‘Sex and the City’ Stars Explain How Kim Cattrall’s Years-Long Resentment Caused the Third Movie to Fail

Sex and the City 3 may not be happening, but that’s not stopping the cast and crew from spilling a little tea about the ongoing feud between Kim Cattrall and her co-stars. In a new episode of James Andrew Millers’ Origins podcast, Sex and the City stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis dished on the beloved series (and less-beloved films), and they wasted no time before opening up about Cattrall’s animosity. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s breakdown of the episode, Cattrall’s resentment started early on in the series and isolated her from the show’s “family.” 20 years later, the stars said, that same resentment stalled discussions about the third Sex and the City film, and ultimately, the studio was left with no choice but to scrap the project.

While Cattrall didn’t participate in the podcast — her representative told Miller that “she’s already said everything she wants to say about Sex and the City” — her presence loomed large over the episode. Writer, director, and executive producer Michael Patrick King said that Cattrall didn’t get along with her co-stars from the get-go, and they quickly began feuding over money and attention. Parker, already an established movie star, was paid the most, and Cattrall took issue with this. “The show doesn’t exist if Sarah Jessica wasn’t the blonde star of the show, that’s No. 1,” said King. “Kim was not at the height of her career, Kristin was under her in terms of notability, Cynthia was a theater actress — and their contracts reflected that stratus.” As the show became more popular, “Kim fought and said, ‘I’m everyone’s favorite,'” but her efforts were in vain. “The stratus was set. No one was going to touch that,” said King.

Cattrall’s focus on money drove her on-screen best friends away. “As the show progressed, the characters, everybody grew, it became a family,” said King. “Kristin, Cynthia, and Sarah Jessica became one group, and Kim never joined that triumvirate mentally.” Later on, the Sex and the City movies scored the women huge paydays, but Cattrall resented that she still wasn’t payed as much as Parker. “I guess for Kim it didn’t matter how much the raise became if there was never parity, but there was never going to be parity,” explained King.

By 2016, when the third Sex and the City movie was being discussed in earnest, Cattrall’s simmering anger came to a head. Parker recalled that she tried to convince Cattrall (and Cattrall’s manager) to get on board multiple times, but her efforts were in vain. “The studio said, ‘We can’t meet those asks of hers. We’re not able to do it; the economics don’t make sense for us,'” said Parker. “So then it’s over. But that’s not a character assassination, that’s just the way business works.”

But despite all the feuding over money and fame, Parker insists that there’s no bad blood between she and Cattrall. “I’m not in a catfight with anybody. I’ve never publicly — ever — said anything unfriendly, unappreciative about Kim because that’s not how I feel about her,” said Parker.

Listen to Origins‘ Sex and the City episode here.

Where to stream Sex and the City