Sarah Jessica Parker, the beloved actress behind the iconic character Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City, is standing by her on-screen alter ego, flaws and all.
Now 60, Parker appeared on a recent episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, where she reflected on her decades-long relationship with the character who helped redefine female storytelling on television. As reported by People magazine, Parker offered a heartfelt defence of Carrie Bradshaw’s complexity, acknowledging both her boldness and her imperfections.
“First of all, the way she was speaking, like her choice of language, I’d never seen or heard a woman talk like that,” Parker recalled. “I respected her candor and curiosity about sex and sexual politics.”
Carrie Bradshaw, the New York sex columnist who anchored the original series from its debut in 1998, was partly inspired by writer Candace Bushnell, whose real-life newspaper column was the basis for the show. Parker noted that portraying such a sexually open character was a significant leap from her own personal style.
“Which is not like me,” she admitted. “I don’t talk about that at all, even with friends. I’ll talk about it globally, but I don’t sit and share intimate details of my life that way.”
Celebrating a Character’s Complexity
Over the years, Carrie has been both adored and criticized by fans. Her questionable decisions, like cheating on boyfriend Aiden with Mr. Big, or her notorious spending habits, have been a hot topic in pop culture discourse. But for Parker, those flaws are what made the character so human.
“She was a little survivor. She had instincts to keep her head up,” Parker said. “Not always making smart choices and falling short of being the best friend or the best girlfriend or her best self but I also was very happy that they were writing her that way.”
Despite criticism that Carrie could be selfish, impractical, or emotionally reckless, Parker sees a fuller picture.
“There’s a sentiment sometimes that she’s frustrating or selfish, or she makes poor decisions or doesn’t manage her money well. Yeah, all of that has been true over the course of the last 25 years,” Parker acknowledged.
“But she’s also been hugely loyal, decent, reliable, a really good friend, generous, available, present, comforting, giving of herself in big and small ways, that are private and public. And she loves.”
Legacy of a Groundbreaking Role
Since its original run and through its modern-day reboot And Just Like That, Sex and the City has left a lasting legacy in how it depicted women, particularly single, ambitious women in their 30s and 40s as complex and flawed yet worthy of love, success, and friendship.
Parker’s latest comments underline just how groundbreaking Carrie Bradshaw really was not for being perfect, but for daring to be messy, vulnerable, and real on screen.
And in an age of ever-shifting expectations around female characters, it seems Carrie Bradshaw remains just as relevant and divisive as ever.