Let Sarah Jessica Parker and the rest of the “Sex and the City” cast age, get laid and purchase wildly unrealistic pieces of Manhattan real estate in peace, OK?
Apparently when the 10-episode revival of the beloved HBO series titled “And Just Like That...” was first announced, some fans couldn’t help but wonder why the show was returning all these years later. Because, yes, in that intervening two decades since the pilot first aired, Parker and the rest of the “Sex and the City” ladies have gotten older.
“There’s so much misogynist chatter in response to us that would never. Happen. About. A. Man,” she told Vogue for the magazine’s December cover story published on Sunday.
“There were a lot of positive reactions, but one bitchy response online was people sharing pictures of the Golden Girls,” creator Michael Patrick King added. “And I was like, ‘Wow, so it’s either you’re 35, or you’re retired and living in Florida. There’s a missing chapter here.’”
Parker addressed the online conversation about photos that surfaced earlier this year of herself rocking gray hair and a bare face, while out to brunch with the far-more-salt-than-peppery Bravo host Andy Cohen.
“I’m sitting with Andy Cohen and he has a full head of gray hair, and he’s exquisite,” she said. “Why is it okay for him? I don’t know what to tell you people! Especially on social media. Everyone has something to say. ‘She has too many wrinkles, she doesn’t have enough wrinkles.’”
“It almost feels as if people don’t want us to be perfectly okay with where we are, as if they almost enjoy us being pained by who we are today, whether we choose to age naturally and not look perfect, or whether you do something if that makes you feel better,” she continued.
“I know what I look like. I have no choice,” she added. “What am I going to do about it? Stop aging? Disappear?”
The revival series, which is set to premiere on HBO Max next month, will follow Carrie (Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) “as they navigate the journey from the complicated reality of life and friendship in their 30s to the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s,” according to a press release.
The remaining members of the original quartet ― Kim Cattrall is not involved with the series after clashing with Parker in recent years ― also expressed some frustration over the ageist early responses.
“People are like, ‘Why should they come back?’ and it really bugs me,” Davis told Vogue. “Are women’s lives not interesting now? Nobody ever asks, ‘Why would you do this violent remake over and over again?’ For me that is so indicative of our reluctance to sit and watch women’s lives develop over time.”
Nixon, meanwhile, praised the new iteration for staying true to its characters, adding, “I like that we’re not trying to youthify the show. We’re not including, like, a 21-year-old niece.”
The follow-up series will, however, course-correct for some of the original show’s missteps by adding a handful of new cast members, including Sara Ramirez, Karen Pittman and Nicole Ari Parker, to better reflect the city’s real-life diversity.
“Sex and the City” veterans Chris Noth, Mario Cantone, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler and Willie Garson, who died from pancreatic cancer in September, will also appear.
Watch the first look at “And Just Like That...” below.