Kristin Davis: ‘You’re Still A Sexual Being In Your 50s, Life Doesn’t End’

Kristin Davis has played one of the most iconic characters on our TV screens for the past three decades.

Charlotte York has the perfect life, the perfect husband, the perfect children and most importantly the perfect dog. While it seems like everyone else around her is having the most drama ever, sorry Carrie and Miranda, Charlotte is thriving. And Kristin couldn’t be happier for her on-screen counterpart.

Ahead of season three of And Just Like That, we sat down with the one and only Kristin to find out what we can expect from the new episodes and the importance of continuing on the legacy of these women…

You’ve played Charlotte for 30 years now. How is she doing in season three of And Just Like That?

Wow, I think she’s doing well. I think she’s, you know, trying to expand and be the best mother that she can be. She’s also trying to do well at her job which is of course hard to do all the things. Trying to be a great wife and do everything that he wants her to do even though some of those things mean keeping secrets from her friends, which is very very hard for Charlotte.

In those three decades, what has been her biggest change?

I think meeting Harry was obviously a big change. She had this dream of finding, you know, true love and she thought it was going to look one way which was the whole Trey picture, but it really wasn’t fulfilling. Then Harry really was fulfilling and I think really grounded her so much. Certainly, compared to before she met him. I think that’s such a gift for her and a blessing that she has him and that they’re able to create this life together; it really is the life that she wanted.

Then it’s just a matter of trying to do the best you can do within that life and be everything she needs to be for everybody else and, you know, that’s kind of her ongoing struggle which I think is obviously so relatable. You know, you want what you want but living it is yet a new challenge. I don’t really think anything radical has happened to Charlotte really. Other than that, she is a mother of two. They’re little children in the movies and then suddenly, you know they’re teenagers when we come back which is a pretty big change. We’ve missed a whole chunk and then she’s having to deal with teens and tweens which is a lot and I think that’s probably it. I don’t think there’s anything else that’s really shocking that changes for her.

Charlotte and Harry definitely have the fairytale life. In this world, they’re probably the most relatable to viewers as well! Do you ever want more drama for Charlotte? Would you ever want to see her implode?

No, no, I do not want her to implode. That would be, I think that would be rough, you know. I think people would be mad at me if her life imploded because people do talk to us like we are the characters. I don’t want everyone to be mad at me, but I love that they have worked out. I think that’s what Charlotte really wanted, and I think she tries very, very hard. I do think that the nice thing about her wanting that, because she did go through the Trey era, and realised that wasn’t truly what she wanted. Even though that looked perfect and then Harry is fulfilling. She really wanted that happily ever after.

It wasn’t just the picture of it and I’m happy that she went through everything she went through to make it happen. And then she went through everything she went through to be a mother because obviously she really wanted that as well. Now the challenge is having to expand and be flexible yet again with the children in terms of what they need. Then also just because you find the person who you’re in love with and is the person that you dreamt of, doesn’t mean that it’s easy all the time. You know, life is going to throw surprises at you which is what happens this season, and she has to struggle with getting through that and how to get through that but also take care of herself and stay grounded in herself.

You’re going to see in the second half of the season that she has a lot of challenges with that, and she comes unravelled a bit, which is all totally understandable and relatable. Because she does try to take care of everybody else first, you know, and not herself. But I love them, and I don’t ever want them to implode.

This show is all about female friendships. Is it important for you to showcase them?

Oh, I think it’s the best part of the show for sure, I love the female friendships. I think in the very beginning, it was very different to have four women be in a show. People were thrown off by it. Like it got so much conversation and then as time went on, we were able to kind of elevate the friendship to be part of the thing that we were about, and I loved that.

I’m so thrilled that it continues. We have these new friends that we’ve embraced, that bring so much and just fit so seamlessly into our group and I think that’s how life is. People change and grow, but then you’re going to have the people who stay, and then there’s going to be people who come in and that’s a beautiful thing. I think that society, and I might be wrong but, I feel like it does honour female friendship more now than when we started in the nineties.

I feel like when we started in the nineties, we didn’t have social media so it’s hard to compare. But now when you look at social media, you’ll see younger women on their girls trips with their friends, really celebrating their friends and I feel like it does have a very important part of their lives that’s kind of equal to romantic things, I think. I hope I’m not wrong. I might just be seeing it through my own lens, but I hope it’s true, I feel like it is, and I think that’s a really healthy development.

Sex and the City was groundbreaking and now And Just Like That is groundbreaking in its own way. We rarely see people in their 50s and 60s being portrayed as sexual beings on screen. Do you think this show is paving the way for more of that?

I hope that’s true. I think we’re just first of all so incredibly lucky that we’re getting to do it and that we’re getting to do the show that we want to do, which is pushing boundaries that might be different boundaries than we pushed in the first show, but still pushing boundaries. And that was part of why we wanted to come back, was to be in our 50s still trying to figure life out. Because it never ends, and you’re always still a sexual being and you might have a shift in how you’re perceiving your sexual being like Miranda does.

