Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Kristen Davis, and I want to know are
Speaker 1: you a Charlotte? Michael Patrick is here you guys, we've
Speaker 1: just jumped right in.
Speaker 2: It's the glorious return of the case, the return of
Speaker 2: Are You a Charlotte?
Speaker 1: And me?
Speaker 2: That's right, we love it so much.
Speaker 1: And he asked me how long we were going to go,
Speaker 1: and I said, as long as he wants to talk,
Speaker 1: because this whole season. As when I saw you, we
Speaker 1: talked that were in no like like a week ago
Speaker 1: or whatever you like, at the.
Speaker 2: Human Rights beautiful time that we were honoring you at
Speaker 2: Human Rights Campaign.
Speaker 1: So exciting the Human Rights Campaign.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You said that you were going to help me with
Speaker 1: my season four amnesia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like's start there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I don't know why I have it.
Speaker 2: I love season four. Oh, I love season four and
Speaker 2: the City season four. I love it too.
Speaker 1: In my mind it was one with season three.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: In my mind, people always say to me, oh, I
Speaker 3: want to do Sex in the City again. I love
Speaker 3: Sex in the City, and I always go, you love
Speaker 3: Sex in the City Season four. That's where it peaked,
Speaker 3: definitely of its clarity. Yes, one was like, what totally
Speaker 3: finding it? And then two and three, but four is
Speaker 3: like you you all are so strong and so vibrant,
Speaker 3: and the writing has gotten to such a place where
Speaker 3: there's so many exciting twists and turns and so many
Speaker 3: amount that we talked about.
Speaker 4: So much, the changing of Charlotte, the change so much
Speaker 4: of Charlotte, so much changing of Miranda, the amount of
Speaker 4: bravery in the writing room.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh, no, joke is incredible.
Speaker 2: It is not.
Speaker 3: It is like, what would really happen? Let's feel that
Speaker 3: and follow that.
Speaker 1: This reminds me of something that I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: to you about when so what I remember and I
Speaker 1: know that most shows don't have this, and it was
Speaker 1: it was such a joy that you would.
Speaker 2: Sit as down, Hi, darling, it's Michael Patrick King you guys,
Speaker 2: we're in.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're in. Remember how you would call us and
Speaker 1: or have lunch with this, depending.
Speaker 3: On for each season, I give you the out of
Speaker 3: town tryout exactly what I'm thinking for Charlotte, right, And
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 1: Such a joy because most executive producer showrunners do not
Speaker 1: do that to their actors, for their actors, which is
Speaker 1: so insane to me.
Speaker 3: You know, It's interesting because if you're on a show
Speaker 3: that is working or our show, so much of what
Speaker 3: we're doing is for you, the actress. So much is
Speaker 3: based on your version of Charlotte in seasons one, two,
Speaker 3: and three that I always felt I not only owed
Speaker 3: it to you, but I wanted a temperature check from
Speaker 3: you about whether you were going to be excited about
Speaker 3: where we're going. And also I loved bringing you surprise.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was so exciting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it was really a tribute to you guys
Speaker 3: that I wanted you as partners emotionally in the arc
Speaker 3: of these characters that we create together. Yea. Yeah. But
Speaker 3: literally it wasn't like go to work do these lines? No,
Speaker 3: not on that show, because we were literally taking from you.
Speaker 3: What can you do? What can we do with that?
Speaker 3: What would be so great is if Charlotte couldn't get
Speaker 3: pregnant and Miranda did. I'm talking about could it would
Speaker 3: it should have?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The idea of.
Speaker 3: That contrast is based on both your strengths as an
Speaker 3: actor and also your connection is people bind this point, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you all were sort of in love with each other,
Speaker 3: so it was really easy to play the hurt when
Speaker 3: the friendships didn't connect.
Speaker 1: It, yeah, and always so scary. I remember just being
Speaker 1: so nervous about that if we ever had the disagreements,
Speaker 1: because we did have, it was threat felt threatening just
Speaker 1: personally because I did you know, we loved each other and.
Speaker 3: We I think by season four, if it's going well,
Speaker 3: you believe your character, you believe it. So it's all
Speaker 3: very personal.
Speaker 2: It's so personal.
Speaker 1: Everything's personal totally. So when it's hard for me to
Speaker 1: remember the first time, like I feel like it would
Speaker 1: have been, I feel I don't remember pre season two
Speaker 1: a sit down, though maybe it happened and I don't
Speaker 1: remember it.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I remember season three when we were really having the
Speaker 1: long art conversations and long conversations about the long arcs, right.
Speaker 3: I think it became important when we started to deviate
Speaker 3: from the log line YEP for sexy Singles in Manhattan.
Speaker 3: The minute we started going what would happen to Charlotte?
Speaker 3: And I said, Charlotte would get married. This is bush
Speaker 3: that she isn't going to just drive that car to
Speaker 3: wedding because it's time. And that's when we started having
Speaker 3: to say, I know what we started with, but here's
Speaker 3: what we're thinking and then I could see these like
Speaker 3: out of town tryouts in your eyes.
