Sarah Jessica Parker Hits Back at Misogyny and Ageism: Do I ‘Stop Aging? Disappear?’

Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is back and looking every bit like Carrie Bradshaw on the December cover of Vogue, as she dons a Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda gown, Dior bracelets, and a Harwell Godfrey ring.

In the magazine, however, she is pure SJP, hitting back at the misogyny and ageism she and her co-stars have experienced on social media over their “Sex and the City” spin-off “And Just Like That…”

On the show, which debuts in December on HBO Max, Carrie and BFFs Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) navigate life in their 50s.

Parker notes that people haven’t always been kind online, telling Vogue’s Naomi Fry, “There’s so much misogynist chatter in response to us that would never. Happen. About. A. Man. ‘Gray hair, gray hair, gray hair. Does she have gray hair?’ I don’t know what to tell you people! Especially on social media. Everyone has something to say. ‘She has too many wrinkles, she doesn’t have enough wrinkles.’”

She went on, “It almost feels as if people don’t want us to be perfectly okay with where we are, as if they almost enjoy us being pained by who we are today, whether we choose to age naturally and not look perfect, or whether you do something if that makes you feel better. I know what I look like. I have no choice. What am I going to do about it? Stop aging? Disappear?”

In fact, she told the magazine the reason she wanted to bring the show back was to spark joy. She talked about a conversation with executive producer Michael Patrick King, saying, “And we spoke about what we were missing in the pandemic: joy, community, the experience of being together. The world of Carrie and her friends has always been about coming home, and I felt like we needed that right now.”

The cast will be missing one member of their family, who passed away midway through filming: Willie Garson.

Garson played Carrie’s best friend Stanford Blatch, and Sarah Jessica revealed she is still mourning the loss.

She told Vogue, “All I can say right now is that it’s as if a scoop has been taken out of me this week, and I don’t expect it to be filled. In time, my body will grow accustomed to this new architecture, but now I feel truly blue. It’s such a loss, and I think about how I’ll miss the joy of [our relationship]. I think about Willie and the show and how much we laughed. And I guess despite everything, that’s the headline: There’s so much good in the world, and we were all so lucky to be together doing something we loved."

One of the show’s staff writers, Samantha Irby, also gave some insight into the diverse cast of characters fans will see in the reboot.

She revealed, “I was a huge fan of ‘Sex and the City’ back in the day, but there were some moments where I was like, ‘If there had been a Black writer in the room, this would have probably played differently.’ Of course, things change in the span of 20 years. Approaching the Black and brown people on the show this time around, it was important to me to make them feel real and not just plopped in. That said, this isn’t meant to be preachy. I’d never want to write a scold-y show, where watching it is like taking your medicine.”

Actress Nicole Ari Parker added, “The writers are skillful about having the characters, whether they’re of color or not, acknowledge the newness they’re experiencing. But it all fits in with the same beloved tone of the show. The clothes alone are to die for. And let me tell you, there’s still a lot of sex in this version of ‘Sex and the City.’”