The actor: Sarah Jessica Parker has had a tremendous career, starting out on Broadway in the title role of Annie, then working her way up in movies like Footloose, L.A. Story, and Honeymoon In Vegas before landing her iconic role as Carrie Bradshaw in the landmark HBO comedy Sex And The City. Now Parker is a mogul in fragrance and fashion (including shoes, naturally), and recently became editorial director of the new publishing imprint SJP For Hogarth, while still maintaining a strong acting career. The third season of her thoughtful HBO sitcom Divorce was just announced. Her most recent film is Here And Now, a subdued drama in which Parker plays a successful chanteuse who gets some bleak news. While promoting that movie, Parker took some time to talk with The A.V. Club about her decades’ worth of TV and movies.
Sarah Jessica Parker: 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. And I understood over the course of making the show that CBS may or may not have had questions about what was happening on our set. But I wasn’t privy to any of that until long after the show was finished. I think I read a story, or maybe somebody told me about a story, or maybe I had participated in a story in TV Guide, but I was learning information from them about alleged incidents. What I mostly remember is that I loved the creator [Anne Beatts]. She was hugely gifted—brilliant, really—really unusual and smart and especially interesting about young women and their stories. And it was a really, really happy place that we were all kind of delighted to be there. It was really fun.
The A.V. Club: You went from there to being in Footloose, which was a blockbuster for the time period.
SJP: I was offered the part, and then they said, “Okay”—you know, my character’s name was Rusty—and they said, “will you cut your hair and dye it red?” And my hair had all grown back after Annie, and I just was like, “Oh god, I can’t do that again.” And so they said, “Okay, well, we’re going to cast somebody else,” and they did cast somebody else. And then I was home shooting another movie, but anyway, I got a call, and they said, “Would you fly to Utah and do this?” And I said, “Well, I’m not going to cut my hair.” They were like, “Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it.” They never changed my character’s name. She continued to be called Rusty, inexplicably.
AVC: That’s right! That’s funny.
SJP: So I flew to Utah. They were already shooting. They were already well into at least, I think, the first week. And I just jumped in, and it was—I was really happy. It was the first time I was going to be on my own, because child labor laws in California stipulated that I had to be with my mother, that a grown-up had to be with you. Growing up in New York, there were no child labor laws, or at least no one paid any attention to them. But there I was, finally alone again, which was—I felt very independent. And it was—once again, not to sound boring—but it was a really great experience, and I was on my own and living in a hotel—a motel—a Rodeway Inn on the side of the road in Provo, Utah.
But happily, really happily. And learning how to be a grown-up and be responsible. Herb Ross directed it and Lynne Taylor-Corbett choreographed. I had seen Diner, I don’t know, six or eight times. I had the full-page ad from Diner on my bedroom wall. So I was absolutely mad for Kevin Bacon. So, it was a real treat. And then I met and fell in love with Chris Penn, who played opposite me, who was so spectacular. It was a great experience.
AVC: What drew you to Flight Of The Navigator after that?
SJP: What drew me to Flight Of The… Are you seriously asking me what drew me to Flight Of The Navigator? It was a part. Like, literally, I just got a part. I went and did it. That’s what I did for most of my career. Nothing drew me to it. I can’t—it was a job. That’s exactly a paycheck. That’s exactly what drew me to it. I can’t even tell you what it was about or who I played. You know, all you want is a job. You’re auditioning, you want to have as much experience as possible. You know, it was great.
AVC: It seems like the turning point for you was when you were in Steve Martin’s L.A. Story. How did that come about?
SJP: I auditioned, and I just kept auditioning, and eventually I was asked for screen tests with Steve Martin and screen tested with him I think once, but maybe twice. I’m not positive. And then eventually, I got the part, and I was so happy.
AVC: Was there any kind of improvisation going on between you and Steve Martin? Like SanDeE*’s signature or just the way she moved, since you have so much dance experience. Anything like that you brought to it?
SJP: A lot of the movement I brought to it, I think. There was some mention in the script, in the stage directions, but not a huge amount, to my recollection. But “SanDeE*” was in there. That’s verbatim from the script. But I think I kind of just started doing that in the audition and then I kept doing it. And eventually Mick Jackson, the director, was just like before, when he’d call action, he’d say, he’d be like, “Action!” Oh no, he’d be like, “Bounce, and… action!” It made sense to me for her, because she operated from the point of view of her body.