Speaker 2: I could see the lighting up.
Speaker 3: Which is necessary for me to keep going because it
Speaker 3: was always before they were.
Speaker 1: Written, right, it was just the plan.
Speaker 2: Each season.
Speaker 1: And did you talk to HBO about that too, or
Speaker 1: did you wait and turn in the scripts?
Speaker 3: Talk to you guys first, and then I talked to them. Cool,
Speaker 3: but I wanted to have a strong emotional connection first.
Speaker 3: It starts in the writing room. We all sort of
Speaker 3: fall in love or fall out of love with the
Speaker 3: story that we were doing, and that is the first
Speaker 3: jury room. It's like we all put the stories on trial,
Speaker 3: and then when I feel really strong about that, I
Speaker 3: bring them to you and then I see you as
Speaker 3: an audience slash hybrid actor playing this part. React and
Speaker 3: then that's everything, got it? And then I go and say,
Speaker 3: this is what we're doing. I don't audition the sea
Speaker 3: for the studio. God were always very very interesting, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you remember the time, and this
Speaker 1: would have been this would have been fourth season. See
Speaker 1: in my mind, I had crunched third season and fourth
Speaker 1: season into one. I think also because we were doing
Speaker 1: so many episodes, right, it was it was.
Speaker 2: A lot of television.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the olden d television exactly exactly, like eighteen was
Speaker 1: it eighteen? For each I feel like sometimes yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like four was eighteen and three both eighteen?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Crazy right, right, so great, and they're just each one
Speaker 1: is packed, packed, packed with plot for each character, like
Speaker 1: it's so good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so and thirty minutes, I.
Speaker 1: Mean insane, Like what you guys could accomplish.
Speaker 3: Writing of all those storylines and with could it should have? Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was the ideal thing because we always tried to
Speaker 3: find a story where everybody could react based on who
Speaker 3: they are. Yes, So Miranda getting pregnant was both comic
Speaker 3: because of the Steve one ball runner and.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable that we would risk that give the.
Speaker 3: One who was the least maternal in our eyes, the mother,
Speaker 3: contrasting hard crash into Charlotte's inability to become pregnant, and
Speaker 3: then the very very ballsy thing, which is this episode's
Speaker 3: about abortion.
Speaker 1: Right, and tell us about that? How did you talk
Speaker 1: about in the writer's room? How did you talk about
Speaker 1: it with HBO? Was their worry?
Speaker 3: There was worry in the writing room, and there was
Speaker 3: a necessity in the writing room to tell the story
Speaker 3: and the journey really was about people's personal touches to
Speaker 3: their friends who had had abortions. Or I'm not saying
Speaker 3: anyone in the room had had abortions, right, everyone had
Speaker 3: a situation that they had touched their friendships or themselves
Speaker 3: about what would really happen and how people weren't talking
Speaker 3: about that, right. And there's a line in the show
Speaker 3: that I remember being radical is Samantha saying I've had two?
Speaker 2: How many have you had?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: I remember that? I mean even rewatch, I'm like, oh, like,
Speaker 1: I don't remember every detail, but I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, we're so brave.
Speaker 2: It was brave, right, I've had two?
Speaker 3: How many of you had? And Carrie actually takes a
Speaker 3: mownent and goes one like, what am I you?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: The idea of saying I've had two as a legitimate
Speaker 3: sentence in a show, right, could you even say that? Now?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. That's the other thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you, like, isn't it nutty? How I felt
Speaker 1: at the time that we were doing something different and
Speaker 1: that it was going to help shift things in our
Speaker 1: you know, TV landscape, cultural landscape. What was okay? To
Speaker 1: talk about, and I feel like it did for a while.
Speaker 1: And then TV is kind of or streaming whatever we're
Speaker 1: supposed to call it now has pulled pulled back from fear.
Speaker 3: The trick with us is we got in with like
Speaker 3: the comedy of the sex, and that was the shocking thing.
Speaker 3: But it was not just sex. It was funny sex,
Speaker 3: sex with the laugh So we slid in. That was
Speaker 3: the calling card.
Speaker 2: Got it? Yeah, yeah, you got funny.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're laughing, and we're not asking you to be aroused.
Speaker 3: In fact, if you are aroused, there's something wrong.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then slowly we became to slip in other things
Speaker 3: that women were talking about and not talking about on television.
Speaker 1: But still they're not talking about on television for sure, and.
Speaker 3: Not walking down the street after Iermez with a kerchief
Speaker 3: on her head saying I've.
Speaker 2: Had two what have you had?
Speaker 3: You know, like the casual, sophisticated, grown up, real life,
Speaker 3: real life in a very stylized frame of course, real life.
Speaker 1: And was anyone at HBoL worried, No, which is we
Speaker 1: just had such a.
Speaker 3: I mean, we had a wonderful, wonderful experience that it
Speaker 3: was always be You don't even be TV Yeah, be HBO, yeah,
Speaker 3: don't be that be whatever that is. And they followed us,
Speaker 3: and they trusted us because we rarely went too far
Speaker 3: in any direction where it was the audience got pushed away.
