Transcript
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Kristin Davis (1:32)
Kristin Davis and I want to know, are you a Charlotte? Welcome to Are you a Charlotte? This is our very first podcast. It's kind of crazy, very nervous, but we're just going to press on together. Okay. We are doing this podcast, are you a Charlotte? Because we want to look back at our wonderful show Sex and the City and kind of relive it. I'm gonna rewatch it, but also just tell you how I remember it. You know, what was happening in life, what it was like filming it, all the different memories that come up when I'm watching it. I watched the pilot last night and wow, wow. I have so many thoughts. But also, we really want to have guests on. We wanna hear from the fans. We want you guys to write in and call in and maybe come visit. I just wanna create a community around the show that we were Sex and the City, the movies, and just like that, our whole trajectory and communicate with everyone about the themes that we talked about back then and how relevant they still are now. I want to acknowledge all of our writers who've contributed. Our creator, Darren Starr originally and Michael Patrick King currently. You know, we would not be able to be here if their writing and their ideas were not so. So good and brilliant and have really stood the test of time. You know, when I'm out in life, I run into fans and have just the most amazing conversations. And sometimes people cry and tell me about things in their life, or sometimes people are like, remember that time you guys were on the sideline ferry? Or, you know, whatever. It is different things. And it's such a connecting kind of a thing with people. And sometimes I'm in a hurry and I can't connect. And so that's kind of part of the reason that I felt like this podcast was the right time and kind of the right time for me in life to reflect back. There used to be a time where I never wanted to see the old show because I felt like I would be living in the past. Cause obviously it takes me back, but I feel at this point that it's really interesting to look back and it has been so long and we are luckily still playing these characters. So super fascinating, too, to think about how we all began and what we were thinking then and how we have been able to evolve. So welcome to Are you a Charlotte? So the first thing that I was gonna talk about is, like, my life and how I got cast in the show and what it was like to get cast in the show. So I had been on Melrose Place, which Darren also created, Darren Starr, and very luckily cast me as this character, Brooke Armstrong. And I was on for a season, but a season of Melrose place was like 36 episodes, which is totally insane to think about now. And then I died. Yes, I died in the pool. I died. I had to remember for a second. So I was out of work, basically. I was out of work. I'd had this big, big great job that was fun, but also very bizarre. Melrose Place was like a cult kind of a soap opera show. A lot of people watching it. It was my first big job. And then I went back to being kind of an out of work actor, auditioning all the time, all the time, all the time, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And I had this wonderful manager, Dave Fleming, who's still my manager. And he said to me one day, he said, you know, I really think that you should do comedy, because you can do comedy and not everyone can. And so you've been on a soap, and we probably are going to have to work to get you cast in comedy. So I auditioned for, for instance, Seinfeld. I think I auditioned, I want to say, six Times and then finally got a guest star on Seinfeld. Incredible. Amazing. Then I was. I had a little part on ER with Clooney. Also amazing. You know, little things that. Where I was just trying to. You know, you're trying to find your thing. And I got this script from Darren, and I had a little note from it, and he said, kristin, you know, I really want you to read this for the part of Carrie. He didn't say, will you do the part of Carrie? I think that's some rumor that's out there that I was offered the part of Carrie. No, no, no. No one was offering me any roles at this point in life. Okay. I was reading scripts and auditioning. So he sends me the script and he says, read this for the part of Carrie. And I was like, okay. And Carrie is very clearly the main part. And she is described as having the body of Heather Locklear with the mind of Dorothy Parker. And I'm like, what? I can't. What? I can't do that. So I'm like, how stressing. And in the pilot, she swore a lot and she smoked a lot. She was much more like the Candace Bushnell of the time, which Candace wrote the column that then became the book Sex and the City, that Carrie is based on. So in the pilot, she was not, as you see her when Sarah Jessica does eventually play her. So I thought to myself, I can't. I can't