Celebrity Interview - Sarah Jessica Parker - Comments

Sarah Jessica Parker

Poster: H! Society 10/05/2008

Over the next couple of months we are set to receive a double dose of Sarah Jessica Parker. First the actress and fashion icon stars in the comedy Smart People alongside Dennis Quaid and Thomas Hayden Church; before sipping Manhattans as Carrie Bradshaw in the long-awaited film version of Sex and the City

INTERVIEW BY SANDRA FLOWERS AND EVA JAMES / FAMOUS

Since you are a fashion icon, who are you wearing today?

The jacket you commented on is Mr. De La Renta. This is a young designer I believe named Todd and these are Bitten.

You always look so amazing. Growing up did you ever experience a blunder?

Endless, same amount as I've made mistakes as a parent.

You look beautiful today.

Thank you, it's a dream team of professionals.

How old is your son now?

He's five.

Would you say family life has mellowed you?

Wasn't that much to mellow. I mean the difference is there are times that I think, gosh, before I had a baby, a friend could call and say, “Hey I'm around the corner, you want to have dinner?”, and I'd say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, let me wash my face, and I'll be right there.” Those days are over, so it's mellowed my limited social life to some degree, but I'm very happy to make these compromises for my son, you know, and I have babysitters. If I want to put my son to bed, and go out after 9.30, I can do that. But once I'm in, I'm in. It's hard to leave the house. It's hard.

Are you able to find time to balance being a wife, mother and actress?

Umm, I do my very best; my son is my priority, is our priority, and it's very complicated as any working mother in this country will tell you, and hopefully less complicated by the fact that I can afford health and really good childcare, unlike a lot of working women in this country.

Now that you’re in your 40s, has that changed anything?

Not that drastically. I think those changes are kind of a cumulative, and having a child, that's all part of change, but it doesn't feel really connected specifically [in my 40s]. I feel like I should have something more to say because it's supposed to be this, like, landmark moment. I'm [in my 40s], but other than that, my neck hurts a little bit more than it used to, stuff like that.

Your perfume line is a hit. Is it nice to succeed in that realm?

It's nice to have discovered something else and be learning something from scratch. Like really an education about the fragrance industry -- which is all a very competitive and terrifying industry – but it's really more than anything else, with the exception of having a child, like a dream come true. I've wanted to do a fragrance for 20 years, and it's amazing that I've found the sort of people that I hoped for and had the kind of mentoring I did and the fact that it's had some success is really surprising and I hadn't thought of.

Is there anything that you’d change about yourself?

Oh geez, where to begin? I would change a lot about myself. I think I wasted a lot of years. I think I suffer from terrible procrastination. I wish I had been a better student, I wish I had applied myself in school, I wish I'd gone to college, I wish I hadn't gotten so tanned all those years. Uhh! I wish I'd spent more time with people that are no longer living. I wish I’d told them things I understand now were important for them to have heard. I wish we’d invited more people to our wedding. I wish I'd worn a different wedding dress. [But] It's cool. It's cool.

Who are the designers that you’re into these days?Narciso and Mr. De La Renta of course, and I'm really excited about the V'eau shop’s collection and I think Alexander McQueen's been unbelievable and Alberta's an old friend of mine, and I think I cannot believe what he's done, completely revitalised. Sex and the City changed your life but did it change your sense of fashion because you had access to the best of the best in terms of clothes?

Yeah, I think I'd be crazy to say that it had no impact on me at all. I think it was pretty major because, like you said, I didn't have the access before. I mean I always loved beautiful clothes and I wore as many as I could get my hands on, but all of a sudden I could just have bigger dreams, and also Patricia Fields, people forget how influential she was; and they give me a lot of credit, but she was a huge part of that fashion being such an important part of the show, and I learned so much from her. I came from a family of matchers, and all of a sudden, like, the idea of clashing blues was sort of interesting to me, and different patterns and wearing stripes in a way that was unconventional and this was all Pat Fields. This is a reason that she is such an important person in the fashion industry, so yeah, my taste changed, my desire for clothes changed. It was an unbelievable time.