Speaker 1: Well that was the joy of having the different characters
Speaker 1: in the different perspectives.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, right, this perspective makes the Miranda story tolerable
Speaker 3: for an enormous amount.
Speaker 1: Of people, right, right, right, And also so okay, I
Speaker 1: remember that at one point it was at least floated
Speaker 1: to me that we were both going to get pregnant
Speaker 1: and then we were going to contrast our different mothering styles.
Speaker 1: And then at a certain point you called me and said,
Speaker 1: I'm really sorry, Charlotte's not gonna get pregnant. I was like, what, like,
Speaker 1: because of course I wanted what Charlotte wanted, which was
Speaker 1: to get pregnant, right, And you said that because no
Speaker 1: one it was even really in relationships in the writer's
Speaker 1: room at that point, much less having children. Right at
Speaker 1: that point in our lives, you were like, we just
Speaker 1: don't have enough story material to be contrasting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Samesy's yeah, like oh your pregnance, this, my pregnance, this,
Speaker 3: it's so much more interesting for Charlotte to do her
Speaker 3: pregnancy through Miranda. Yeah, all the way to the baby shower.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you know, like how Charlotte would do the
Speaker 3: baby shower. So it's always better if you have one
Speaker 3: person experiencing something and everybody reacting to it. And we
Speaker 3: got Charlotte their events.
Speaker 2: Definitely definite need to have a longer it was so
Speaker 2: much more authentic.
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree totally.
Speaker 3: This struggle was so good for you as an actor,
Speaker 3: definitely so good for Charlotte.
Speaker 1: My Hondai hot take is going to have to go
Speaker 1: with the Miranda the Charlotte scene on the street because
Speaker 1: it is the first scene that Cynthia and I have
Speaker 1: just by ourselves, and I love it, and it's so
Speaker 1: beautifully written, and it's so beautifully filmed out there. I
Speaker 1: believe we're on Fifth Avenue with all kinds of people,
Speaker 1: and I love her performance so much. I love how
Speaker 1: she walks behind me, so it's really really sweet. That's
Speaker 1: going to be my Hyundaie hot take, celebrating iconic moments,
Speaker 1: bold moves, and unforgettable style, just like Hyundai. It is
Speaker 1: interesting to watch because you know, at the time I
Speaker 1: was watching everything and micro you know, criticizing myself in
Speaker 1: my head, and now you know how I do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's hard for us.
Speaker 2: I feel bad for you. I know I feel bad
Speaker 2: for all actors.
Speaker 3: I'm sure I get the joy of writing them stuff
Speaker 3: and watching them do it and editing in them and
Speaker 3: falling in love with them from a not inside them
Speaker 3: point of view. And I always say to actors, can
Speaker 3: you even see how good you are? But they don't know.
Speaker 3: They look away and they don't feel it. They don't
Speaker 3: feel it. It's so much a part of my job
Speaker 3: is to feel so excited and happy for the work
Speaker 3: that people have done, like it's my favorite part of
Speaker 3: the job is to see people accomplish, even in the
Speaker 3: writing room, to see people accomplish something amazing.
Speaker 2: You're an excellent mentor thank you? I am, yes.
Speaker 3: But actors can't ever step outside themselves and feel it
Speaker 3: the way the audiences.
Speaker 2: And I have called you so many times and said,
Speaker 2: did you watch the episode? No, I'll get to it. No,
Speaker 2: the kids have to be asleep.
Speaker 3: No I won't. No, I can't. I won't be able
Speaker 3: to go to sleep if I watch it. I'm afraid
Speaker 3: to watch it. All of it is true. True, and
Speaker 3: I feel that way with Network notes. If they come
Speaker 3: in after five o'clock and I see an email, I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm not I can't fall asleep, right, I'll ruin my
Speaker 3: day tomorrow totally totally like I felt bad because I've
Speaker 3: also I've called you and harassed you to imprint on you. Yes,
Speaker 3: how special it.
Speaker 1: Is, thank you, And I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that lying you don't know, there's no purpose
Speaker 3: of me calling, and I feel it.
Speaker 2: And this episode is particularly brilliant.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're here for this episode, right, because
Speaker 1: this is what goes on with me. And I think
Speaker 1: the joy many joys of this podcast one is that
Speaker 1: I get to have you here to talk about it.
Speaker 1: Joy to thank you. There's so many elements that like
Speaker 1: we weren't able to talk about at the time because
Speaker 1: we're just in it, right, and it was so all
Speaker 1: encompassing distance.
Speaker 2: Yes, to see it now, That's what.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, Yeah this yesterday, because I
Speaker 3: knew I was coming here, I.
Speaker 2: Was like, bang, yeah, on all cylinders. Agreed.
Speaker 3: There's jokes, there's pain, there's style. Beautifully filmed by David Frankel.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, incredible.
Speaker 2: Tell me it has an elegant film quality too.