AVC: Your career shifted after that. After L.A. Story, you got the lead in some rom-coms, like Honeymoon In Vegas.
SJP: 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. Or of anybody’s affection. I didn’t even audition for Honeymoon In Vegas. Andy Bergman said—he saw L.A. Story and just offered me the part. It was enormously influential and impactful and meaningful for me. I had always happily assumed I would just, you know, be a journeyman. And I was perfectly satisfied—I had no complaints about the quality of my career. I mean, you always want to work more, and you want to have jobs that are exciting and different and parts that are interesting, but I didn’t feel I was in a position to complain. I was pretty pleased. So, when it changed, it was nothing I had expected, and it was wonderful. Especially because then I auditioned the guys for Honeymoon. They all came in, and I read with all of them, and it was nice to be in that position. I had never been there before.
AVC: You were the first one cast, and Nicolas Cage, James Caan, those guys all had to audition?
SJP: Mm-hm. Nicolas Cage auditioned.
AVC: At the time, a lot of people described Miami Rhapsody as a Woody Allen movie that wasn’t a Woody Allen movie, with you in the Woody Allen part. The script was very chatty, super funny, and smart.
SJP: Obviously, David Frankel was so influenced by Woody Allen. He loved him, and the score—and of course, having Mia Farrow in it also. But I think that was—he’s of a generation of men and women both that were influenced a huge amount by an audience to Woody Allen movies. A lot of us grew up watching those movies.
AVC: Did you feel a lot of pressure on that set? The whole movie is basically wrapped around your shoulders. You’re in just about every scene, except for flashbacks.
SJP: No. It was—I don’t want to be boring, but yeah, it was really happy. I was completely, madly in love with David Frankel—I mean, appropriately, not like weird—but I loved working for him. He’s a really good director. He knows exactly what he wants. He’s super, super easy. He’s calm. So I never felt pressure. And you have to remember I had been working by that point, because I was 8 years old, so to have a part that requires you to be on set a lot is everything you’d been working toward. You don’t care about being tired. Being tired is nothing, especially at that age. You shouldn’t have any… [Laughs.] You should only be grateful. It felt like a big responsibility, and a great big part, but I had felt perfectly equipped to handle it, no problem.
AVC: That was the first time you met costume designer and stylist Patricia Field. Some of Sex And The City just seems like a natural offshoot from Miami Rhapsody, even though you did some movies in the middle. Was that the kind of thing that you walked into having any idea that it was going to become the cultural explosion that it did?
SJP: Anyone that tells you they knew is completely… no. None of us knew any—of course not. We finished a whole season before we were even on the air. It wasn’t like the first season was this massive success. It was a nice, slow burn. And I don’t think even as you’re in the midst of having an experience which is having a cultural impact—well, at least I wasn’t paying attention to that. We were so wrapped up in the work. It was a huge amount of work to act and produce and get it. We were doing huge amounts of work, so we weren’t paying attention to that.
It’s really only later when people ask you and you’re forced to contemplate its place in history, which I’m just not comfortable doing. I’ll leave that to other people. I see all that it brought and the conversation it provoked. I see all of its value, and I feel really lucky to be part of it.
AVC: Was it odd working on a special-effects sci-fi film like Mars Attacks! after your other, more straightforward movies?
SJP: That’s working for Tim Burton, so nothin’ weird about that. You just say yes.
AVC: And the same with Ed Wood?
SJP: That didn’t even feel like a weird movie. That felt like a huge budget… Warner Bros.? I feel like that was a big movie. It didn’t feel like we were doing anything fringe-y or weird. The movie felt purposefully smaller and intimate, but you’re working for Tim Burton, so it’s just such a treat to try to get it right and fit in to what you imagine he’s feeling or seeing.
AVC: I think that The Family Stone is the unofficial holiday movie of The A.V. Club.
SJP: That’s so funny. For a bunch of years now I’ve been hearing from people that they’d watch it every Christmas. It’s their family Christmas movie. I’ve been hearing it for the last four or five years, maybe? More and more so on Instagram, people will tell me that it’s a holiday movie they watch and enjoy as a family.
