Sarah Jessica Parker answers all of our questions (well, 73 of them at least) revealing everything from her distaste for parsley, love of Greece, and bias of globes that glow. And what is kokoreç? You can check it all out below:
Category: Interviews
Mar 13, 2014
The Guardian Interview – Sarah Jessica Parker: “I don’t think we’re alone in the universe”
Hello Sarah. Is Escape From Planet Earth your first animated movie?
I think it’s the first full-length theatrical release. I don’t recall any more, to be honest. I’ve probably done short-form voice stuff before.And this is your third space-themed movie.
It is? Remind me.Well, there was Flight of the Navigator, and then Mars Attacks!
Ah, yes, you’re right. I seem to be drawn to the genre, even though I don’t even remember that I am.In some ways, would you see this as the completion of a trilogy?
Oh my God, I love that you’re looking at it with such a scholarly approach. Yes! Let’s pretend that that’s exactly why I did it. That’s so smart. Yes, I have been seeking out that last film to complete the trilogy. Only the Guardian would have cracked this.Your character in this film is called Kira Supernova. Is that the best-named character you’ve ever played?
Most assuredly. Absolutely. Inarguably.I was looking at your IMDb page this morning …
Ah. I have one?Yes, and I noticed that many of the characters you played before 1993 don’t have surnames, but all the ones you’ve played since do. Was that a conscious decision on your part?
Is that right? Do you think that is something my agents negotiated on my behalf? You are noticing, discerning, mining things that nobody else ever has. If I ever, ever, ever write a book about my life, you will certainly be the author. Nobody has ever spent this amount of time thinking about my career. Including me!Do you believe in aliens?
No.So you’re saying that mankind is essentially alone in the universe.
Well, I don’t think we’re alone in the universe. But I don’t think aliens are how we have experienced them thus far on screen. We discovered that there may have been water elsewhere, and that was a massive and important discovery in the world of science, right? This suggests that something benefited from the water. But whether they wear funny outfits and they’re clever and they say snarky things to each other and have wonderfully big sweet eyes? That, I’m dubious about. But I do enjoy the storytelling here on Earth.Even though your character in this new film gets left behind by her husband, despite being incredibly smart?
I think she has made some decisions, and she speaks to a way that maybe other women feel, you know? She’s left behind, and she’s maybe conflicted about those choices. And she becomes defensive. Do you choose work over family? I think that’s a position that a lot of women find themselves in. I think, a little bit, this film tries to talk about what it’s like to remove yourself from your professional workplace and work from home as a parent (5). It’s sweet, it’s nicely done.How many times today have you been asked about Sex and the City 3?
Three times today. I’m batting a thousand. What’s that in cricket? If you’re batting a thousand in American baseball, what would the analogy be for cricket?I dunno. Hitting a six? That sounds a lot less impressive than hitting a thousand, to be honest.
Those six must mean so much more. So, OK, I’m hitting a six. Out of three interviews, Sex and the City has been uttered three times.I’m not going to ask you about it. I just wanted to know if you were tired of talking about it.
I’m fine with it. It’s all right. It’s hardly a burden. I would rather be asked about that than countless other things. That was an enormously important, wonderful part of my life and to suggest that it’s burdensome in some way for people to enquire about a third movie? To be resentful or annoyed about that would be such a waste of someone’s time. I’m very fine with it. I’m OK.Last question. Your character in Flight of the Navigator was a big fan of Twisted Sister. I listened to them as a direct consequence of that, and they were rubbish. Do you have to apologise to a lot of people for this?
Holy moly. I don’t. You’re the first person. Once again, your approach to this interview … I’m gobsmacked. Nobody has ever mentioned it. I have long since forgotten that my character had an opinion one way or the other, and I don’t know that I’ve heard enough of Twisted Sister to myself have an opinion.OK, then. Thanks for your time.
Hey, I want more time with you in the future. I want to start each day with you.
Quick, what’s your favorite “Sex and the City” moment involving Carrie Bradshaw and her adored shoe collection?
Was it the time she got mugged, and the mugger specifically demanded her Manolo Blahniks? “Somebody stop him!” she cried out. “He took my strappy sandals!”
