Sarah Jessica Parker Breaks Down Her Most Iconic Characters | GQ

I'm very surprised that I've had these experiences in certain movies that have really been impactful in some way often surprising you know even hocus-pocus and you know la story or Atwood Mars Attacks you know sex and City these are all things that they've been resonant with people for many years I feel that's an unusual experience to have more than one of those and and I feel lucky hocus-pocus I've only seen it once I saw the premiere when it the week before it opened I guess there was a premiere in Los Angeles and that's the only time I've seen it so I I'm often like not able to answer a lot of questions I mean I just obviously we just there's a big anniversary right now so so I did an interview and I've been reminded of some stuff but mostly I only see something one time it's preferable for me I it's not pleasant for me to watch myself when you're watching at least I find myself in a movie I feel like I'm paying attention to things that I think are less important than than the story that it's telling sometimes you're experiencing the day that you were shooting but I really do think audiences remember much more about it than I do I remember more the experience of shooting it than I do the story like I'm not entirely sure I could tell you the main character's names the children's characters names but the process of shooting was very long it was unusually long shooting schedule because I think of the special effects and actually a bunch of people got sick so we shut down for a while somebody said to me well were you surprised it wasn't a bigger hit and I was like I had no idea I thought it was and I remember specifically the weekend that it opened I was in Los Angeles still I guess because I was out there doing press and the phone rang very early on a Saturday morning I think and it was Jeffrey Katzenberg like screaming like we made 9 million so my experience wasn't with him he was a great success well it certainly made its money back la story I got a call from my agent and there was a casting director in Los Angeles I think her name was Mindy Marin and she was casting that this new Steve Martin movie that he'd written and I loved Steve Martin and you know knew a huge amount about his work and and and very particular things about the way he worked and so I loved him and and I you know very much you know who wanted one of the part but it seemed like a real long shot to me and for some reason I I understood her I understood I thought I understood what I sort of assumed Steve Martin imagined as he wrote this part and I enjoyed myself it wasn't an audition where I was really nervous which you know one can be yeah and then I just kept getting called back and I did a screen test with Steve Martin which is really fun and you know terrifying also like but I yeah then I got the part and and got to got to play at Sandy in LA story is um you know she has like no definition really she's sort of this floating ever-changing this person who's soaking up other ideas of of a definition or an identity and you know she's foolish and silly and doesn't seem terribly bright I mean she's probably brighter than she lets on but for some reason I think thinks she has to maybe she's more attractive if she's not smart some memories on movies become sort of mushy you know you're you remember an experience rather than specificity but I yeah I remember vividly many scenes in particular I think from the beginning and I had this idea that she would be moving all the time that wasn't really written so much in the script or the balance there was specific movement that was like almost like written as stage direction and almost like choreography but there was others that I just started doing and eventually the the director of makjang s'en who I loved and I had you know he had done all these he had done great films in in the UK and in London he would eventually just get to the point where he just had a megaphone he'd say and bounce and action like he was just it told me to bounce around um but yeah I sort of remember all the scenes and an end time off-camera as well you know sitting waiting you know kind of staring at Steve I guess for some people it's it feels a little bit like like it's a little bit you know an amber it was a very specific time in a way of observing the larger sort of ideas about Los Angeles I'll have a decaf coffee oh I'll have a double decaf cappucino Jimmy to have made a coffee ice cream or small of a half double decaffeinated half cap but my guess is that they'd be still really accurate honeymoon vacant I think I got the part in honeymoon in Vegas because of la story and that's what Andy Bergman told me when I when I met him I didn't email audition for a honeymoon in Vegas they just offered me the part which I really couldn't believe I couldn't believe I'd never been offered a part especially a lead in a movie and like a real major motion picture you know and um she wasn't similar at all to sandy which is what's what surprised me about you know being cast based on LA story but I Betsy and in honeymoon in Vegas is really bright she's a schoolteacher you know she's a professional person and shows up every day and is in fact um you know very I conventional it's the opposite of sandy you know who defies all convention and doesn't believe in any conventions period Betsy is like a teacher who believes and kind of rules and like a model for living but funny because she's written by Andy Bergman who's you know one of great great comedy screenwriters I read with all the men there were many many auditions and screen tests and it was very apparent to everybody the minute that and it came in I mean there was just nothing more to be said and nobody else to meet working with him was fantastic I mean it was truly great and inspired and fun and um you know surprising very very surprising and it just made my job easy in a way I mean it's not easy but it there was really like the most like perfect example of listening responding because he's he's so compelling you know opposite and um yeah I loved him working with James Caan was incredible he has this very kind of amazing thing that I've never seen in another actors eyes in my entire life and I've stared stared across and looked in the eyes of a lot of actors and especially male actors his eyes actually flicker it's a very I've not seen anybody else's eyes actually spark they sort of have flashes in them that is it's really something and it can be both terrifying and you know seductive but when it's terrifying it's it's really quite something [Music] Tim just you know had been pondering this making this you know telling the story for a very long time and he just had like a wealth of stuff for me to read and look at and that was really important but then it there comes a point where um you're just trying to be real given you know given your script and like the scenes that I had to play I think the harder part is just I really wanted