Speaker 3: It's very sure of itself yet surprising, definitely, And all
Speaker 3: that time has gone by and I still go, wow.
Speaker 1: Me too, me too. And that's what I was going
Speaker 1: to say about watching myself, right, because at the time
Speaker 1: we would get the VHS types, we would run home,
Speaker 1: put them in nervously, nervously right, and there might be
Speaker 1: a card, or there might be temp music or whatever,
Speaker 1: but still it would be so thrilling. But also when
Speaker 1: I'd come on, I'd be like, oh, I don't think
Speaker 1: I'd nailed that. You know, you're just so critical, right,
Speaker 1: I know. But now thirty years almost later, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: I was so much better than I thought I was.
Speaker 1: And then every one while I'm like, no, it's interesting,
Speaker 1: and I wonder, I wonder I couldn't help, but wonder
Speaker 1: exactly is that part of.
Speaker 3: The important mix that when you're doing it, you don't
Speaker 3: think you're good?
Speaker 2: Would you feel good? Would you be different?
Speaker 1: I think you'd be less vulnerable, you know what I mean? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that that.
Speaker 2: Is sure, yeah, less unsure when you have.
Speaker 1: Some unsure you especially it depends on your character obviously, right,
Speaker 1: But like if there's no vulnerability, Like even if you
Speaker 1: think about Meryl playing you know, whatever her name is
Speaker 1: in the thank you, how could I forget weird that
Speaker 1: it is Miranda? You know, if she weren't Meryl and
Speaker 1: weren't playing all those layers, it wouldn't be as brilliant.
Speaker 1: It would be hard, right, Like you have to keep
Speaker 1: some kind of vulnerability, unsure, you know, off you're slightly
Speaker 1: off balance, you know, depending on the character, of course.
Speaker 1: But but for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, now I've worked with you for so many.
Speaker 3: Amazing vibrations storytelling.
Speaker 2: Yes that in this one too. I love it.
Speaker 3: You're you're gonna have to endure this, but I love
Speaker 3: it when the emotion overwhelms your performance, like when you
Speaker 3: pick in this episode, when you take out the result
Speaker 3: and I want to point out something. You take out
Speaker 3: the paper after you've coming from an infidelity moment. Yes,
Speaker 3: good writing with the proof, and when you hold it
Speaker 3: up to her, you the actor or you the Charlotte
Speaker 3: knew it was upside down when you took it out
Speaker 3: of your person and you corrected it. You're in your
Speaker 3: moment you were, and then your voice cracked.
Speaker 1: I love that part, that part. Yes, there are other
Speaker 1: parts of that scene that I'm like, I could have
Speaker 1: done better, okay, but the thing that also amazing, I mean,
Speaker 1: and I think.
Speaker 3: And the fact that we were able to swing that
Speaker 3: storyline over to carry and have it be a carry.
Speaker 2: Aiden thing forgotten and like how a moment of.
Speaker 3: Shame which is always so important, Yes, when a character
Speaker 3: suddenly real I'm ashamed of something, right, and then they
Speaker 3: have to admit it, right, and then Corbett's so open,
Speaker 3: and then the weird trick of don't tell.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of great together, like great, get them apart,
Speaker 2: They're all great.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's so great. And the thing that I was
Speaker 1: thinking about with that, which we've been you know, this
Speaker 1: whole season, I'm like, what would Michael Patrick say about
Speaker 1: X or Y or Z for your hair now? So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you when.
Speaker 5: So with the Aiden in general, I have a lot
Speaker 5: of feeling opinions about X Y and.
Speaker 1: Thank God, that's why we love you so one of
Speaker 1: the reasons when Aiden comes back, it is so fascinating,
Speaker 1: right because like we've you know, I'm rewatching, I'm having
Speaker 1: all different feelings about Big because it's time has passed
Speaker 1: and whatnot, and I have a lot of different feelings
Speaker 1: about Aiden. I love Aiden, and he's very complicated because
Speaker 1: Corbett brings so much to him, right, and you guys
Speaker 1: really open him up when he comes back, but he's
Speaker 1: less like the anti Big, which is kind of how
Speaker 1: he starts out right, But like in this particular episode too,
Speaker 1: the complexities are just so much with He doesn't have
Speaker 1: a lot, but it's but she's I feel her through
Speaker 1: line in this particular season at least, is that she
Speaker 1: feels like he wants something slightly different. You know. It's
Speaker 1: like when she has to stop smoking the first time, right,
Speaker 1: did you guys perceive it that way? Yes?
Speaker 2: Got it?
Speaker 3: He wanted a perfect image of her, got it? And
Speaker 3: an abortion doesn't go in that so.
Speaker 1: And would you connect it all back, like even from
Speaker 1: the beginning when she's like, I.
Speaker 3: Even wanted Carrie to be a certain way, and the
Speaker 3: struggle was and it always it carried all the way
Speaker 3: through to their eventual breakup on it just like that
Speaker 3: that's really she wasn't ever going to be that way
Speaker 3: interesting and he tried, and they both tried, and we
Speaker 3: all love people, but there's.
