Sarah Jessica Parker is known for her role in Sex in the City, but what's she doing now?
Keep watching to learn about her publishing imprint, her Sex In The City reboot, and more.
Sarah Jessica Parker was born in Nelsonville, Ohio in 1965. Although her parents didn't
have much, they made sure their children's lives were culturally rich, supporting their
daughter's acting ambitions.
In 1979, when she was 14, Parker was selected from the children's ensemble in a Broadway
production of Annie to take on the titular role.
In a 2016 interview on Popcorn with Peter Travers, Parker reminisced about her early
days on Broadway. She even confessed that there were still elements of Annie in her
as an adult.
"There's a little of Tomorrow in you."
"Yes, there's a little 'Tomorrow. There's also a little 'Maybe.'"
Even though Parker's turn as Annie came when she was still young, it seems that the role
has stuck with her.
Getting work as a professional actress as a child meant that by her teenage years, Parker
already felt independent. And she certainly was busy. A few years after Annie, Parker
landed a role on the TV show Square Pegs about teen cliques in the '80s. As she told A.V.
Club,
"I knew at the time that it was unusual and special, and even though I wasn't really well-versed
in television — because we didn't get to watch a huge amount of television — I knew
from the pilot script that it was special."
From there, Parker took on the memorable role of Rusty in the classic musical film Footloose.
The roles kept coming. As Parker explained of those early years,
"You know, all you want is a job. You're auditioning, you want to have as much experience as possible."
"Jesus, he should have never let her done that."
In 1992, Sarah Jessica Parker starred in Honeymoon in Vegas opposite Nicolas Cage. The role marked
a transition in her career from supporting character to leading lady. She told A.V. Club,
"It was definitely the first time I got to play the part, the object of a man's affection
versus the best friend of the object."
"You'll be back Monday."
"I don't know, probably Tuesday or Wednesday."
The role was also the first sign that she was on the route to stardom. She explained
that the director simply offered the role after seeing her in L.A. Story, telling the
interviewer,
"It was enormously influential and impactful and meaningful for me."
In 1993, Sarah Jessica Parker starred as Sarah, the ditzy blonde witch in the Disney Halloween
movie Hocus Pocus. For Parker, the movie wasn't exactly a momentous job. In fact, as she confessed
years later on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she can barely remember the plot.
"I mean, I remember the filming of it. I just don't remember what the movie's about as much."
However, one thing she did recall was flying on her broom.
"But I— what I liked making the movie, and I loved, I love flying."
At the time of filming, Parker didn't realize what an impact the movie would have. In 2014,
the actress confessed in an interview with Fox 5,
"It's so interesting to me, [...] only since having joined Twitter fairly recently do I
understand people's affection and devotion to Hocus Pocus and I can't really explain
it, expect perhaps it came out at a certain time and this generation of people were a
certain age and that moment and those memories that they connect with that time."
"Right! Let us fly!"
"Fly!"
"Wait! Sisters! I have an idea."
As of 2021, Sarah Jessica Parker has been married to Matthew Broderick for over 20 years.
The couple first met in 1991 in New York City after Parker's brother introduced the two.
After meeting, months passed before they went out on their first date. As Parker told The
New York Times,
"He left a very charming, very self-effacing message on the machine."
At the time, they bonded over their similar dreams and aspirations. She told Harper's
Bazaar in 2013,
"Matthew and I come from a different time and place. When we were young people, all
we ever wanted was to be good working actors."
In 1997, they tied the knot in an understated affair. As Parker told People, she had never
considered marriage to be a goal, but with Broderick, it felt like the natural thing
to do.
She explained,
"I never thought about a wedding dress. Never. Had not one daydream about it. At one point
I just simply remember thinking, 'God, I really hope he asks me to marry him.'"
In 1998, Sarah Jessica Parker took on what is arguably her most iconic role to date — Carrie
Bradshaw in HBO's Sex and the City. As the actress explained to A.V. Club, she had no
idea that the show would be as huge as it was, but as she went on to explain, she was
far too busy working on the show to realize its enormous cultural impact.
Nevertheless, Parker must have realized her career was heading in the right direction
during Sex and the City — after all, it was her first time being both actor and producer
on a project. As she told Forbes, the show's creator, Darren Starr, asked her to be one
of the producers. She spent the first year observing the other producers, then took on
the role herself. She said of the experience,
"You just learn the business of producing, which involves numbers and budgets and unions
and interpersonal relationships and complicated people and easy people and people that betray
you and at the last minute, you're dealing with a lot of people you're responsible to
and for."
In 2002, Sarah Jessica Parker gave birth to James, her first child. At the time, she was
at the height of her Sex and the City fame and had just become the show's producer. When
James arrived, her busy schedule naturally shifted. As she explained in an interview
with Oprah,
"Most of my friends in New York are single women or gay men. And it's taken some time
to be able to say, 'I can't go to dinner with you. I want to put my son to bed.'"
She went on to explain that this new way of thinking was a struggle, but a privilege nonetheless.
At the time, Parker was beginning to think about her future. She told Oprah,
"So much of my life lately has been Sex and the City, and now I want more. I want to be
a better parent, a better actress — to keep myself challenged and terrified."