possibly pull this off. At the time, I definitely was like, no way. But I like this other girl, Charlotte. Because Charlotte in the pilot, there was not a lot on the page, but it was very clear that she had a different point of view than the other girls, that she was more focused on, you know, relationships and love, which I kind of related to. But also, I'd grown up in the south, where everyone was trying to get married, and I just felt like she was more hopeful and less. I don't know how to put it, but she seemed more younger in her viewpoint and open than the other characters, which at the time, I related to a lot when I watched the pilot. I have some other thoughts, but we'll get to that in a second. So I was like, well, Darren, Darren, I can't possibly play that part. I think I called him and said, I can't play Carrie. I don't even know what you're thinking, but I could play this other girl. I want to play this other girl. He was like, oh, okay. Okay. You know, we have Sarah Jessica Parker, and we really want her to play Carrie. And I Was like, that would be amazing. I was a huge fan of Sarah's. I had seen LA's story multiple times and she does other things too, but I just loved her. I had seen her in Annie when I was little and she was little, but I hadn't been aware of her as being her at that time. But I was like, you should make that work with Sir Jessica Parker because she's incredible and intelligent and so fascinating and this would be a great part for her. And she lived in New York and she was very of New York, you know, so thought that would be great. So I said, no, no, I need to play this other character. She said, okay, we'll bring you in for the other character. So I go in and I really wanted it because at that point in time, I can't remember any shows that were led by women and only women at that time filming. And nothing filmed in New York except for cop shows like Law and Order. So the idea that you would go to Manhattan, that these four women were the through line of the thing. It was unclear in the pilot exactly what would happen with the four women, but it was clear that Carrie was the lead and that these other women were in the mix. And the idea that we would walk around Manhattan in these outfits and go to the Met staircase to record, do the show, do the locations, whatever, it was very. It was a very glamorous idea and kind of like outside the box of what was currently happening in 1997, which is the year that we filmed the pilot. So I really wanted it. So I go to test at the HBO building over here in Century City and in la. And they were seeing people in New York, seeing people in la. There was a lot of people in the mix. You'd hear like, oh, they want a comedian to play Miranda. Oh, they wanted this. Oh, they wanted that. You'd hear all these different things, but everybody wanted these parts. And so I go. I think I just went directly to test. I don't remember going in before that. And this is back in the olden days where we had fax machines and we went to test on the day and you had this. You had to have a pilot deal which was this really lengthy, like seven year contract, which was how television worked at the time. And it would have like you would be in, in this many episodes each season for this year, but they had to have seven years of your commitment, which was a lot. And their fax machine at the office had broken, so they wouldn't let anyone read for the part without signing the Final contract that were being sent by all of our lawyers. So I was there. Willie Garson was there, and I knew Willie already. I had met Willie in Vancouver probably the year before, and I loved him so much. So thank God he was there, because I had to wait for hours before I could go in and read. Darren was there, but he was inside reading with whoever got their contract first. Right. So I'm sitting on a counter at this point, and Willie is sitting up there with me. We're there for so long that, like, I'd be nervous, and then I'd get unnervous. And then Willie would tell me a funny story, made me laugh, and I'd be unnervous. And then I'd get nervous again. Darren would come out, and Darren looked very stressed. And I think the backstory for Darren is that he had had a big deal at fox because of 90210 and Melrose, and he really wanted to change up what he was doing. He wanted to take more risks. He wanted to film in Manhattan. So he had gone with HBO for less money because he felt like he'd have more freedom, which he absolutely did. Because at that time, the networks were very specific and safe and advertiser driven, and cable was brand new. So HBO had only had a show, I think they had had Dream on, which was odd show where every episode some woman took her top off. And then they had had the Larry Sanders show, which I had also guest starred on, which was incredible. But that was it. So there's no Sopranos. There was nothing else