When Sex and the City first premiered in1998, it focused on four single women who were best friends living in New York City. They were young, vivacious women who were navigating dating, their careers, and their friendships. After the show ended in 2004, the franchise went on to release two films, Sex and the City and Sex and the City 2, but now they have made their official return to television with a reboot titled And Just Like That.
The new HBO series premiered on December 9 with returning characters Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbs (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis).
Samantha Jones’ (Kim Cattrall) character doesn’t return and (spoiler alert) the show mentions that she has moved away to London. However, there is a new face, Lisa Todd Wexley aka LTW who is played by Nicole Ari Parker.
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When the first promos of And Just Like That hit the internet, many people criticized the cast’s looks as they are now older and more mature women.
However, according to the cast, that’s the whole point. During a recent appearance on Tamron Hall Show, Nicole, 51, defended the cast against ageism criticism.
“My first day was one of the famous lunch scenes and the three of them [Sarah, Cynthia, and Kristin] were so warm and so generous and so beautiful like straight-up gorgeous,” she said. “It shocked me that at that beginning part of the show coming back that everybody was talking about wrinkles and aging and all this stuff. I was thinking if you could even be lucky enough to spend five minutes with these three women in real time you would never say anything like that in your life.”
She continued, “They have built an empire, they have built something that had stood the test of time. I read a quote by Anna Magnani that said, 'Don’t erase my wrinkles. I worked too hard for them.'”
The Soul Food actress doubled down on her comments at a panel for the show at Ludlow House in Manhattan. This time, however, she shared how she feels sexier with age.
“For the first time in my life I feel so incredibly sexy, I feel so ready. I feel like I failed and resurrected myself so many times like you cannot throw me,” she said. “I’m so ready for life all of a sudden; I don’t have these weird insecurities of being 20 years old or 35, I feel so incredible.”
“I’m not really a conspiracy theorist, but I kind of feel like we’ve been given a little bit of an okey-doke,” she added. “Like if the big bad people in the industry or society or whatever can keep us focused on crow’s feet and muffin tops and boobs and stretch marks they’ll make sure we don’t own the building.”
As the saying goes, age ain’t nothing but a number.
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