by Nathaniel R
Just when you think the world can't get any more sexist, there's always a reminder that it can. One such reminder is the famed existence of Sex and the City, a target in perpetuity. It often brings out the very worst in journalists, critics, famous people, and the public alike (both male and female in all four cases) as people fall over themselves with new ways to hate on, be offended by, or attempt to take down that particularly glitzy femme pleasure.
The brand has beenquiet for some time now until the Daily Mail posted a gross story about Kim Cattrall supposedly stopping production of Sex and the City 3 in its tracks with "outrageous demands". I didn't personally believe this was true, even before the stars started giving quote about it. The more quotes there are the more it's clear that everyone will have a different perception of what happened and that's fine. What was shocking was not the misleading story (my best guess is that the truth is somewhere inbetween all the quotes from the cast and executives because many many people with big egos and lots of millions are involved) but how unbelievably petty and sexist the "sources" were in their quotes about Cattrall...
Woke 2 a @MailOnline 💩storm! The only 'DEMAND' I ever made was that I didn't want to do a 3rd film....& that was back in 2016
— Kim Cattrall (@KimCattrall) September 29, 2017
I'm not going to share those anonymous source quotes (I already showered once today) but actors are not slaves and do not owe anybody anything once they've completed their contracts. While it's natural for fans to sometimes judge actors who won't do a sequel to some beloved thing that earned them their spot in pop culture (Julia Roberts used to get hit with that about her refusal to consider a Mystic Pizza sequel), they're people, too. They have their reasons. Imagine if you finished or quit a job and someone demanded that you return to it despite knowing full well that you didn't want to? Gross! The presumptuous entitlement of it.
For the record because people at large (who react to or comment on these stories and especially those who are actually 'sourced' for them) are very ignorant about history and come with agendas, Cattrall tends to get painted as a nobody ingrate because of her decision. But because yours truly increasingly feels as old as Methusaleh given the teensy tiny selective and sexist memories of pop culture, it's worth reiterating that Kim Cattrall was hardly a nobody before the show. It did not "make" her.
Cattrall from top left in: SCRUPLES, PORKY'S, POLICE ACADEMY, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, MANNEQUIN, STAR TREK: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
Kim Cattrall's screen career began in 1975 way down the call sheet of both movies and TV shows (as 99% of acting careers do). By the late 70s she was getting bigger roles and higher profile projects like the hit miniseries Scruples (starring Lindsay Wagner) and in the 1980s her career took off. In 1981 she had her breakout role in the shockingly successful teen sex comedy Porky's (which received two sequels though she didn't return) and she followed that up with the big female role in another shockingly successful comedy Police Academy (which received multiple sequels though she didn't return -- see a pattern? Maybe don't expect her to do endless sequels unless you lock her in early for them!).
After that came leading roles in other hits (Big Trouble in Little China with Kurt Russell and Mannequin with Andrew McCarthy are the best remembered) and a slew of other projects which aren't well remembered (give or take a Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country). Things slowed down in the 1990s in terms of her stardom, if not her workload, until she landed the biggest part of her career.
In 1998 she teamed up with the still rising Sarah Jessica Parker. SJP had come to fame exactly one year after Cattrall on TV's Square Pegs but she hadn't been as successful as Cattrall until the 1990s when her star really started to skyrocket as Cattrall's waned. They'd be joined by two then lesser-known actresses (Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis) and television history was made with HBO's behemoth hit sitcom Sex and the City. It will forever be the defining roles for that quartet of actresses but that doesn't mean they didn't exist before it or haven't been impressive outside of it.
The point is this: Cattrall was not some nobody who lucked out and literally owes the franchise her entire career (like, say, the Harry Potter kids). She was already a star before the series and continued to work after it on screen and stage (to fine reviews with the latter). She gave Sex and the City several years of her life and then signed on (by all accounts reluctantly) to two movies, the last of which was much reviled because it was not so good, culturally kind of tone-deaf, and because our world is so freaking sexist (unfortunately even many women have often had their knives out as viciously as men when it came to the Sex stars). Cattrall gave the property a dozen years of her life, gave fans one of showbiz's very funniest ethical sluts, and if she doesn't want to do it anymore, so be it! It's not like she bailed during her contract and prevented a massive cultural moment from running its course.
I'll admit that I was a smidge disappointed that there wouldn't be a third movie myself (as a huge fan of the series) but there was no guarantee it wasn't going to further tarnish happy memories and 12 successful years is a pretty great run for any showbiz brand. Wouldn't our movie and TV culture be a better (and more original) place if all franchises wrapped up after 12 years and didn't outstay their welcomes?