AVC: Because we’ve all been there—we’ve all been with the boyfriend’s family and feeling them out, and maybe they’re not the most welcoming. There’s a ton of different personalities all thrown together in a pretty small space.
SJP: It was a really good set. Once again, that director-writer [Thomas Bezucha] was really good at what he does. I think I was nervous, because I was really trying to physically be somebody very different, and Tom had great ideas, and I was listening to the ways in which he imagined that character would live physically. He was asking me to make some choices that I was really excited to try to fulfill, and it was a great part. I mean, that was a great frickin’ part. Everybody was very dedicated to that movie. We all loved it. The production designer… everybody. I look back and think how we all wanted to be there. None of it was a chore.
AVC: Divorce has been such an underrated gem on HBO. I’m really glad it got renewed.
SJP: We developed the show—my company first developed it. I came to my partner, and was like, “I’m really interested in exploring marriage and this particular marriage and infidelity,” and HBO was really enthusiastic about it. And then we eventually found [showrunner] Sharon [Horgan], and she was excited about it, and she was also interested in talking about divorce. And that was really exciting to both myself and [executive producer] Alison [Benson]. And that’s how it grew. We weren’t initially producing it for me—I was just interested in the subject matter. Then it became clear to me that HBO was wondering if I would play a part, and eventually I decided that that was something I could do, and it would work for my family and my professional life.
And it was such a different part. She’s very, vey different from any other part I’ve ever played, and Thomas [Haden Church] was definitely my first choice, and we were all very excited about the idea that he—no one thought he would say yes, because he hadn’t done television in a really long time. But I said we should let him turn it down. Let’s not turn it down for him.
We didn’t know what it would be, but we were definitely interested in marriage, and also what an attempt at having a really middle-class marriage—like, what does it look like to be successfully middle-class and have sacrificed together, and then disappointed each other, and what does it mean to this particular person, and how does she see it as being really liberating? All of it was really interesting to me, and I think it’s a lot of people’s stories. So I was really happy we got to do it.
AVC: Here And Now seems like such a departure for you, because it’s so dramatic.
SJP: Carrie Bradshaw wasn’t very comedy. Carrie? There was a lot of drama. She was dramatic. I think people forget how complicated a character that was. She had a hugely complex emotional life. She went through a huge amount, she fought for things, she struggled, she had success, she had failures. She had huge disappointments, she made bad decisions, she lost love, she found love. Drama is not at all a departure for me. It’s so curious to me that people experience it that way. But the role is—whether or not it’s the genre—the story that we get to tell feels definitely very different than anything I’ve ever done.
AVC: And again, the whole movie is on you. There’s a lot of silence, a lot of your character walking or thinking, but you’re so great at translating what that character is going through.
SJP: I think it’s one of the many very satisfying experiences of working with this director is that he’s not afraid of silence. He’s not afraid of what humans do, which is internalize a huge amount. We don’t walk around sharing everything that happens with us, especially when we don’t even—especially when we don’t understand it ourselves, can’t make sense of the reality of news we have or have learned or how we feel about it or how we want to frame it. We are protecting people we love. We are hiding it from people we have issues with. There’s a huge amount that goes on that’s real human nature. First of all, there was a script that allowed for it and was in there, but also it was a film director who wasn’t like, “Yeah, let’s hurry up and get more plot out,” and, “Move along.” We took all the time we wanted to, and I think it allows it to be an entirely different experience of an actor making it, but also for the audience.
AVC: It’s a very intimate movie. You feel really close to the character and everything she’s going through.
SJP: Thank you. Yeah, I love it. I love it, and I love the intimacy that’s in it. I’m really glad we got to maintain that.
AVC: So, Divorce season three, and anything else on the horizon that you’d care to discuss?
SJP: [Laughs.] No, acting-wise, I haven’t made any decisions yet. I have some ideas, but I’m not sure yet. But I have a new print—we have our second book coming out in January, which is really exciting, and we’ll start shooting Divorce January 14. I’ve got a nice amount that keeps me pretty busy, and the shoe business is growing all the time, and I try to spend as much time as I can on the floor. So, there’s lots going on, and hopefully more that will be interesting as well.
