Sarah Jessica Parker took on many roles in Sex and the City, but going nude was not one of them.
During an interview on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, the 58-year-old actress revealed that she initially had concerns about joining the HBO series because she feared she would be required to appear nude on camera.
“I thought the script was really interesting, exciting, and different. I had never seen anything like that,” Parker explained. “The only thing I expressed concern about was that I didn’t feel comfortable doing nudity, and I suspected that if it wasn’t in the pilot, it would be a part of the series.” According to Parker, show creator Darren Star addressed her worries about nudity. She recalled, “He said, ‘Don’t do it then… we’ll have other actors who are comfortable with it, but you don’t have to.'”
Sarah Jessica’s confession
“I just never felt comfortable exposing myself in that way,” Parker confessed. “I didn’t have any judgment towards others doing it; it wasn’t a morality thing… I was just shy.” Being on HBO, a network that allowed for more explicit content, Parker acknowledged that she wanted to be deliberate in their use of uncensored material.
“We were on HBO, and I knew that meant we could say anything we wanted and be free, open, and bold,” she explained. “But I also believed that it meant we had to exercise restraint and not use explicit language just because we could.”
She further emphasized her desire to stay true to her character’s personality. “Carrie Bradshaw is a writer, and she is very thoughtful about what she says, how she says it, when she says it, and to whom she says it. If we choose to use language, let’s be very considerate about when she uses it. We can be intelligent about it,” she elaborated. While Parker may have been hesitant about nudity in Sex and the City, her co-star Cynthia Nixon revealed that she had no issue showing some skin in the show’s revival series, And Just Like That.
In the premiere episode of the SATC revival, the 57-year-old actress appears topless in a pool and later pushes boundaries when she tries on a strap-on, joking about it not being “a beginner model” and teasing her oral sex skills. “I always felt quite willing to embrace it,” Nixon told Entertainment Tonight about doing nude scenes. “Sex is one of the main themes of the show — people having sex, great sex, terrible sex, hilarious sex.”