Speaker 2: Something in him.
Speaker 3: He says a line when he's there in the fountain
Speaker 3: when they're going to get after the party, and he says,
Speaker 3: I want to get a ring on it.
Speaker 2: I want to lock this down.
Speaker 3: Yes, And that was a very male line that I
Speaker 3: heard from one of the crew members, and I was like, Oh,
Speaker 3: that's so male and so straight. Guy, you got to
Speaker 3: lock this down, you got to get a ring on it. Yes,
Speaker 3: And Aiden has that quality. And the great thing about
Speaker 3: Corbett is he it's not his main color. His main
Speaker 3: color is love and playfulness, but he brought all that
Speaker 3: and it's sort of added to the don't disappoint me guy, right,
Speaker 3: So I couldn't date a smoker that everybody understands. And
Speaker 3: then that puts in Carrie's mind, I can't be with
Speaker 3: someone who had an abortion, even though he never said it, right,
Speaker 3: and he accepts it and she actually says to him
Speaker 3: at that scene, which I love. What I love about
Speaker 3: being able to write a show for years and grow
Speaker 3: the characters, and in a city you can put so
Speaker 3: much of real life in it, Like the idea is
Speaker 3: I've never seen another SCET show where characters have to
Speaker 3: wait in line for a table. So good, but then
Speaker 3: they have to wait in line for a bar, which
Speaker 3: then gives us the opportunity to do a cool scene
Speaker 3: where they're drinking beer out of bottles on the street.
Speaker 3: That idea of being able to do like how many
Speaker 3: times have I waited and just had to wait? And
Speaker 3: that the odd non romance part of it, the casual,
Speaker 3: big conversation rather than the big conversation, big scene.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: And the other thing that I love about writing is
Speaker 3: I carries man that she got pregnant from.
Speaker 1: Oh my God, at the saloon incredible.
Speaker 2: I worked at the.
Speaker 3: So in that era, I was one of those waiters
Speaker 3: at the saloon. So it was still there, and my
Speaker 3: biggest fear was that I would still be a waiter
Speaker 3: twenty years later. And so then we wrote a character
Speaker 3: who was still a waiter try now.
Speaker 1: And I was like a knife to the gut.
Speaker 2: And here's the big personal story.
Speaker 3: When I worked at the saloon, I was in a
Speaker 3: day waiter, which they called ams because you came into
Speaker 3: eleven and you worked till.
Speaker 1: Four, got it. You did not make the big money.
Speaker 3: The night waiters were called pms okay, and they would
Speaker 3: come in and dump attitude on the eighth like I
Speaker 3: would be cleaning the cappuccino thing, hitting the thing, and
Speaker 3: the pms would come by and they would go like hi,
Speaker 3: and I'd.
Speaker 2: Be like, you're a waiter too, Like you're a PM,
Speaker 2: so you're better than me. We're all still waiting on tables.
Speaker 3: So I had this and that the saloon was a
Speaker 3: very notoriously rough place to work.
Speaker 2: The manager was tough.
Speaker 3: Oh and I actually quit that restaurant because they wouldn't
Speaker 3: let any waiters get anyone to cover for them for Christmas.
Speaker 3: What And they said that manager put a big sign
Speaker 3: up that said anyone who doesn't work their Christmas shift
Speaker 3: has the pleasure of firing themselves. Oh. I was like, hmm,
Speaker 3: waiting Christmas. So I took the tables used to be
Speaker 3: covering butcher paper. So I took a giant ream of
Speaker 3: butcher paper and put up over the time clock.
Speaker 2: I have had the pleasure of firing mycel Wow.
Speaker 3: Worked out And to this day people say, I was
Speaker 3: at the saloon when you had the pleasure of fucking findings.
Speaker 3: But the story is how it relates to us. As
Speaker 3: we filmed it the saloon and I was executive producing
Speaker 3: and sitting with next to Frankel at a table where I.
Speaker 2: Used to fold Napkins unbeliev for the am shift, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: This is fantastic, fantastic, beyond belief. When that guy when
Speaker 1: she goes, you know, because I had totally forgotten carry storyline, right,
Speaker 1: which is the joy of the rewatch, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't remember all of it. And I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is so good that she lies and
Speaker 1: then she's but she's talking to us, honestly, and then
Speaker 1: she's trying to figure out how to tell him, but
Speaker 1: he obviously has so many quiet judgments going on, right,
Speaker 1: they should be telling Steve, they should be doing that,
Speaker 1: which I feel for him too, he's stuck in the
Speaker 1: middle of it all right. And then when she goes back.
Speaker 2: To the slote, I'm like, I should go to this
Speaker 2: l And then I mean because.
Speaker 1: I was around, you know, in the later eighties, right, so,
Speaker 1: and I didn't work there, but I was a waitress
Speaker 1: in town. I mean it was a very specific time
Speaker 1: of the culture, you know, and we would all go
Speaker 1: to the odeon because you know, they talk about and
Speaker 1: he's like, no, I didn't go. But when that guy
Speaker 1: walks out because she sits down, and I mean, you
Speaker 1: literally are just like, oh my god, excellent casting because
Speaker 1: he looks so sad. He's got the hair definitely, but
Speaker 1: the hair is still there, but he's definitely worn down
Speaker 1: right because he doesn't.
