SERIELAND COULISSE - "Sex and the City", the cult series of the years 1990-2000, will return soon with a new season.

In the casting, we will find the eternal interpreter of Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker.

But did you know that the actress almost never played the famous columnist?

PODCAST

Thirty-somethings, love and sex stories and New York as a backdrop ... This week, in SERIELAND, Clémence Olivier takes you behind the scenes of the cult series "Sex and the City".

Sex and the City

,

the cult series from the late 1990s, which tells the daily life of four single friends in New York, is adapted from a book, or rather from the chronicles of a true journalist and author: Candace Bushnell.

In her columns, she recounted the sex and sentimental life of her alter ego "Carrie Bradshaw", a New York journalist played in the series by Sarah Jessica Parker.

After 6 seasons, almost 6 years of broadcasting, and two adaptations to the cinema, the actress and her character have, so to speak, "merged".

Impossible to evoke Carrie without automatically imagining the inimitable blue eyes and the blonde mane of "SJP".

But the heroine of

Sex and the City

almost got a whole different face.

The actress came close to giving up this golden role! 

The actress didn't know exactly what she was getting into

When Sarah Jessica Parker shoots the pilot of the

Sex and the City series,

she doesn't really know what she is getting into.

But in order for you to understand, I must first explain something to you.

Series pilots, they turn away a lot.

But few are those who transform the essay and become fictions broadcast on television or on platforms such as Netflix, Amazon etc. Some projects are launched but, failing to convince a distributor, they never see the light of day.

In short, when Sarah Jessica Parker accepts at the end of the 1990s to play in the first episode, she does not yet know whether the series will be made or not, and even less that it will become the cult saga that we know. 

The months go by.

She has other plans.

And she almost forgets this New York journalist to whom she lent her features.

Except that in the meantime a man struggled to find a distributor for the series.

It is its creator, Darren Star, a screenwriter famous in the field for having worked in particular on

Beverly Hills

and

Melrose Place

.

HBO, a paid and relatively confidential channel at the time, told him it wanted to work with him.

She's okay with streaming

Sex and the Cit

y and letting the creator talk about women and their desires, however he sees fit.

Sarah Jessica Parker worries about locking herself in a role

So far so good.

But seeing that the project comes true, Sarah Jessica Parker panics.

At the time, she was 33 years old, she had just played in

Tim Burton's

Mars Attacks

, an action movie with Bruce Willis and she had quite a few other proposals, including a film and a play.

Be careful, she liked the script of

Sex and the City

, but she is afraid to embark on a role that could monopolize her for several years.

And then, we must remember that we are at the end of the 1990s, playing in a series is much less prestigious than today.

In the community, many people consider television as sub-cinema.

In short, the actress is afraid to commit.

Darren Star feels that his actress is in danger of snapping between his fingers.

So he takes the lead and casts another actress for the role of Carrie Bradshaw.

It's Lisa Edelstein.

The general public would later know her for her portrayal of Dr. Cuddy in the

Dr. House

series

.

 He has his back, but deep down, he hopes that Sarah Jessica Parker will end up signing with him.

HBO reassures her

But what convinces her, it's not Darren Star, it's HBO.

The channel immediately put her at ease.

She explained to him that she shouldn't feel like she had to stay.

And that the engagement did not run over several seasons.

Zero pressure, SJP will do well as it wants. 

The actress is reassured.

And after setting foot on the set for the first season, she won't once regret slipping into Carrie Bradshaw's Jimmy Choo pumps.

We understand it.

Because even if it took a little time for the series to find its audience, it has become a real social phenomenon.

Up to 10 million people have followed the adventures of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte.

Above all, it will remain the first series to have dared to talk about women and their sexuality in a completely uninhibited way.  

Sex and the City

6 seasons, 94 episodes of 25min

available on OSC go