Sarah Jessica Parker got candid about her experience playing Carrie Bradshaw during a heartfelt appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Me Daddy podcast. In the hour-and-eleven-minute episode, the Sex and the City star opened up about the emotional toll of portraying one of TV’s most iconic characters and the harsh spotlight that came with it.
“Discussions of my physical person were the hardest,” said Parker, now 60. “Stuff that I couldn’t change and wouldn’t change… even still, no interest in changing it.” She described how deeply personal the criticism felt, adding, “I didn’t feel like it was actually a conversation. I didn’t feel like someone would say to me, ‘You’re really unattractive,’ and I could respond, ‘Why do you feel the need to say that?’”
She recalled a moment early in her career when a magazine published a cruel comment about her appearance. “It felt so purposeful,” she said. “Like a kick in the rubber parts. I was sobbing. I called two friends because I just couldn’t believe it… Why does this seem to make someone happy?”
Parker also admitted that watching herself on Sex and the City was uncomfortable for her. Rather than focusing on the performance, people seemed fixated on how she looked. “It made it hard to enjoy the work,” she shared. Still, she refused to let the criticism shape her identity.
Parker played Carrie from 1998 to 2004, reprised the role in two feature films, and returned in 2021 for the reboot And Just Like That… Despite the pressure, she remains proud of the character and the cultural conversations it continues to spark—especially now, on her own terms.
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