And Just Like That: Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon fire back at critics of SATC reboot

Kristin Davis is gobsmacked. The Sex and the City star is stunned by suggestions she and her famous cohorts Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon should have packed the Manolos away due to “a few more wrinkles and grey hairs”.

“I don’t know why women who are over 50 should be made to feel in any way like we’re not interesting or valid or relevant,” Davis says during an interview in New York.

“The world would fall apart if women over 50 just put a bag on their head and stayed at home, which seems to be what people are implying we should do, which of course is insane. Cynthia is 55 and Sarah Jessica and I are 56 and we’re proud of it so people can do with that what they will, right?”

Nixon says when the cast was shooting the original series “we were all in our 30s and not considered spring chickens then either”.

“The one show for older women was the Golden Girls – God bless them – but our show is not that!” laughs Nixon.

Sex and the City, which ran from 1998 to 2004, was revolutionary, spurring an entire generation’s obsession with Cosmopolitans, designer shoes and Manhattan brunches. (The two movies are not considered part of the true SATC oeuvre by fans.)

Now they’ve returned in a 10-episode “new chapter” And Just Like That …

Parker, Nixon and Davis wanted to explore what happens to women when kids are grown, careers are stagnating and marriages might not be that happy ever after.

“People think once you get married and have children, life is done, but it’s really never done,” says Davis.

“So many things happen that we don’t plan and I think that’s our point of this series. You thought you knew how these characters ended up but they’re still alive and they’re still going through stuff and we’re going to show you it.”

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The iconic foursome is now a threesome, of course, thanks to Kim Cattrall’s (Samantha) acrimonious departure from the cast amid rumours of tension with Parker.

Nixon is diplomatic.

“Yes, we used to be four and there are only three of the original four left,” she says. “But also I don’t think of us as a trio, I think of us as a septet because there are actually seven of us now. Sometimes you lose touch with people and new people come in and they bring friends and family and your world expands, which is what is much is happening on our show right now.”

Much of the criticism levelled at the original Sex and the City series centred around the fact that the cast was not diverse and did not represent a true portrait of New York life. As such, the show has sought to address this with the additions of cast members Nicole Ari Parker, Karen Pittman and Sara Ramirez.

“I’ve always been very proud of our show but I always thought it had two major failings: one was the incredible lack of diversity and the other was viewing New York and people who live in New York as if there are only wealthy people living here,” says lifelong New Yorker, Nixon.

“It’s one of the reasons the three of us signed on, we wanted a chance to go back and actually change this enormous problem with the original show and it was really important to us and we spent a lot of time even before we signed on talking to [creator] Michael Patrick [King] about the ideas he had and how could we do it.”

There are also major life upheavals for our beloved New Yorkers.

“You’re going along in life and something happens and you’re entire life is flipped on its head. That will happen to all of us,” says Nixon.

“But again, this show is not just for women our age – it’s a show that again and again has found an audience from teens and tweens up until the sky’s the limit,” she adds.

“I think it’s an overdue show and I think it’s exciting that the Sex and the City characters are the people marching onto this somewhat uncharted terrain.”

Originally published as And Just Like That stars fire back at critics of their age in Sex and the City reboot