Q: Either. But personally would be more fun!
SJP: Um, I tend not to ponder too much on what we may or may not have done, because I like hearing from other people what they think. But I will say that we’re in an era where culture seems to, where there’s this beacon that women seem to be moving toward. And where we’ve been unkind to one another, and calling each other horrible names. And there’s this vernacular that our ears have adapted to, which I find really objectionable. So I really, really love how these women love each other, and I love how decent and honorable they are toward one another.
I love how much they respect one another. And I love that they were never made to be friends. Their DNA is so radically different from one to the next, and they have found this incomparable friendship that is really, truly, inspiring to me, and it changes the way I think about my friendships, constantly. It changes the way I look at friendships; the way I respond to friends’ choices.
And that, in a large part, is in the writing. It’s not even a large part, it is the writing. But for me, when I look at a lot of what’s available on television and I see how women treat each other, this is stunning to me; it’s arresting. And I like that there is some place that we still like to illustrate, where women would much rather be allies than adversaries.
KD: I’m not quite sure how to answer this. I think the thing that I love the most is that we’ve gotten to be a part of this thing for all of this time, and that we are together in it. And it’s women who are different; we’re different in life, our characters are different, yet we’re very, very together.
But I love the fact that what we’ve created all together and what Michael [writer/director Michael Patrick King] has created in the writing for us are these really powerful women who can each be powerful in their own right, and still be together. And to me, that’s my favorite part of the whole experience—living through it together. And also what we present; I love that about us, and I think it’s almost the most powerful thing about the whole experience. And I also like to jump out of planes—that’s a personal thing!
KC: I think the most powerful thing for me, is that we have encouraged a lot of women to change the way they feel: about being single, about having [a] career, all the story lines about getting married and then being deserted, being alone, being lonely. I think we’ve addressed them and encouraged them to come together, and I think that’s a very powerful thing. In this era of post-feminism, I think that we’ve helped define what it is to be successful, smart, and also feminine.
Q: How was it shooting this movie in the Middle East?
SJP: Thank god it’s the extraordinary experience it was. It was laborious and Herculean. But it was one of the greatest experiences of my professional life, to live and work with this cast and crew every single day and to see the sun rise and set in our locations in the most far flung places. And to lie in a bed all day with these women, exhausted and laughing; to be on a camel with Kim Cattrall! But I am telling you, it was indescribably wonderful, to be so far away in such a wonderfully foreign place, and to have this incredibly cinematic experience. And then to be in the dunes of the Sahara for days and see things that we will never see again. To smell and to eat things—I mean yes, it was hard. But we could not have done it anywhere else this way.
