Actress Sarah Jessica Parker on the end of And Just Like That... and Carrie Bradshaw’s legacy

NEW YORK – Sarah Jessica Parker does not love to cry for the camera.

But while shooting the final episode of And Just Like That..., the three-season HBO Max show that premiered in 2021 and followed three of the four main characters from seminal TV series Sex And The City (1998 to 2004) into middle age, she could not help herself.

“Carrie’s not weepy,” the American actress said, speaking of her character Carrie Bradshaw, the dizzy, fizzy, feelings-forward, fashion-very-forward sex columnist she has played off and on since 1998. “She is sentimental, but she’s not an insipid, treacly person. But it was really hard.”

The final episode, which premiered on HBO Max on Aug 14, finds Carrie at home, once again in tulle, grooving to American R&B singer Barry White, strong enough to stand on her own in high heels. This was, in its way, a happy ending, but Parker still had complicated feelings about saying goodbye.

“I don’t know what it means yet, and I’m not sure I will for some time,” the 60-year-old said, speaking by phone the day before the finale aired. She was gracious – even when asked about the show’s more awkward moments – and appropriately wistful.

And Just Like That... was not an unqualified success. Four new main characters were introduced, all people of colour, but they seemed often like accessories to the main characters rather than protagonists in their own right.

Its tone, like some of Carrie’s more outre outfits, was often all over the place. The series opened with Carrie’s husband Big (Chris Noth) dying of a Peloton-induced heart attack. This meant that the first season was largely a grief-com, though the subsequent seasons had more bounce and pop. And while the revival centred on middle-aged women, it did not always know how to generate a story for them. The final plotline for Kristin Davis’ Charlotte involved renovating her hallway.

But the show remained a conversation starter, even if a lot of those conversations were about the show as a quintessential hate watch. And plenty of those hate watchers were sorry to see it go.

The decision to end And Just Like That..., Parker said, was one she and American director-writer-producer Michael Patrick King (Sex And The City; The Comeback, 2005 to present), the series’ showrunner, had arrived at together. “Because that’s where the story ended,” she said.

Parker also discussed Carrie’s legacy and whether she and on-off boyfriend Aidan (John Corbett) could have made it all the way. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Having played Carrie for all this time, how has she changed?

She’s wiser. She’s much more comfortable with the questions that had been uncomfortable. She had, after the loss of a husband, a sort of nobility that I didn’t know she would possess. She carries her years with her, and it doesn’t mean that she’s cynical, ruined, bitter or angry. She is still spirited, enthusiastic and curious.

You once said she had made the hardest, worst and best decisions. What are the worst?

The most obvious would probably be having an affair. That was not good judgment. She wasn’t financially responsible, and she probably made some bad decisions about men in her life and what she expected from them. But I don’t think that makes her a person not worth loving and caring about.

And what was a great decision?

Countless times she was the kind of friend she needed to be. The way she devoted herself to people she cared about. Also, her career. Sometimes, it’s overlooked that she was a writer.

When And Just Like That... was announced, Michael Patrick King insisted that it would include four new main characters, all women of colour. Was it successful in this?

Working with Sarita (Choudhury), Nicole (Ari Parker) and Karen (Pittman), it was thrilling, and it was rich with new energy and excitement. Those stories, in particular Sarita’s and Nicole’s, added a lot and stood on their own.

Michael doesn’t just throw people in and pretend that the audience is supposed to know them and care about them. He takes laser-like care in building those people and having them become important in front of everybody’s eyes in real time. So, I think it was a huge success.

When And Just Like That... debuted, it became a sensation. It was also frequently described as a hate watch. Do you understand why?

I don’t think I have the constitution to have spent a lot of time thinking about that. We always worked incredibly hard to tell stories that were interesting or real. I guess I don’t care. And the reason I don’t is because it has been so enormously successful, and the connections it has made with audiences have been meaningful.

Did the show change tonally over the seasons?

Oh, yeah. We couldn’t just pretend that this catastrophic event hadn’t happened in Carrie’s life. That’s why the second season was so buoyant and necessary. That was a conscious decision to have it feel much more of a souffle.

Are heels still comfortable for you?

Not as comfortable as they were 27 years ago, but I still have a high threshold for whatever they’re making me feel. We had more flats than we’ve had in the past. And they worked, and they were great and right, but there is something about heels.

The last scene of the final episode, in her house, she doesn’t take them off. They’re significant, the period at the end of the sentence. I didn’t want to find a way to have something more sensible or comfortable. I don’t see a world in which she is fully recognisable to herself by making comfort a priority.

Did you think that Carrie would end up with Aidan?

No. And I love John Corbett, I adore him. But I did not think she would end up with him. And Michael didn’t think that or want that either.

Why end the show now?

Because that’s where the story ended. We could have gone on doing coffee shops. There are a million ways to do it that are easy, familiar and fun, but feel exploitative to us. We felt this was the honourable thing to do. It’s easy to stay. It’s where we’re all happy. But you have to be principled when you make these difficult, agonising decisions because there are a lot of people who are affected.

If we caught up with Carrie in another 15 years, what would her life be like?

I think it would be pretty rich, in terms of friendships, culture and travel, and the ways in which the children of her friends are in her life. I feel good about her. I think she’s set up pretty well. NYTIMES