When Sarah Jessica Parker joined Sex and the City, it came with some risks. At the time, television — even on the increasingly prestigious HBO — was risky for actors with films already on their resumes. Joining up for the odd television movie wasn’t always a problem, but taking on a role as a series regular could pigeonhole actors as TV-only material.
Parker, an actor above all things, saw the opportunity to lead an ensemble of great actors on a premium cable project as a positive. Eventually, she became so enmeshed in the project that she became a producer on the show. And the reason for that move was an unexpected one.
Sarah Jessica Parker didn’t settle for just acting on ‘Sex and the City’
There’s no questioning the massive success that Sex and the City would become. But in 1997, that wasn’t obvious, as Parker alluded to on a 2015 episode of the podcast Here’s The Thing with Alec Baldwin. Part of what got her on board was the promise that she’d be heard creatively.
Her hesitation was assuaged when executive producer Darren Star heard out all of Parker’s worries about participating in the series. She was worried about how the no-holds-barred approach on HBO might affect her career. Namely, she wasn’t keen on full-frontal nudity, sex scenes, and the type of language in the scripts.
Star promised that she’d have some control over all of the above. According to The Things, they were fine making adjustments around Parker’s needs. And Star even made a fateful offer that changed the direction of her career: he encouraged her to become a producer on the show.
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Parker wanted to maximize her career development while working on ‘Sex and the City’
The Hocus Pocus actor had several leading roles in film but never broke out as a true movie star, capable of being a massive box office draw. With Sex and the City, and the character of Carrie Bradshaw, everything changed. She wasn’t just any TV star; she was selling millions of dollars worth of subscriptions to a premium cable service.
“Second season, they said, ‘Do you want to start producing?’ And I did, and I said, ‘Yes, if they wanted to continue letting me learn,’” Parker explained to Baldwin on Here’s The Thing. “But I would only contribute if and when I had something valid to say.”
Her goal was to interject as a producer only when she felt she could contribute. With so little TV experience, she did not want to be presumptuous and use her producer title to push the show in the wrong direction, Page Six reports. By the end of the series, she was a major presence in all major aspects of the show, not just in front of the camera, but she got to that point at her own pace.
Parker was wary about acting on the small screen
HBO had a level of prestige already in 1998, with a run of critically acclaimed movies, miniseries, and documentaries produced under their studio’s watchful eye. But this project was a different kind of tone, meant to draw new viewers — women, in particular. This, on a cable channel best known, at the time, for boxing pay-per-views.
That’s why the Ed Wood actor was still wary of sticking with the show even after filming a somewhat imperfect pilot. But the allure of being front-and-center of a talented cast was too strong. She went ahead with the series after the production team made some adjustments based on the issues with the pilot.
The changes were exactly what was needed. Parker said she “didn’t want to be anywhere else” as soon as they taped the version of the first episode that went to series. She decided to bet her career on what would become a revolutionary television program. And eventually, she got so into this new phase of her career that she became a major television producer as well.
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