Or perhaps the time another pair of Manolos was stolen because, annoyingly, the hostess at a baby shower demanded that everyone take off their shoes.
Or maybe the time Carrie realized she’d spent so much on shoes, she couldn’t afford a down payment on an apartment. “I will literally be the Old Woman Who Lived in Her Shoes,” she moaned.
Well, “Sex and the City” ended in 2004 (the TV show anyway), and Carrie — er, actress Sarah Jessica Parker — has a lot more shoes to live in. Parker has launched her own shoe line, SJP, which also includes handbags, at Nordstrom. (Her business partner is George Malkemus, CEO of Manolo Blahnik, and the shoes are cheaper than Manolos — in the $300 range.)
The 48-year-old actress, who’s had previous forays into the fashion business but not a shoe line, sat down to not only talk about the new project, but also how she became so closely associated with fashion — something younger actresses now aspire to all the time, but wasn’t the norm when she started out. She also explained how she really did have her Manolos stolen. And she commented on the possibility of a third “Sex and the City” movie, hinting at a possible ending to Carrie’s story.
QUESTION: So how did this all get started?
Parker: Well, I was very kindly being offered a lot of opportunities in the shoe category and I kept rejecting them. And I couldn’t figure out why. And more importantly my agents couldn’t figure out why. … And I was sitting with some women friends of mine and they said to me, “What is it?” And I said, “Well, I know it’s not going to be the shoe that I want it to be.” And I said that really my dream partner is George Malkemus. And they said, “Have you asked him?”Malkemus: And we went back many years, before she was doing Carrie Bradshaw. (Malkemus tells the story of how he and Parker sat on the floor together in the mid-1980s, when Blahnik was doing a trunk show in Los Angeles, and she chose six pairs of shoes she loved.)
Parker (wistfully): And there was a tobacco-colored flat. A suede pointy flat. He had signed it! And then all except one pair were stolen. It was two years later … all my luggage was stolen. You only travel with what you love, so I had my Manolos, I had one Chanel suit and an old Yankees sweatshirt from the ’60s … and all I got back was my dog dish.
Q: Wait, so you actually DID have Manolos stolen?
Parker: Yes, I really did. In real life.Q: How did you choose which shoe in your new line to call “Carrie”?
Parker: There were other Carries. And it kept not feeling right. But this shoe (a T-strap heeled number in purple) is kind of a contradiction. Because there is something very feminine and ladylike about this shoe, but the purple is a little subversive. The purple is the person that chose not to wear the appropriate thing to work. And I feel that’s what Carrie was.Q: You have become so associated with fashion. How did that all happen?
Parker: You know, I think that I played a character for a very long time who had an enormous amount of affection for fashion, she had this kind of relationship we’d never seen portrayed or depicted or illustrated on-screen — big or little screen, really. And also fashion was just starting to emerge at that time as a separate sort of character in New York. I think it was a confluence of playing that person, also loving (fashion) myself, and watching luxury and vintage just start to rise.You know when we first started shooting the show, and we hadn’t been on the air yet, nobody would loan us ANYTHING. We had a very meager budget … we were pulling mostly from consignment, some rental houses, borrowing from friends, or from emerging designers that nobody knew about except for Pat (costume designer Patricia Field).
And the show went on the air, and someone was talking about fashion, and looking at fashion in a way that had never happened before. And the business was just starting to shift. Luxury — we weren’t talking about luxury before. It had not been spoken of outside the industry itself. … And nobody had dressed (like Carrie). Nobody was wearing an old raggedy beat-up fur coat that was 40 bucks with a Fendi baguette (a luxury bag that costs about $1,500). It was just a whole new way of thinking about fashion, and once again, that timing.
Q: So speaking of timing — where do you stand on a third movie?
Parker: There is no conversation about doing a third movie. As Michael (Patrick King, the writer-director) has said, I think recently, he and I both know what the last part of the story is. Just us. None of the other women know. But I trust Michael’s sense of timing. I don’t know that the time will ever be right to tell it. So there are no plans. But I do know, and Michael knows, what that third story would be. And it’s small, but mighty.Q: Hmm. That sounds like a child.