Speaker 2: Mean it was like literally.
Speaker 3: That is the joy of being able to write Sex
Speaker 3: in the City when it was on HBO. Because they
Speaker 3: were thirty minutes, no commercials. You could get a lot
Speaker 3: of story in. Everyone could have a story, and you
Speaker 3: could have like these sort of epic morals.
Speaker 2: The moral of.
Speaker 3: The story is friends. Like when Charlotte shows up with
Speaker 3: those beautiful white hydranges, Charlotte, yay, and she says these
Speaker 3: flowers or for whatever flowers are supposed to do in
Speaker 3: a situation like this, she does not approve, but she
Speaker 3: shows up and loves.
Speaker 1: Also, the thing that was so great because I didn't
Speaker 1: really remember that. Of course, I remember the walking on
Speaker 1: the street scene because I think I was predominantly worried
Speaker 1: about that scene. As my producers point out, it's the
Speaker 1: first time that Cynthia and I have had a scene
Speaker 1: by ourselves.
Speaker 2: Isn't that adorable? Yes, that's a very big deal right
Speaker 2: by design, probably well chosen.
Speaker 1: Couldn't be more perfect.
Speaker 2: And I remember that it was also so unique.
Speaker 5: So unique, unheard of don't walk right and the line
Speaker 5: she knew she was there the voiceover really yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: But it's a really great it's really good. And then
Speaker 3: Maranda says, I saw you and see me.
Speaker 1: You know what the honesty of it all is, this
Speaker 1: is what I see when I'm watching myself in that scene,
Speaker 1: the way it begins. See the other thing I was
Speaker 1: thinking about because of course I did watch it last
Speaker 1: night before bed, so then I did lay bed and
Speaker 1: think about it a lot, because it still is very
Speaker 1: stimulating for me, like us in general. Part of why
Speaker 1: I love us, part of why I want to work
Speaker 1: together until we die, is because it's over stimulating. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. It's so much, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like all the things. It's rich and exciting, and we
Speaker 1: know each other and you guys right like with everything,
Speaker 1: like everyone is laying it out there, right. I love that,
Speaker 1: and then that's what we all want, right, But then
Speaker 1: it's also over stimulating when you're just trying to live
Speaker 1: your life and sleep. But when I watched it, it's true,
Speaker 1: it's true, it's true. But then yes, yes, but of
Speaker 1: course my child's exactly Yeah, it's true, but no, I
Speaker 1: mean it's more about just trying to do the best
Speaker 1: that you can do with all of it right, and
Speaker 1: some of it is great to be over stimulated because
Speaker 1: then you're processing and you're thinking about the things and
Speaker 1: how did this happen? And what do I remember versus
Speaker 1: what I see when I look at it right, And
Speaker 1: what I remember was being nervous and feeling like Cynthia
Speaker 1: was very very there for me. And I do one
Speaker 1: hundred percent remember the paper situation because I think Frankel
Speaker 1: was like, oh, I want you to get the paper,
Speaker 1: but you have you know how you have to hold
Speaker 1: things higher on film so that everyone can see them
Speaker 1: in the take, higher than you feel comfortable or whatever.
Speaker 1: So I had to get it up high. I had
Speaker 1: to get it out of my bag and get it
Speaker 1: up high. And unlike Sarah Jessica, I'm not the most
Speaker 1: prop I love her person in the world.
Speaker 2: Disagree.
Speaker 1: Oh you're adorable, but you know she always will like,
Speaker 1: give me more, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I mean. I'm disagree.
Speaker 1: I mean, okay, I love you. So I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get it out. I can see myself trying to get
Speaker 1: it out, and I can see that it's not going perfectly,
Speaker 1: but it's also so perfect for the scene, right is
Speaker 1: where like you are one with the character. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: she is so real. But then what I feel, and
Speaker 1: I also think I did talk to I think Jenny
Speaker 1: who wrote this episode, that that episode, this episode, we
Speaker 1: weren't at the place in our lives where we really
Speaker 1: knew people going through this yet, you know. And I
Speaker 1: had said to her, I don't know if I really
Speaker 1: did justice or whatever, and she said, you did, you did,
Speaker 1: you did? And I was like, I don't know, and
Speaker 1: I do feel I when I look at it, what
Speaker 1: I see is that you're deepening Charlotte, like little by
Speaker 1: little by little, like third season all into where like
Speaker 1: where we break up the first time when she's on
Speaker 1: the tennis court, you know, and she's like, I think
Speaker 1: we should separate.
Speaker 2: I'm just like, what, I don't remember that? Oh my god?
Speaker 1: Like you know, it's she's struggling to manage the fact
Speaker 1: that her vision is not what she wanted, you know,
Speaker 1: which is.
