Sarah Jessica Parker Breaks Down Her Most Iconic Characters

I'm very surprised that I've had these experiences

in certain movies that have really been impactful

in some way, often surprising.

You know, even Hocus Pocus and LA Story or Ed Wood,

Mars Attacks, Sex and the City, these are all things

that they've been resonant with people for many years.

I feel that's an unusual experience to have

more than one of those and I feel lucky.

[upbeat music]

Hocus Pocus.

I've only seen it once. [laughing]

I saw the premier the week before it opened, I guess.

There was a premier in Los Angeles

and that's the only time I've seen it.

So, I'm often not able to answer a lot of questions.

I mean, I just, obviously we just...

There's a big anniversary right now,

so I did an interview and I've been reminded of some stuff,

but most mostly, I only see something one time.

It's preferable for me.

It's not pleasant for me to watch myself.

When you're watching, at least I find, myself in a movie,

I feel like I'm paying attention to thing that I think

are less important than the story that it's telling.

Sometimes you're experiencing the day

that you were shooting,

but I really do think audiences remember

much more about it than I do.

I remember more the experience of shooting it

than I do the story.

I'm not entirely sure I could tell you

the main character's names,

the children's character's names,

but the process of shooting was very long.

It was an unusually long shooting schedule

because I think of the special effects.

And actually, a bunch of people got sick

so we shut down for a while.

Somebody said to me, well,

were you surprised it wasn't a bigger hit?

And I was like, I had no idea.

I thought it was.

And I remember specifically the weekend that it opened

I was in Los Angeles still

I guess because I was out there doing press

and the phone rang very early on a Saturday morning I think

and it was Jeffrey Katzenberg

screaming we made nine million...

So, my experience was that it was a great success.

Well, it certainly made its money back.

LA Story.

I got a call from my agent

and there was a casting director in Los Angeles.

I think her name was Mindy Maren,

and she was casting this new Steve Martin movie

that he'd written,

and I loved Steve Martin and knew a huge amount

about his work and very particular things

about the way he worked.

And so I loved him and I very much wanted the part,

but it seemed like a real long shot to me.

And for some reason, I understood her.

I understood, or I thought I understood,

what I sort of assumed Steve Martin imagined

as he wrote this part.

And I enjoyed myself.

It wasn't an audition where I was really nervous,

which one can be.

And then I just kept getting called back

and I did a screen test with Steve Martin,

which was really fun and terrifying also.

But yeah, then I got the part and got to play it.

Sandy in LA Story is, she has no definition, really.

She's sort of this floating, ever-changing,

this person who's soaking up other ideas

of a definition or an identity,

and she's foolish and silly

and doesn't seem terribly bright.

I mean, she's probably brighter than she lets on,

but for some reason I think she has to...

Maybe she's more attractive if she's not smart.

Some memories on movies become sort of mushy.

You remember an experience rather than specificity,

but I yeah, I remember vividly many scenes.

In particular, I think from the beginning I had this idea

that she would be moving all the time.

That wasn't really written so much in the script,

the bouncing.

There was a specific movement

that was almost written as stage direction

and almost like choreography,

but there was others that I just started doing.

And eventually, the director, Mick Jackson,

who I loved and I had, he done all these,

he had done great films in the UK and in London,

he would eventually just get to the point

where he just had a megaphone.

He'd say and bounce and action,

like he would just tell me to bounce around.

But yeah, I sort of remember all the scenes

and time off camera as well.

Sitting, waiting, kind of staring at Steve.

I guess for some people it feels a little bit

like it's a little bit an amber.

It was a very specific time and a way of observing

the larger sort of ideas about Los Angeles.

I'll have a decaf coffee.

I'll have a decaf espresso.

I I'll have a double decaf cappuccino.

Do you have any decaffeinated coffee ice cream?

I'll have a half double decaffeinated half-caf

with a twist of lemon.

I'll have a twist of lemon.

My guess is that they'd be still really accurate.

Honeymoon in Vegas.

I think I got the part in Honeymoon in Vegas

because of LA Story.

That's what Andy Bergman told me when I met him.

I didn't even audition for Honeymoon in Vegas,

they just offered me the part,

which I really couldn't believe.

I couldn't believe.

I'd never been offered a part, especially a lead in a movie,

and a real major motion picture.

And she wasn't similar at all to Sandy,

which is what surprised me

about being cast based on LA Story.

But Betsy in Honeymoon in Vegas is really bright.

She's a schoolteacher,

she's a professional person and shows up every day

and is, in fact, very conventional,

which is the opposite of Sandy who defies all convention

and doesn't believe in any conventions period.

Betsy is a teacher who believes in kind of rules

and a model for living,

but funny because she's written by Andy Bergman

who's one of the great comedy screenwriters.

You brought me to Las Vegas

and you turned me into a hooker, Jack!

I read with all the men.

There were many many auditions and screen tests,

and it was very apparent to everybody

the minute that Nick came in.

I mean, there was just nothing more to be said

and nobody else to meet.

Working with him was fantastic.

I mean, it was truly great and inspired

and fun and surprising, very very surprising,

and it just made my job easy in a way.

I mean, it's not easy,

but there was really the most perfect example

of listening responding because he's so compelling opposite.

And yeah, I mean, I loved him.

Working with James Caan was incredible.

He has this very kind of amazing thing

that I've never seen in another actor's eyes

in my entire life,

and I've stared across and looked in the eyes

of a lot of actors, and especially male actors.

His eyes actually flicker.

It's a very...

I've not seen anybody else's eyes actually spark.

They sort of have flashes in them.

That is, it's really something,

and it can be both terrifying and seductive,

but when it's terrifying, it's really quite something.

Ed Wood.