on hbo. And HBO was like, we're going to try this. We don't know. We're not a real network. So we're in the testing office. We're in the office of hbo. And Darren's nervously coming in and out. Willie's like, making me laugh, making it so much better. But it goes on. I might have waited five hours. I can't remember. It was very long. And I was pretty nervous because I really, really wanted the part of Charlotte. So I go in, I read, then I go back out. This is how testing worked. And you have to wait. And then they're gonna come back out and give you notes or tell you to go home or whatever. It's, like, very stressful. And Willie's just like, oh, my God, I've had it. You know, he's so funny. So Darren comes out. I had gone in, I had read, I had come back out. You know, Charlotte doesn't have a lot in the pilot, so I had done the best with what I had. And it wasn't, like, jokes or, like, funny funny. It was, you know, more. It was the scenes with the guy. So it was more relationship, whatever stuff. So he comes out and he's like, kristen, you've gotta be funnier. You've gotta be funnier. And he's waving his hands like this. And I'm like, oh, God, he's super nervous. So I was like, okay, I've gotta be funnier. Oh, my God, what am I gonna. So I was like, willie, what am I gonna do? He was like, oh, you know, just make it bigger. Make it bigger. And I was like, okay. Okay. So I go back in, and I think there were three people. Like, that's how small HBO was. It was Chris Ulbricht, the head of hbo, Carolyn Strauss, who was the head of original programming. And I think Michael Hill, who was, like, the executive in charge of the new shows. I guess I think that. And maybe our casting people. Billy Hopkins or Carrie Barton. Hardly anyone there. So I go back in, and I remember Chris standing up. And Chris was wearing, like, a complete riding outfit, like, with tall boots and whatever. And I was like, this is so fascinating. And he was like, you know, can you, you know, make her. Make her, you know, more funny? And I was like, okay, I'll try. So I really tried to make that. That funny. But I think it was the scene on the Met staircase, which wasn't funny. But anyway, whatever, I did my best. And I was like, oh, please, God, let this work. Please let this work. So we leave. And the way that the contract was was you would test. And then I think they had two weeks to tell you. Oh, the longest two weeks of my life. Like, they waited and waited. Every day I'd call my people. Did you hear anything? Did you hear anything? They're like, no, we haven't heard anything. Like, oh, my God. Jesus. God, what if they don't do it? So at the final day, you know, it was like, you know, the time is ticking. And I was like, I've just. I'm gonna go to the movies. So I went to a Brad Pitt movie. I remember it. And I, like, ran to the car afterwards. Called on, like, my ancient cell phone, and they were like, yes, you got it. I was like, oh, thank God. So I was super excited, but, like, really nervous. And then I don't remember anything in between there except getting to Manhattan. I had lived in New York before. I had gone to Rutgers in New Jersey. I had gone all over Manhattan. And this is when I Get to watching the pilot. I watched the pilot, and I was like, first of all, I seem like I'm 25 years old. And second of all, I seem like I've literally never been to Manhattan. Like, everyone else is so much more sophisticated than me. And I don't know. I don't know if it's like, the Charlotte element I remember. Okay, so I had long hair previous to getting there for. For this, you know, hair. Like, kind of like how it is right now. I get there. One of the first things they say to me is that they want me to cut my hair. And I'm like, why? Why do you want me to cut my hair? Because to me, I didn't feel like all the New York ladies had their haircut or whatever, but they were like, we want you to look like Jill Hennessy, who's on Law and Order. And I was like, well, but Jill Hennessy is, like, really tall and extremely beautiful, and she's got this long neck. And how am I ever gonna look like Jill Hennessy? And also, my hair's wavy. I was like, if you cut my hair, like, she had, like, a short bob at this time, right? I'm just gonna have, like, a poof. I'm gonna be like a poodle. So the hair guy on the pilot, really sweet guy, very much like a. Like a regular journeyman hairdresser on TV shows, right? And he's like, you've gotta get your haircut. And if you don't get your haircut, I'm gonna cut it for you on your first day of work. And I'm like, what? So I'm, like, in a panic. And at this point, I don't really know Sarah Jessica well enough, right, to go to her. I know I should have gone to her asap, okay? But I didn't know yet. And I also probably should have gone to Darren. I don't know if Darren was aware that they were trying to chop my hair off. But I was like, oh, God.