Speaker 2: A big and these aren't little obstacles.
Speaker 1: No, they're huge obstacles. But she's going to try to
Speaker 1: keep it together, and so she doesn't have her feelings
Speaker 1: that was her job, exactly. And that's what I see
Speaker 1: in the show exactly. And that's what I see in
Speaker 1: this scene, right, is like she's walking along looking kind
Speaker 1: of depressed but not devastated. And I'm thinking, why did
Speaker 1: I make that choice? And I'm sure that no one
Speaker 1: really wanted me to look devastated walking down the street, right,
Speaker 1: And also, is it Charlotte to look at what?
Speaker 2: Okay, excellent, it looked like you.
Speaker 3: Came from a plane crash but survived.
Speaker 1: Excellent. Okay, that's great, Michael. This is why I need
Speaker 1: you around.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank god? Why because we have the ability to
Speaker 2: alter the reea. No, because I have.
Speaker 1: The ability to alter my mind with your insights you shocked.
Speaker 2: It's almost like a emotional zombie.
Speaker 1: Okay, great, Great, that's helpful. Thank you so much, Because
Speaker 1: I'm wondering to myself, like because I do say to Miranda,
Speaker 1: I knew it. I knew it would be, you know,
Speaker 1: and I say it earlier too, like I've got to
Speaker 1: make an appointment to find out because I just know
Speaker 1: it's me, right, So.
Speaker 2: I was like, am I playing that?
Speaker 1: This is just you know, giving credence to my fear?
Speaker 2: What am I playing? There, but I'm going to go
Speaker 2: with showing everything. Here's the reality.
Speaker 3: Tell me it was a very hard scene because you
Speaker 3: have to break in it, and when you have an
Speaker 3: expectation that you have to break, I don't know how
Speaker 3: you do it.
Speaker 2: That's the hardest part. I've seen so many moments.
Speaker 3: Where the actor gets there and they might have had
Speaker 3: it at rehearsal right, or and it's dried up.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's the worst.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's the word goes away totally.
Speaker 3: And so you have the expectation of I'm walking into
Speaker 3: this right, and probably you're thinking, I hope this goes well,
Speaker 3: and Charlotte's thinking, I hope this all goes.
Speaker 1: Well totally When there is yes, yes, all of it
Speaker 1: all in.
Speaker 3: And then you play the surprise of seeing Miranda in
Speaker 3: the embarrassment of being caught right, and then the anger.
Speaker 1: Did do you feel angered?
Speaker 2: Yes, it's okay.
Speaker 1: See, this is what I think is happening too. Do
Speaker 1: you remember the seasons, which I feel like would have
Speaker 1: been season two, where you guys, not you personally, the
Speaker 1: writers in general, like Jenny I remember specifically telling me
Speaker 1: like Charlotte does not get mad. Do you remember this?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think of anybody as not getting.
Speaker 1: Mad, right, that would be insane. Right. So then it
Speaker 1: was kind of like Darren maybe Jenny, and and it
Speaker 1: was more like when we were beginning and kind of
Speaker 1: really starting from the more archetypal real archetype. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and as it went we deepen deep and deepened.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And remember how many guys I went through in season two? Fantastic,
Speaker 1: so many fantastic for sure. Definitely, Yes, that would be the.
Speaker 3: One, because I know you're still he's still have done
Speaker 3: your work on that.
Speaker 2: It's true, I have not.
Speaker 3: I'm still madam you.
Speaker 2: You still have to work through that.
Speaker 1: I know, because Charlotte didn't get to have her feelings
Speaker 1: about it. That's why I have not worked through it.
Speaker 1: Because everyone told me you cannot be mad. Charlotte doesn't
Speaker 1: get mad, Okay, I know, it's crazy crazy.
Speaker 3: She gets overwhelmed, she gets shut down, she can't derailed,
Speaker 3: definitely humiliated, Definitely, she carries all of that, Yes, But
Speaker 3: the funny thing is that she doesn't know what to
Speaker 3: do with it.
Speaker 1: I guess that's that's a good point. And that's that
Speaker 1: if someone had said that to me that way, it
Speaker 1: might have helped, because at the time, I was just like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to try to shove these feelings down,
Speaker 1: which I guess is what she's doing right right, right
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Maybe you should let go of those feelings.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not believe me, this is not what's
Speaker 1: going through in my mind.
Speaker 2: And when I'm.
Speaker 1: Laying maybe I don't know.
Speaker 3: I know that you still feel so protect have had
Speaker 3: that moment. It's like a real X. It's a rare
Speaker 3: combination of also made him thinking should I have spoken
Speaker 3: up for myself like that?
Speaker 2: There's like a that's the no, it's true, and Cynthia
Speaker 2: told me not to.
Speaker 1: That's why I didn't.
Speaker 2: He's right after yourself.
Speaker 1: I did not know. Shouldn't You thought it was hysterical
Speaker 1: and that I should not say a word, and so
Speaker 1: I didn't, but I wanted to.
Speaker 2: And then that guy himself may be.