With all the fashion trends you created – do you feel pressure when you get dressed and go out in public?

Now that I'm taking my son to school every day, it's kind of liberating in a way, because we don't have that kind of leisure time in the morning. I'm not disciplined enough. My son, by the way, has some strong feelings, which I understand is unique to his age, of what I should and shouldn't be wearing. James is like, “Take that dress off, I don't like it.” He'll say, “I'd like you to wear down pants today.” Down pants just means long pants. He doesn't like to see any skin.

When all is said and done, what would you like your legacy to be?

I just want to be a working actor. I mean, I want to be a successful parent first and foremost and if I'm lucky enough to be able to do both, I simply want to be a really good working actor and I don't want to ask for more because I've already been given so much.

You have a happy marriage. How rare is that, not only in Hollywood – but America?

That's what you think (laughs). I'm just kidding. I'm totally kidding. Look what I did! Look what I did! No. I'm totally kidding because that's why it works.

Why do you think you have that?

I think that it's because we live not in the white hot spotlight of Los Angeles. We live in a city that's about something else.

But you’re being followed by the paparazzi every week…

But it's not that. We live in a city that has a lot of important components. It's a city about commerce and architecture and history and art and tourism and service people and theatre and the entertainment industry and publishing and so on and so on, and we're just a cog in the wheel. I mean, we like each other first of all. I still think that he's the funniest person that I've ever known and I actually find him attractive still, like really. Like, I really love him.

What is the difference between Sarah Jessica Parker and Carrie Bradshaw?

I think people often confuse me with her and are surprised to know that I don't go out, I'm not somebody that goes to premieres or big parties. I've never been comfortable as a young adult. I never went to clubs, I don't dance in public; I had a boyfriend for a long time who was really out in the world like that, and it's just not me. I love being home. I've always been that way, and I love friends coming to my house, and I love to go to my friends' house and dinner parties and I love going to the theatre, but I've never been comfortable in certain social environments. They just intimidate me.

Just how much can you tell us about the Sex and the City movie?

Umm, what can I tell you in my own stealth way without giving the story away? I have been very surprised by the seriousness. There's something that happens in this movie and it’s really about realising your own complicity and disappointment and the necessity of friends but really at a certain point as a grown-up person you have to take care of yourself. There's still plenty of ripe old salty dirty stuff but I think it’s a really smart story. I think Michael Patrick wrote a beautiful screenplay. Just selfishly I feel like he wrote the role of a lifetime for me and it was just such an amazing experience. In terms of where it’s going to open I think we are all still figuring out what we want in terms of the movie. We have a lot of figuring out to do and right now we are just in the final stages of finishing the movie and just getting it ready for everyone to see.

What was the best part of making the film?

Honestly, the best part was just being there together on the set the first day. Being together. It took a lot to get this movie back up and running. It’s taken the last year and a half of my life to cobble it all together and to find ourselves on the set playing these women again. Surrounded by crew who have been there from the beginning and surrounded on the peripheral by hundreds of women and the paparazzi. It was really kind of heavenly to be there again, you know. Shooting at the perfect time in New York City – the most romantic time, late summer, early fall. Getting a chance again to do this. Things just don't generally work out like this. It was a thrill, the whole experience from the first day to the last.

How closely did you work with costume designer Patricia Field?

In terms of the collaborative experience with Patricia, it’s extremely collaborative. I think we started talking on the phone with her other designers in probably June or July. My rule with Pat is I will try anything on. I don't care how ludicrous or ridiculous or silly because she just loves telling stories with clothes and every now and then something I find absurd somehow works, so I will try anything on for her. And, honestly, one of the best parts of the experience is a fitting with Pat and her team because it’s just crazy. It’s the most amazing, beautiful, ridiculous clothes in one room. It’s great. She is an incredible storyteller.

Does your own clothing line feature in the film?

My line wasn't (included in the wardrobe for the movie) because, as one of our producers said, “You know, there is no Sarah Jessica Parker in Carrie Bradshaw’s world.”

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