As she explained, she was looking forward to life after the show finished when she could
slow her pace of work down and act in a couple of movies a year — and that's exactly what
she did when the show ended in 2004.
Sex and the City is famous for its revolutionary approach to sex and female friendships. However,
the show was also a revelation in the fashion world. For Parker, the show marked the beginning
of her status as a fashion icon. As she later explained at New York's Vulture Festival,
she ended up keeping the majority of her character's iconic wardrobe.
"I don't have to dig very deep to understand the affinity she has for shoes."
In a 2013 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Parker discussed her new footwear collaboration
called SJP with the designer Manolo Blahnik, whose brand of luxury footwear she famously
wore on the show. As George Malkemus, president of Manolo Blahnik, said,
"She has a fan base in the fashion world that's extraordinary, and it's truly because she's
such a nice person."
Parker had previously dipped her toes in the fashion world with an apparel line called
Bitten and, later, a line called Halston, but it was with the SJP line that she really
made her stamp on the industry. As of 2021, the footwear line is still going strong. It's
safe to say that Parker may never have created this fashion empire if it wasn't for Carrie
Bradshaw.
As Sarah Jessica Parker told Oprah shortly after having her first child,
"You always want more."
It seems that she and Matthew Broderick did want more — but it wasn't a straightforward
process. As the actress explained to The Telegraph, she tried to get pregnant, but the couple
finally decided to go the IVF route with a surrogate. In 2009, their twin girls, Marion
Loretta Elwell and Tabitha Hodge, or "Kitty and Babe" were born. Parker told The Telegraph,
"We were just hopeful that we would have one healthy child. It was a wonderful shock getting
two; the cherry on the sundae."
Of course, welcoming two new children to the family was a big change for everyone. She
told WebMD that she did have the help of a nanny, but she tried to be as hands-on as
possible, saying in the interview,
"People seem to be very surprised that we don't want a life with that much outside help."
As she went on to say, having private family time was a big priority for her.
In 2016, Sarah Jessica Parker took on her first big TV role since Sex and the City with
HBO's Divorce, a show about a couple's struggling marriage.
Are you really sure you would never try and blow my head off?"
As Parker explained to IndieWire, the show was a whole new experience. For one thing,
the TV industry has changed significantly since the early 2000s, and her character was
also a real departure. She said,
"From [the first scene], she feels different. It was hard to take on somebody so new, so
wonderfully different and somebody who is not buoyant; not full of all sorts of color
— like Carrie Bradshaw, for instance."
It seems that Parker's venture into new territory paid off. As The Guardian noted of her performance,
she shines in the show, despite its contrasts with more familiar territory.
After launching her fashion business in 2013, Sarah Jessica Parker launched another business
venture in 2016 with SJP for Hogarth, a publishing imprint. In the press release about the imprint,
Penguin Random House announced that Parker would act as Editorial Director.
The actress explained to iNews that although she was nervous, going into publishing had
been a lifelong dream, saying,
"I've been an avid reader my entire life. I was nervous about it and didn't feel I was
equipped."
Nevertheless, she was determined to try this new venture. So far, it's been a huge success.
The first book she published charted at No. 12 on The New York Times bestseller list,
while the second received amazing reviews.
Just like the rest of us, Sarah Jessica Parker has had to keep up with the ever-changing
technology that has become a huge part of daily life. For Parker, this has meant embracing
social media as a public figure. She explained to L'Officiel that joining social media has
its benefits, saying,
"Not only do I learn a lot, but I display myself in a completely new way."
She went on to explain that there were, of course, challenges that came with being online,
telling the publication,
"I feel like I have to think a lot about how to respond to comments and how to speak on
these platforms, because I do not like exchanges with a lack of courtesy."
Apparently, Parker loves engaging with new people over social media — especially if
it means she can talk about one of her favorite subjects: books. Plus, she feels it gives
her a chance to show the "more human side" that fans might not always get to see.
Before Sarah Jessica Parker married Matthew Broderick, she starred opposite him in the
Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business. Even though both had hugely successful acting
careers, they never reunited on stage or screen. However, in 2020, the couple was all set to
appear on stage once again when the project was tragically cut short due to COVID restrictions.
As the couple explained to CBS News, the play was Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, and it was canceled
just hours before opening night. Nevertheless, it seems the pair enjoyed it in spite of their
initial hesitations.
"I mean, we spent more time together in the last two-and-a-half, three months than we've
spent since we were courting."
Even though Sarah Jessica Parker had said in 2018 that the world has changed so much
that Sex and the City could never come back, in 2021, a reboot of the show was released.
Parker explained to Vanity Fair that the reboot was intended to take on a much more contemporary
outlook, saying,
"It's incredibly diverse in a really exciting way."
She added that the show is about new life experiences, as well as political and social
worldviews.
"Carrie, I love you to death, but I draw the line at podcasts."
The Sex and the City reboot isn't the only project Parker lined up in 2021. In fact,
she's also set to return to the world of Hocus Pocus with a much-awaited sequel directed
by Adam Shankman. Parker told CinemaBlend,
"I think now we've gotten to the point where we've agreed publicly to the right people
'Yes, that would be a very, very fun idea,' so we'll see what the future holds."
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