Or, you might have an ongoing relationship in the way that Charlotte and Harry do or LTW and her husband. I don’t know why there’s not more of it in our entertainment industry. I hope that there will be. I personally think it’s super fascinating, I’m sure that’s because I am a person who’s older, still trying to figure it out. So, I certainly relate to that, and I think it’s part of the, you know, I don’t know if mission is the right word, but you know, it’s one of the things that we really felt strongly about doing. So, we’re happy that we get to do it, and we’re happy that people want to watch. You take a risk, you don’t know what’s going to happen.

I know that I love those stories myself, and I also feel, and this might be a little bit crazy, but I also feel like men don’t see themselves on screens this way either. You see shows about men in their 50s, but they’re not necessarily exploring their personal relationships. They’re ranching or being cops or judges or, I don’t know jumping out of planes or whatever. I want to see them explore it too, because, I don’t think it ever really ends. Different things happen and things change and suddenly you get divorced and you don’t see it coming, and I think that’s super fascinating, personally.

There’s one thing that we can rely on for this show and that’s the style! Everyone just loves all the fashion from the show!

For the first show, we were obviously really elevated. I think that the women that originally the column was based on that Candace Bushnell wrote in the paper, that was based on real women in New York City. So, that was the origin of the show. It wasn’t just like let’s go play some rich women in New York City. They were real people, and then she wrote the column and then it was a book and then it became the show, and then we kind of took it as a leaping off place and developed it. Obviously, now we’re 30 years later, still developing it which is of course a blessing and a very rare situation.

But, I think that the writing has always been really really excellent in terms of what people are going through and our mission has always been honest about people and their desires and how they express their desires and how they find themselves and how they talk about relationships and sexuality. Then the new show, we’re talking about ageing within relationships and sexuality and our world and also obviously many different issues that come along with that. But because we’re talking so honestly, I think everyone can relate and that’s really what we want to do.

Then the clothes and the shoes and everything are just like the window dressing. They were never the reason for us to be, you know, we’re just lucky we get to wear them, basically.

You’ve been playing Charlotte since the nineties. And these characters were so iconic back then. It’s rare that a show remains so important in culture. Honestly, it’s intergenerational. Does it surprise you how relevant it still is to this day?

Oh yes, yes. I mean this is part of the reason that we came back, because they put the original show on Netflix and that gave it a whole new life that we never could have really expected or foreseen that would happen. You know, it’s still amazing. I remember when we would be filming the original show and sometimes like eight-year-olds would come up and say, ‘We watched the show’. We’d be like, ‘Oh no! Should you be watching that show?’ But you know, it’s not up to us right, it’s their parents, but like those people have all grown up. It kind of boggles the mind to think about it and now you see so many people come and talk about watching with their mothers and watching with their daughters or watching with their husbands and watching with their sons. I mean it’s really really truly deeply amazing and so rewarding.

Because you don’t know as an actor what’s going to happen, you’re just praying to get any job, much less a job that goes on for 30 years with people that you love, that people actually respond to. Sometimes people disagree with what happens to our characters, but it’s such a flattering thing that they care so much. As much as sometimes you might be like, ‘Oh my gosh, why are you so upset?’ the fact that they are so closely identified with the characters, that they feel really angry is so adorable. It’s just a really deeply meaningful thing that people care and that we can be something that connects people and generations. It is part of why I started my podcast because I wanted to hear from people from different generations and how they perceive it. The perception to the show changes overtime, how you perceive one character when you are in your 20s might totally change when you’re in your 40s.

People talk to me all the time about how when they watched in their 20s, they didn’t really realise, they’re not that old, which is really funny, but now they’re 35 or 40 and they’re like, ‘I’m going through all those things that they were going through when I felt they were old, but I’m me’ and I’m like, ‘Yes, that’s how we feel’. I can only speak for myself, I’m 60 and still I’m trying to figure stuff out. So, it really never ends, which is why we wanted to do And Just Like That. You’re still trying to figure out your place in the world and relationships and let’s write about it in a way that people can connect to. That’s really our mission, and I hope we’re doing it well.

What has been your favourite on set memory while filming season three?

Gosh, that’s hard, I’m just going to say, we went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and filmed the fashion show, we watched the fashion show and it was just Sarah Jessica [Parker], Nicole [Ari Parker], Cynthia and I.

It was so beautiful, the weather was perfect and we all got to work together. I loved the story of what we were talking about while we were watching this fashion show, so I’m going to say that. Because it was just like a glorious New York moment.

AND JUST LIKE THAT Season 3 launches on 30th May exclusively on SKY and NOW with episode one, followed by one new episode airing each week.