotiations about making a third movie, but Kim Cattrall refused to take part in it, blaming it on the fact she had outgrown the role of Samantha, both morally and by the nature of her age. This became the reason for her and Sarah Jessica Parker’s long-lasting conflict. Moreover, Kim didn’t like the script for the third movie where Mr. Big was supposed to die and Carrie would be left trying to deal with her husband’s death.

• Viewers wanted to believe that the onscreen friendships they were watching were as strong in real life, but the actresses’ relationships were different behind the scenes. Kim Cattrall said that they had never been friends, just colleagues who stopped communicating after the end of a project. They were only connected by the series and no one wanted to call each other and ask about how the other was doing.

• After the success of the series, the actresses were invited to appear in films and advertisements, but they could no longer achieve the kind of popularity they found in the series. Sarah Jessica Parker is raising 3 kids, acts in commercials, and has tried herself as a clothing and footwear designer. Kim Cattrall has returned to television projects. Cynthia Nixon’s new passion is politics and she even ran for governor of New York state. Kristin Davis is an adoptive mother, acts as a volunteer in various humanitarian projects, and participates in charity projects.

Have you watched this series? Who is your favorite character?

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