"It was romantic, and it was a disaster" - Sarah Jessica Parker talks about her 'professionally and personally' difficult on-screen relationship

Sarah Jessica Parker has recently talked about her most famous on-screen relationship. The actress, who played Carrie Bradshaw in S*x and The City and reprised her role in its revival, And Just Like That…, reminisced about her character’s relationship with Mr. Big, which was also one of the primary plots of the original series.

Parker, in a recent interview with E! News, recalled the paradoxical nature of Carrie’s relationship with Big, who was played by Chris Noth in the original series as well as the first season of And Just Like That…. Speaking about the iconic nature of the romance between Carrie and Big, Parker said,

“That was a hugely wonderful story to tell for a lot of years…All of it was a mess, and all of it was wonderful. It was romantic, and it was a disaster. It was destructive, and it was healthy.”

Carrie and Big were in a tumultuous on-and-off relationship during the original HBO series’ six season-long run from 1998 to 2004. Over the storylines of two films, S*x and the City: The Movie and S*x and the City 2, which were released after the series ended, the fictional couple gets married but faces problems in their marriage.

Sarah Jessica Parker acknowledges the impact of Big’s death

Although Chris Noth appeared as Big in And Just Like That…, his character was killed off in the first season. During the premiere of the series on December 9, 2021, US Weekly noted that Big had a heart attack and passed away.

Sarah Jessica Parker, while speaking to E! News, addressed the emotional toll of filming Big’s death and said,

“Big dying was really, really hard to do both professionally and personally. That’s not just a thread. It's one of the main arteries that you would struggle to do without.”

Continuing, Parker added,

“It just felt really untethered. It was really sad to say goodbye to that”

In the storyline that followed, audiences watched Carrie grapple with the grief of losing her husband. As per Cosmopolitan, the way the show handled the process of mourning a loved one’s death was commendable, touching and realistic.

Sarah Jessica Parker on the audience reaction to Big's death

When the first episode of And Just Like That… premiered in 2021, the scene portraying Big’s death was met with intense criticism. According to The Independent, the criticism was related to the fact that when Carrie arrives home to find her husband collapsed but conscious, she holds him instead of calling for help.

The Independent noted that fans took to social media to express their frustration with Parker’s character, and question why she didn’t call 911. This included several high profile celebrity fans such as Jonah Hill, who as per The Independent, wrote on an Instagram post,

“But why didn’t Carrie call 911 immediately?!”

When Sarah Jessica Parker made an appearance on the talk-show, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, she addressed fans' concerns, and while explaining the unfolding of the scene, said,

“It’s this moment where everything stops and then whatever collapsing of time that happens does not stop her from taking care of somebody in a fashion that you would want and expect from your partner or husband or wife.”

Continuing, Parker added that her character was knocked out of her sense upon finding that her husband had collapsed, and probably took around “two to three seconds” before calling for help.

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