Parker (not budging): I’m a secret keeper.
We all know her as Carrie Bradshaw, the “Sex and the City” character who had a great love affair with New York City, her friends, writing, fashion and … shoes.
Sarah Jessica Parker stopped in Chicago on Friday to promote her new shoe line called the SJP Collection at Nordstrom.
RedEye sat down atthe Michigan Avenue store with the actress who wore a cream dress, pearls, sheer stirrup tights and strappy nude pumps.
Her shoes, priced from $195 to $375, have names. The ones she wore during the interview were named Carrie of course.
A lot of celebrities attach their names to products. Can you tell me how involved you were in designing the shoes?
Well first of all, I don’t think of myself as a celebrity. I’ve been a working actor for almost 40 years.On principle, there isn’t anything that I’ve been involved with whether it was fragrance or Halston or this that I am not at every single meeting, on every single phone call, splitting every single atom, touching, feeling every single sample, looking at every version opportunity for grosgrain, trying on every shoe, at all the fittings, in meetings as the samples are arriving from Italy, every single marketing conversation, every single design conversation about the popup shop or how we’re building out at every Nordstrom store.
It’s the way I produced “Sex and the City.” It’s simply the way I am. I have no interest in giving my name and walking away and being asked to arrive back when something’s finished.
How long have you worked on this shoe collection?
It’s been over a year in the making.How would you describe your shoes in three words?
I would say single-sole, color, beauty.Who do you see as your target customer?
I purposely don’t want to have one. I think this is a cross-generational collection. This is a collection that can be worn by a 14-year-old. It can be worn by an 87-year-old, or an 89-year-old or a 92-year-old. … We’ve had customers literally probably from about 15 to 80. I think that speaks to the variety in the collection, to the wearability of it. … I wanted the price to be as affordable as we can manage given that they’re made in Italy and that they’re well made, handmade. But we also want it to be in someone’s closet and that they should be able to pull it out in three or four years time and it will be relevant and still feel good, still be in great shape.Would Carrie wear them?
Most assuredly, most assuredly. Yeah, I mean I can’t imagine Carrie not choosing to wear that shoe (a purple strappy pump appropriately named Carrie). Definitely. … Yes, I think there’s lots of options for Carrie, but for other people as well.How Carrie was able to afford all of those shoes?
But she wasn’t and we talked about it endlessly. … She was reckless. She was constantly in a state of not being able to afford what she chose to spend her money on. She had countless opportunities where someone forced her to look at the reality of how she chose to spend her money. It was, I don’t think, something she was often proud of. But it was a fever that she seemed to not be able to control. She had four or five successful books so I think that when those came along they were helpful. But I think she was profligate.A lot of people refer to you as a style icon. Whose style are you loving at this moment?
There are a million women who cross my path on a subway platform or on the F train or looking out the window today in Chicago at the streets here, or incredible women who I saw in Seattle and Los Angeles. And I say this completely in a genuine way. I am most inspired by the women I see on the street. … I think that’s what’s exciting is when somebody walks out the door feeling like themselves and it just looks great on them. I might never be able to pull it off but it’s inspiring to see.
Sarah Jessica Parker may just be the most revered style icon out there, thanks to her iconic role as Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City.
So when we caught wind that the fashionista was designing a fabulous shoe and accessory collection of her own (in conjunction with Manolo Blahnik CEO George Malkemus III) available at Nordstrom, we certainly had to get the full scoop.
Just in time for spring, the actress unveiled her cool collection of pretty pumps, strappy sandals and more at the department store in L.A., and we scored some insight from the star herself about the concept.
“There’s decades and decades and decades of incredible imagery that you probably have in your head that’s meaningful to you. It just so happens that George and I shared the same period of interest,” she explained with a smile.
“I wanted to go back in time to the simple shoe, which is really hard to do well. That was really our point of inspiration,” she added.
And of course, given her passion for fashion, it’s no surprise that her sweet twin daughters are inspired to play dress up at home, as well.