to mimic those scenes that we were recreating which was an amazing experience like we were really like within like the scale like everything and to me that was the most that's the thing I wanted to be most authentic about the rest of it you can't quite do when you're playing somebody real you don't want it you know then you get too caught up in um things that you have no control over but the recreation of those scenes was hugely exciting and and and like fun to sort out and get right and I listened over and over again and watched out those clips over and over again I think that they're pretty they're pretty close you know working for Tim Burton um and that was the first time I did another movie with him shortly after that and I you know he's just absolutely fantastic to work for because he's so clear it's so specific you know every frame is you understand so so well what he wants Mostafa city is enormous ly helpful you're like really fitting into like a painting that he's a kind of already created and I like that I love working with Johnny Depp I thought he was really sweet and great to work with great on the set to everybody human deeply human and um you know just loved his work he loved his work he loved being an actor and an Martin Landau played Bela Lugosi and he won an Oscar today was thrilling and so deserved I mean he'd been around for so long it had been he's been doing great work for a really long time and he was such a good kind man so humble you know he was a journeyman he was just working all the time and so happy to be working when he was and he was a great lovely person thanks Tim Burton just asked if I would do Mars attack and I said yes I mean anybody would have I mean when I read the script everything really all right she knows her sewer I mean I just think anybody would would want to work with Tim Burton and would want to do no matter how strange kind of help him fulfill his vision you know I wasn't at all familiar with those kinds of movies I mean with the exception of of familiarizing myself with Ed Wood genre and those movies I didn't really know as much the movies that he was sort of kind of recreating in a way you do you kind of do what you're told in a way that I really like you know there's always a really strong costume designer who's you know whose point of view is like playing a really pivotal part in what an audience is experiencing and the hair and makeup departments always really strong I mean there's all these other creative influences that are helping you so much yeah I turned into I was a hertog I think it was her dog Pierce Brosnan was involved in that was he had like a mild like a crazy scientist like a mad scientist yeah something like that yeah I love that part and once again that was a kind of part I you know I'd never played that before and I really really liked it I'm I was very nervous in a way making that movie not daily on the set but trying to figure it out and Tom bazooka who wrote and directed it Tom was really helpful tom was really he was strict with me in an interesting way you know he wanted me to play this part and but he also wanted pieces of me gone so it was interesting and I was very happy to like I didn't feel that he was not appreciative of what I have to bring or my own skills but he wanted something else for me and and I part of that was really scary because it it was being watched in a way I felt and I was intimidated by Diane Keaton even though I had I'd known her we did you know First Wives Club years before but I this was so intimately we were in each other's faces so much and I you know I wanted her to like me and um but I I loved that movie I was really proud of it I was proud of everybody's work I was proud of my work and when I saw it I I loved it I mean I really loved it I love correcting else I mean the whole cast is many people have gone on those there were some folks in that movie who were relatively unknown at the time not unknown but you know Rachel McAdams and Elizabeth freezer like these were actresses that were just starting to emerge and you know what I thought Luke Wilson was so great in an enduring like I thought there were such great performances [Music] that part and that story and that you know I think they are so daily in my life like in ways that are you know probably very obvious and then ways that aren't whether it's you know people on Instagram or walking down the street of New York or people see me or me having a memory of a you know cross street where I shot you know two dozen or more scenes so I feel like it's not far away but the experience is in many ways and and I feel for the most part I feel fine about it I mean I had hopes that we would get to make another movie and I was excited I think because it finally felt right in the story so I I mostly feel great like I love where we got to leave all of them I think they're all probably doing really well and still enjoying that friendship and their city or maybe some of left at Charlotte might have finally moved to the suburbs my guess is but it's a you know it's a real privilege to have that not just the memory of the experience but have the connection with the audience that that was initially you know along with us and discovering us but today a whole new generation of young women stop me literally every single day of my life to share their feelings and thoughts and affection for this show in the movie and that's a that's a privilege you know it's a it's a professional blessing no doubt [Music] it's not so much that I feel carry within me I mean you know we would have stretches of time and then we come back to work and you would sort it out pretty quickly you'd like rediscover like a muscle or something that is like slightly atrophied on a hiatus or so you find that stuff very quickly but it's uh it's part of you in ways that you can't start to articulate the ways in which it's sort of it you know it it's in you it's part of your memories it's part of your most important professional moments and years and time spent it's you know incredibly sentimental and nostalgic but the character isn't in me because I you know she's somebody else's creation really and I long to play other people and other parts but you know if asked him to find her again I could I could manage here now well the character in here now is her name is Vivian and she is a singer with relative success in New York she's had a career that she's both that is both a source of pride and frustration the movie really is a story about a woman who gets a diagnosis and it's and it's it's a portrait of this next 24 hours in her life as she absorbs this information and it's about love and loss and I think coming to terms with the role you've played in your own life and the relationships you have with those around you and within with the city you know that both loves and betrays you

Channel: GQ

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Id: VfeWQqe4RGo

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 09 2018