When the first season of “And Just Like That” debuted, the series was met with mixed reactions. While longtime fans were delighted to see Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw), Kristin Davis (Charlotte York Goldenblatt) and Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes) slipped back into their beloved characters seamlessly, many criticised the storylines for being messy.
Now that we’re more than half way through the second season of “And Just Like That”, it looks like the show has redeemed itself. The plotlines are dramatic, comical and timely without going over the top. In this interview, Kristin Davis discuss how Charlotte York Goldenblatt’s idea on life has shifted and also what do viewers tell her when they meet her in person. All these and more in the conversation below.
Q. As this season kicks off, where do we find Charlotte?
Kristin: Pretty much where you left her. She is still trying to be the best mother to the kids, and the best wife to Harry. There’s some challenges with the kids in terms of what they want to do, and Charlotte struggles with her urge to control. That’s her ongoing struggle. And then as the season progresses, we see some of that coming to a head in terms of whether Charlotte is doing the right thing for the kids, and also doing the right thing for herself. She has to reexamine that, and think about what that means, which is great. It’s fun, and I can relate to it. Charlotte is in the middle of the road, but also she gets thrown a lot, which is a nice challenge as an actor.
Q. How do you feel she’s changed or grown as a character?
Kristin: Well, I do feel like she’s definitely much more open to the world. She started off so, so focused on her goals of getting married and having everything be perfect. Her idea of perfect was pretty limited, I would say, back in the beginning. Through that life experience with the divorce and then having trouble having children in the way that she expected, she really had to go deeper, in terms of what was important. And that’s a great lesson to learn. In some ways, what she’s still struggling with is her ideas versus the reality.
That’s true for a lot of us, of course. It’s hard to reconcile your own picture of what life should be with what life really is sometimes. So she has everything that she wants in so many ways, but then she still has to examine herself in terms of: who am I? Am I fulfilled? Am I happy enough? Am I somehow living my life for everyone else, not for myself? And I do think in a weird way in the beginning, that’s what she was doing. She was living her life for her ideals, not necessarily for another person, but for her picture in her mind. Then she had to come back down to earth and be like, oh, this is the person that I love and he doesn’t look like how I expected, but that doesn’t matter. She’s had to learn to let things go.
Q. I imagine lots of viewers can relate. Perhaps they were more idealistic when they started watching the show, and maybe found that their own lives have panned out in a different way.
Kristin: We have our core group of people who were our same age, right? But then we also have the younger people and the older people. And I think that everyone can relate. And now we have new people discovering the original show, which is so fun and interesting. And then also coming to “And Just Like That”. It is a really interesting thing to hear people talk to you about how they feel, or what they relate to, and how that’s shifted and changed over the years. I do feel like we’ve all gone through it together.
Q. When people approach you in the street, what do you hear most often from them?
Kristin: Often it’s “I’m a Charlotte!”. And sometimes they say, ‘I just watched the first season again!’ It’s usually just so supportive. Over the years, I’ve had different things. Like, when Charlotte was converting to Judaism, I had a lot of people come and up to me and say, ‘I converted to this or that religion for my husband.’ And when Charlotte was struggling with getting pregnant, so many women came and talked to me about that, because of course that is a very prevalent issue. It’s so sweet when people talk to you about their own experience.
Q. I guess, when you watch somebody on TV in your home, especially over such a long period, you feel like you know them. Do people act like they know you?
Kristin: Yes, but there is this weird thing too, where they feel like they know you but also they are surprised to see you in the flesh. We are talking about things that we share, right? Because we share the show. But then there’s also a weird element of them being shocked. And I’m like, “Yes, I’m here. I’m alive. I’m real.” Also, I really don’t dress like Charlotte in real life. So maybe they’re just shocked that this super casually dressed person can actually be Charlotte. I don’t know, but they always seem shocked.
Q. Do you have any favourite Charlotte moments?
Kristin: Oh gosh, so many. That scene, way back, when Charlotte says: ‘I’ve been dating since I was 15. I’m exhausted. Where is he?’ That was a great moment that seems to live on in people’s minds, which is interesting. My other favourite moments were the weddings. I also think about our filming experience. Charlotte’s first wedding to Trey took so long to film that all of the girls fell asleep on the church pews, and I have pictures of them. I have memories like those, scattered along with all my favourite moments that aired. And I have so many great memories of Morocco.
Q. What was your favourite thing about Morocco?
Kristin: Where to begin!? First of all, just to be there filming was so magical and amazing, just to be there together. It’s such a beautiful country, and they were so kind to us. Sarah and I went rug shopping and we still have these rugs. She’s repurposed hers into this very cool Ottoman table, like patchwork. She’s super creative. I’ve had mine all in different places in my house. There was something very surreal about that – to be in a very, very different country, with our same characters, with our crew. In the Sahara desert on camels! It was insane. I’m a traveller, so I really, really loved it.
Q. Is there a sense of occasion when you reunite each time for filming?
Kristin: It is exciting for sure. I mean, we’re working, so we’re also very invested in the details. The care that is taken with every single thing, every detail. Like everything in Charlotte’s kitchen is debated: should this be over here or over there? Maybe this shouldn’t be here at all? Maybe this isn’t the right brand? All of the people who work on the show are so invested and that’s so wonderful, and part of what makes it a success. So, when we go back to work, yes, we have a sense of occasion. I remember filming the opening scene of the whole show, with Sarah and Cynthia, when we finally got together at the Whitney. It opens the show. So that was like a party! We’re working but also we get to spend 18 hours together, where we try to catch up on everything: the kids, what’s in the news, we cover it all.
Q. What do you think it is about this show that means there’s nothing like it in terms of cultural significance?
Kristin: It’s the writing. It’s also some, like, magic. What I’m saying is that things came together at the right time, in the right way, and then we’ve been able to keep that going. I give a lot of credit to Michael Patrick for that. He’s the one that always has to go and pitch for a new show or a new movie. It’s never just handed to us. We always have to go and pitch it just like anybody else. We have to prove ourselves, again and again. And that is partly because we’re a pretty big production, and it’s also partly because we are different. A show about a bunch of women over 40 just never used to happen. We have seven lead characters. We are unusual in so many ways. We deal with cultural hot-button topics. So we do have to continue to prove ourselves, and we’re just happy to have support and be able to keep doing it.
Catch “And Just Like That” season 2 every Thursday on HBO GO.