“My daughters came to the pop-in shop and tried on shoes…but I will say, any true keen interest they have in fashion is engineered soley on their own! They have wonderful fantasy lives that have nothing to do with who I am. They really make up their own clothes and costumes and dress themselves,” Parker emphasized.
Too cute!
Congrats to SJP on this stylish endeavor.
Since the ‘Sex and the City’ actress was here in Seattle yesterday, we got the chance to chat with her about her new shoe line, Seattle, and of course – coffee. To answer your unasked questions: Yes, we were freaking out, and yes, we almost called her Carrie about 5 times.
We’re excited that you are launching a new line at Nordstrom, a Seattle based company. Have you been to Seattle before?
Yes! I’ve been to Seattle a decent amount, but definitely not enough. It’s a city that I love – I actually shot a television series there in the 80s called ‘A Year in the Life’. I got to live there for many months, and it was a wonderful experience. It was the first time I had ever been to Seattle, and I fell in love with the city. Later, I had a dear friend who was working in Seattle so I visited her a couple times and then launched Lovely with Nordstrom in 2005 so I was back out there again. I have a lot of wonderful memories of Seattle.When you visited previously, was the weather decent, we hope!?
I have always had good weather when I have been in Seattle! I’m from New York so I don’t mind weather, I don’t mind rain. We had such beautiful weather when we were shooting and each time I’ve been there, I’ve had lovely weather. But I’ll take Seattle no matter what!Your role in Sex and the City launched you into the fashion world, where you quickly became an icon. Had you personally always been interested in fashion or was it something that you learned by playing Carrie?
I have always loved beautiful, well-made clothes, but I didn’t always have access to them and rarely could afford them. But my mother always loved dressing well. She was pretty industrious about managing to do so, and she cared a great deal about how we looked when we left the house, even with limited means. I think what happened over the course of all those years playing Carrie is that I simply learned more about it. I was able to dream bigger and meet wonderful emerging designers, and develop my own relationship with fashion. That’s definitely one of many benefits I had from playing that role.This can’t be the first time you’ve been approached about a clothing/shoe/handbag line. What makes now the right time?
I don’t know that it is the right time or the wrong time. For me, it was about finding the right partner. I’ve had the opportunities come up in the past but simply never found the perfect fit for me in terms of what I imagined in my head. One day I had the idea of partnering with Nordstrom and now, here we are.As you know, Nordstrom is a Seattle company. What makes them such a great partner for the new collection?
I have some nostalgic connections to Nordstrom. I launched Lovely there, and they were so hospitable and so wonderful to work with. Nordstrom has a great history as shoe merchants – that’s how they started. They have a superior sales staff, and they are famous for how informed the staff is, how much they know about the category that they are spending time selling. And of course they have wonderful relationships with their customers. They know this category so well and have such a wonderful reputation in retail. I love the fact that it is still a family-run business; that means a lot to me. Nordstrom really was our dream retailer for this line, and we were thrilled when they showed enthusiasm for it.The SJP Collection will have great shoes. What else are you offering now?
We have shoes, we have a small bag collection and a trench coat in two colors. It’s sort of the exterior shell that we are looking at right now. We’ll see over time if the business grows, but for the time being we are going to focus really on shoes and the bag collection for pre-fall and fall. We are already working on spring. It just gets better and better, it’s really wonderful.It’s probably against the rules to choose a favorite, but which shoes do you like the best?
It’s hard for me to pick a favorite, but I seem to circle back to the Carrie in purple, the Ina in jade suede, the Anna in asparagus, the Etta in both charcoal and dusty rose; I love the Fawn in black with that grey grosgrain stripe down the back. I love the Pola in grosgrain and the Lady in that geranium grosgrain, I think it’s beautiful. The Alison boot is great, too.Because this is Seattle, we have to ask: What do you order when you go to a coffee shop?
I’m pretty much a straight shooter. I tend to not get a lot of the complicated flavors or whips. I’m a hard core, really strong cup of black coffee with a little bit of milk and a little bit of sugar. I mean hard core – the darker African roast, the better.
