“Sex and the City” premiered on HBO in 1998, redefining TV’s approach to women’s stories and cementing Sarah Jessica Parker, aka Carrie Bradshaw, as a household name.
Twenty years later, Parker is back on HBO, in the midst of the second season of the dramedy “Divorce” — and is also reunited with “Sex and the City” writer Jenny Bicks.
“Because [‘Sex and the City’] remains so much a part of all our lives, I don’t even know what 20 years feels like,” says Parker, 52. “It’s hard to believe.”
Surprisingly, though Parker is an executive producer on “Divorce,” as well as its star, she wasn’t responsible for tapping Bicks as the show’s new Season 2 showrunner. “I cannot claim credit,” she says. Following Season 1, “Divorce” showrunner Paul Simms exited, and HBO programming chief Casey Bloys and programming exec Amy Gravitt suggested Bicks take over.
“I frankly thought she would be obligated elsewhere and would not be available,” says Parker. “So I was delighted when she said yes. She’s nimble and bright and funny.”
Season 1 followed married couple Frances (Parker) and Robert (Thomas Haden Church) through a messy separation. In Season 2, which premiered last month, the pair are officially divorced and trying to (civilly) co-parent their two teen children. Bicks has given Season 2 a lighter tone, but Parker doesn’t consider it a revamp for the show.
“We had a writing staff change, which always brings in a perspective that’s different, because they’re human beings looking at stories differently,” she says. “But we always intended for the second season to be what we call ‘The season of hope.’ After a season spent in battle, we were excited about looking at liberation and what that means for Frances and Robert.”
Parker says it was a deliberate decision to make Frances, and “Divorce,” her re-entry into series television following the 2004 finale of “Sex and the City.”
“I hadn’t found anything up to that point in television that allowed that same kind of opportunity — somebody as complicated, as interesting to me personally, in an environment I hadn’t yet seen portrayed or depicted or illustrated,” she says.
“I was just very interested in exploring an American marriage in trouble. We could look at the mundane and the disappointing and the brutal honesty of a divorce, especially when people aren’t good at it. Most people aren’t. Most people don’t do it a lot.”
Parker herself isn’t experienced in divorce — she’s been married to Matthew Broderick for 21 years. The secret?
“We just don’t talk [publicly] about our marriage,” says Parker. “It sounds cagey and oblique, but it’s a wonderfully private part of our lives that we really try to maintain.”
Aside from “Divorce,” Parker also made headlines after her former “Sex and the City” co-star Kim Cattrall took to Instagram to call Parker a “hypocrite” and “not my friend” after Parker posted a condolence message on Cattrall’s Instagram page following the death of Cattrall’s brother.
“I don’t have a disagreement with Kim [Cattrall], there’s no catfight,” says Parker. “I’ve never said anything publicly, nor would I. I’ve only ever expressed admiration and gratitude for everything she contributed — and I still feel that way.”
“Divorce” 10 p.m. Sunday on HBO