Tim just had been pondering this, making this,

telling this story for a very long time,

and he just had a wealth of stuff

for me to read and look at, and that was really important.

But then there comes a point

where you're just trying to be real

given your script and the scenes that I had to play.

I think the harder part is just

I really wanted to mimic those scenes

that we were recreating, which was an amazing experience.

We were really within the scale everything, and to me,

that was the most...

That's the thing I wanted to be most authentic about.

The rest of it you can't quite do

when you're playing somebody real.

You don't wanna...

Then you get too caught up in things

that you have no control over.

But the recreation of those scenes was hugely exciting

and fun to sort out and get right,

and I listened over and over again

and watched those clips over and over again.

I think they're pretty close.

Working for Tim Burton, and that was the first time,

I did another movie with him shortly after that,

and he's just absolutely fantastic to work for

because he's so clear and so specific.

Every frame is...

You understand so well what he wants.

I think his specificity is enormously helpful.

You're really fitting into a painting

that he's kind of already created, and I like that.

I love working with Johnny Depp.

I thought he was really sweet and great to work with,

great on the set to everybody, human, deeply human,

and just loved his work.

He loved his work.

He loved being an actor.

And Martin Landau played Lugosi, and he won an Oscar.

It was thrilling and so deserved.

I mean, he'd been around for so long

and had been doing great work for a really long time

and he was such a good, kind man.

So humble, you know, he was journeyman.

He was just working all the time

and so happy to be working when he was,

and he was a great, lovely person.

Mars Attacks!

Tim Burton just asked if I would do Mars Attacks!

and I said yes.

I mean, anybody would've.

I mean, when I read the script I was like really?

Alright, you know, sure.

I mean, I just think anybody would want

to work with Tim Burton and would wanna do,

no matter how strange, kinda help him fulfill his vision.

I wasn't at all familiar with those kids of movies.

I mean, with the exception of familiarizing myself

with Ed Wood genre and those movies,

I didn't really know as much the movies

that he was sort of kind of recreating in a way.

You kinda do what you're told in a way that I really like.

There's always a really strong costume designer

whose point of view is playing a really pivotal part

in what an audience is experiencing,

and the hair and makeup department's always really strong.

I mean, there's all these other creative influences

that are helping you so much.

Yeah, I turned into, was it her dog?

I think it was her dog.

[Man] Natalie, is that you?

Yes.

How are you feeling?

Pierce Brosnan was involved in that.

Was he a wild, like a crazy scientist, like a mad scientist?

Something like that. Yeah, something like that.

The Family Stone.

I loved that part, and once again,

that was the kind of part I've never played before

and I really, I really liked it.

I mean, I was very nervous in a way making that movie.

Not daily on the set, but trying to figure it out.

Tom Bazucha who wrote and directed it,

Tom was really helpful.

Tom was really, he was strict with me in an interesting way.

He wanted me to play this part,

but he also wanted pieces of me gone.

So, it was interesting and I was very happy to...

I didn't feel that he was not appreciative

of what I have to bring or my own skills,

but he wanted something else for me.

And part of that was really scary

because it was being watched in a way, I felt.

And I was intimidated by Diane Keaton

even though I had known her.

We did First Wives Club years before,

but this was so intimately...

We were in each other's faces so much,

and I wanted her to like me, but I loved that movie.

I was really proud of it.

I was proud of everybody's work, I was proud of my work,

and when I saw it, I loved it.

I mean, I really loved it.

I love Craig T. Nelson.

I mean, the whole cast is many people have gone on.

There were some folks in that movie

who were relatively unknown at the time.

Not unknown, but you know,

Rachel McAdams and Elizabeth Reaser.

These were actresses that were just starting to emerge,

and I thought Luke Wilson was so great in it and Dermott.

I thought they were such great performances.

Sex and the City.

That part and that story and that...

I think they are so daily in my life

in ways that are probably very obvious

and then ways that aren't,

whether it's people on Instagram

or walking down the street of New York

or people seeing me or me having a memory of a cross street

where I shot two dozen or more scenes.

So, I feel like it's not far away,

but the experience is in many ways, and I feel,

for the most part I feel fine about it.

I mean, I had hopes that we would get to make another movie,

and I as excited I think

because it finally felt right in the story.

So, I mostly feel great,

like I love where we got to leave all of them.

I think they're all probably doing really well

and still enjoying that friendship and their city

or maybe some hame left.

Charlotte might have finally moved to the suburbs,

my guess is.

But it's a real privilege to have that.

Not just the memory of the experience,

but have the connection with the audience

that was initially along with us and discovering us,

but today, a whole new generation of young women

stop me literally every single day of my life

to share their feelings and thoughts and affection

for this show and the movie,

and that's a privilege and it's a professional blessing,

no doubt.

[upbeat music]

It's not so much that I feel Carrie within me.

I mean, we would have stretches of time

and then we'd come back to work

and you would sort it out pretty quickly.

You'd rediscover like it's a muscle or something

that is slightly atrophied on a hiatus.

So, you'd find that stuff very quickly,

but it's part of you in ways that you can't...

IT's hard to articulate the ways in which it sort of,

it's in you.

It's part of your memories,

it's part of your most important professional moments

and years and time spent,

it's incredibly sentimental and nostalgic.

But the character isn't in me because I...

She's somebody else's creation, really,

and I long to play other people and other parts.

But if asked to find her again, I could manage.

Here and Now.

Well, the character in Here and Now,

her name is Vivian and she is a singer

with relative success in New York.

She's had a career that she's both,

that is both a source of pride and frustration.

The movie really is a story

about a woman who gets a diagnosis,

and it's a portrait of this next 24 hours in her life

as she absorbs this information.

And it's about love and loss and I think coming to terms

with the role you've played in your own life

and the relationships you have with those around you

and with the city that both loves and betrays you.