Speaker 1: Met so it all?
Speaker 2: Or did he he did?
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what he did.
Speaker 2: This is what he did.
Speaker 1: He you're trying to save him that he was.
Speaker 2: Just trying to say he did his job.
Speaker 1: Oh, he did his job, but what he did he didn't.
Speaker 2: Here on this guy, we are because you better get
Speaker 2: it together.
Speaker 1: I don't even know his name.
Speaker 2: Hold on to a bridge.
Speaker 3: We should find out that dear act should find out,
Speaker 3: since he is now your nemesis.
Speaker 2: There's one of them. He wanted.
Speaker 1: He that Nicole was directing that Nicole hol Offtner. She
Speaker 1: did his side first, irritating Okay. Then it was lunch,
Speaker 1: so he had shouted at me. She kept telling him
Speaker 1: to shout louder and to be closer to my face.
Speaker 1: So those were the two directions she gave him, which
Speaker 1: I was like.
Speaker 3: Nicole, okay, Like, let's talk about the evolution of you.
Speaker 3: I'm not jumping, I'm jumping forward so many years, okay, great,
Speaker 3: to the evolution of you feeling that you can't express
Speaker 3: yourself about a thing to the.
Speaker 2: Day on in just like that where.
Speaker 3: Harry was maybe going to get hard after the whole
Speaker 3: thing and he couldn't get hard. He still wasn't hard
Speaker 3: and you had to give him a hand job.
Speaker 1: Final season or was the season okay.
Speaker 3: Had to give a hand job? Not written that way,
Speaker 3: Oh it was. They make love and then we don't
Speaker 3: know how. We know that it didn't happen because, to
Speaker 3: be quite frank, he's inside of her.
Speaker 2: We don't know what.
Speaker 1: Yes, this was a little bit.
Speaker 3: We had a new uh our. Our intimacy coordinator was unpregnant.
Speaker 2: Adam. Yes, we had a new one who was from.
Speaker 3: England and very concerned about her actress and through the
Speaker 3: lens anyway. I came in as the director at five
Speaker 3: am and realized, oh, no, that's not going to be funny.
Speaker 3: It's just going to be another scene. It has to
Speaker 3: be a hand job, and you have to be fully
Speaker 3: clothed and giving a hand job.
Speaker 2: And I came up to you first thing.
Speaker 3: In the set where about the rivers, said Kristen, I've
Speaker 3: been thinking I think you're giving him a hand job
Speaker 3: instead of making love. And she was like what what,
Speaker 3: wait what? And I was like it's a hand job.
Speaker 3: And you're like, wait, what does that mean? What are
Speaker 3: you showing? And I was like, I'm showing from here
Speaker 3: up your arm? And okay, all right, good?
Speaker 1: Did I do it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, big dialogue. I said to you, this is how
Speaker 3: it goes. I think it'll be funnier. You go, it
Speaker 3: will be okay. And then the woman said, I don't
Speaker 3: have the paperwork for a hand job, and you said
Speaker 3: we're fine, and she goes, no, I need to have
Speaker 3: the paperwork, so you were fine, and we don't need
Speaker 3: the paperwork, so then we had to do a quick
Speaker 3: paperwork and you had to sign off. But it's a
Speaker 3: long way feeling in a box that you couldn't have
Speaker 3: your feelings.
Speaker 1: That's true, but you know what that is about. That
Speaker 1: is about you and our incredible long relationship.
Speaker 2: True, true, and also about you understanding what's better for
Speaker 2: the scene.
Speaker 1: For sure, for sure, just because I trust you, you know,
Speaker 1: so it's about trust and de filop.
Speaker 2: I trust you.
Speaker 1: That's why I can say with this, let's do this.
Speaker 2: If it doesn't work, I won't use it for people.
Speaker 3: And it was great, it was funny, and it was
Speaker 3: the thing we do better, which is comedy, sex.
Speaker 1: Whatever. Totally simulated, definitely, definitely, definitely, and I do totally.
Speaker 1: I don't need to see that again or acted again,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Not for you, for anyone,
Speaker 1: So like, well.
Speaker 3: It's important maybe in something, maybe you'll do have to
Speaker 3: do it, but the reality is h never say she's open,
Speaker 3: all your writers, directors, She's still open. She's a wonderful
Speaker 3: person to work with in simulated sex situations.
Speaker 1: You're so sweet thinking about my career that's so sweet, so.
Speaker 3: Sweet, But yeah, I just wanted to draw a line
Speaker 3: from you know.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, You're absolutely.
Speaker 3: Right, which is what happens when the series really is allowed.
Speaker 3: I agree to exist and the people are there for
Speaker 3: each other and love each other. And that's what's so
Speaker 3: great about this episode. It just screams of growth.
Speaker 1: Yes, all right everyone, thanks for joining us, and are
Speaker 1: you a Charlotte. We are going to be back with
Speaker 1: more Michael Patrick King because when he's here, we could
Speaker 1: really talk for a long time. So please join us
Speaker 1: again later this week. Thanks everybody,