Sarah Jessica Parker spent years strutting down the streets of New York City in the (literal) shoes of her alter ego Carrie Bradshaw on the cult-favorite HBO TV series Sex and the City. In addition to sharing her character’s penchant for jaw-dropping designer kicks, Parker, like Bradshaw, has a special place in her heart for Manolo Blahniks. Fittingly, when she embarked on designing her own collection, she called upon the brand’s CEO George Malkemus.
The result? SJP, a colorful collection of statement-making shoes, handbags, and trenchcoats that embrace the unique, fearless sense of style that has made Parker a fashion icon on and off the screen. The Nordstrom-exclusive line hit stores last Friday (February 28) and Parker will be at The Grove’s Nordstrom tomorrow (189 The Grove Dr., Fairfax, 323-930-2230; March 6, 5-6 p.m.) to meet fellow shoe-lovers and sign their purchases. Below, Parker shares on her collection and what inspired it, her number one fashion rule, and how many shoes she really owns.
What was your vision for the collection?
SARAH JESSICA PARKER: Well, once I had the nerve to call George Malkemus and ask if he would consider being a partner with me, we got together the next morning and I came to discover fortuitously that we had both arrived in New York City around the same time, which was the late ‘70s. I was a young girl, but I was completely and immediately captivated by images that I would see looking in the windows on 59th Street, 57th Street, and lower Madison. Some of the great shoe designers of all time were very present in New York—Maud Frizon, Charles Jourdan, and countless others—and it was that beautiful single sole [with] lots of color. I really wanted to revisit the single sole and start thinking about color as a neutral.Did Carrie Bradshaw and Sex and the City serve as inspirations as well?
SJP: Her affection [for shoes] was inspiring in a lot of ways. But these aren’t all Carrie Bradshaw shoes and they can’t be because that isn’t really cross-generational enough for a collection. I really wanted this collection to be for a lot of different kinds of women—all shapes, sizes, and ages.What elements of your personal style did you incorporate into the designs?
SJP: I like a lot of color and I’m less inclined to wear a black shoe to a business meeting. The idea of what’s appropriate has not been something that I’ve always applied to my choices, and I wanted women to have that same opportunity to wear the purple Carrie shoe, for instance, to work, to a parent-teacher conference, to meet with her friends, or for a special occasion. It can be every bit as appropriate as black, dusty rose, or asparagus.What inspired the names of the shoes?
SJP: In some cases they were people I admired. In many cases they were just names that I’ve always loved, and in some cases they were named after women and friends who have been inspiring to me or I admire their taste. There’s a shoe called Pola after the great onscreen actress Pola Negri. There’s a shoe named after my dear friend Iva Rifkin. Obviously, there’s the Carrie. There’s an Etta named after Audrey Hepburn—it’s rumored that that was her real name.Why did you decide to create handbags and trenchcoats as well?
SJP: I think that’s all part of that outer package. When you step out the door, the shoes and a bag are the first impression you’re sharing with somebody about how you’re feeling that day, or the story you want to tell, or an image you want to project, and it seemed a doable and an edited way of introducing that idea into the collection.What’s your fashion mantra?
SJP: In some ways it’s just practical choices—you know, taking the kids to school in the middle of winter requires you to be warm. But really, it’s [about] who am I. I’m less interested in trying to look like somebody else. I want to feel like myself. I don’t have a mantra, but I would say I really try to tell my own story.Lastly, we’re dying to know. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
SJP: This is always disappointing for people—I’m not a big shopper at all. I have a very small and disappointing closet, so I don’t have a lot of shoes. I’ve never counted them, which I know sounds ridiculous. But, I also love having things that I can wear years from now. I have many shoes that are two decades old that I love and are relevant, and I think that’s the way I tend to shop now. That was important for this collection, too, that women could reach for that shoe that we produced in five years and still feel like it fits into their life.
Sarah Jessica stopped by “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” today to promote her new shoe line “SJP Collection.” You can check out 2 clips from the show below, where she showed off a few shoes from her new collection, talked about whether there will be a “Sex and the City 3”, and more. Enjoy!