145 Comments
Came for Hocus Pocus, left disappointed.
that was my experience watching hocus pocus as well.
zing~!
Yeah, I never understood the love for Hocus Pocus.
It’s an atrocious movie that was best forgotten and has only recent gained some latter-day cachet because of the damn millennials who watched it when they were practically babies are now old enough to force it into the conversation.See also: Jam, Space.
Ive seen her recently discussing Hocus Pocus on late night (Colbert, I think). Basically see her answer to Flight of the Navigator.
Yeah it was Colbert. I was like, mad at first she was so flippant about it and saying she didn’t really remember the plot or anything about the movie.
Now you know what it’s like for Trekkies when someone who’s had a big part on one of the Treks comes in for these interviews and… nothing.
I’m a Trekkie too so I have known
Did this happen to you with the Robert Picardo Random Roles? I would imagine so.
I can empathize. I came hoping for Parker to finally come clean with some salacious details about the bacchanal of sex and drugs that was going on behind the scenes on the set of Square Pegs, and I’m leaving disappointed.
Unacceptable. We should run amok!
I know, right? And there I was thinking the AV Club was this Friendtopia where we nostalgically watch Hocus Pocus – and all citizens must watch Hocus Pocus, or else they will be killed!
It’s only you younger folks: us old folks genuinely dislike that movie. I mean, as someone who was 20 years old when it came out other than staring at SJP boobs bouncing that movie was terrible.
Well, it is a children’s movie after all :p
And a shitty one at that…
This, but replace Hocus Pocus with Matthew Broderick.
Same. And also The First Wives Club.
I’m always disappointed after I come…
No Girls Just Want to Have Fun either. Time to burn this mother down.
This. Hocus Pocus is highly underestimated in what millennials best know her for.
Yes, but also, even moreso for Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.Because: This right here
YESSS!!!! The punker invasion of the country club was montage gold!
“That’s it??????” – me right now after reading this paltry RR, perhaps the slimmest since Sissy Spacek’s.
And aren’t they supposed to jump around their roles, like randomly? What’s this chronological shit?
I wanted to read about Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Also left disappointed.
What a Failure to Launch.
And yet, she did not voice Beatrice Horseman. What a waste of opportunity.
The Family Stone achieved the impossible in making me root for SJP. As nice and liberal as the Stone family appears to be, they are to various degrees awful (except Luke Wilson’s character).I genuinely felt she was better off escaping them all. Thankfully Clare Danes saves the better fit for Everett (Dermot Mulroney).Seriously they were an awful (albeit funny/quirky) family.
They were awful, the movie was awful, even Rachel MacAdams wasn’t that likeable, and I saw that egg strata spill coming a mile away.
They fucked with Rachael MacAdams?? Now I’m glad I’ve never seen it. She’s my onscreen sweetheart.
Yeah, and who the hell fucks with Rachel MacAdams? She’s (almost) always watchable and a fucking delight. Sick bastards.
I occasionally hear people saying that they are surprised Rachel McAdams isn’t a bigger star. To which I answer, she’s the biggest star – she just chooses not to be in every single movie. Even though she should be.
I watched it after being told it was awful and that all the characters were awful and was pleasantly surprised at how much i enjoyed it. I feel for anybody who is told this movie is great and relatable before they get to watch it.
I’m with you. Never understood the appeal of The Family Stone or its characters. It just seemed like an awfulness casserole.
Rachel MacAdams’s character was okay because she was intentionally meant to be bratty. The rest of the family (except for Luke Wilson and Craig Nelson’s characters) are just as bad but written that we’re not supposed to see them that way. Everett is the worst of the worst- the way he towers over MacAdams’s character when he is telling them to back off of Meredith was way too threatening.
This is perhaps the second most shittiest movie ever.
I watched it with my Mom one Christmas and thought well that was nice, a little cringey and obvious, but whatever not entirely my thing. I mentioned it to my friend who’s from El Paso so Mexican heritage and perhaps an extra Mexican-American upbringing going to Juarez most weekends. His response – Watched it with my sister and it’s the whitest possible movie we’ve ever seen. It’s hilarious. We’ve seen it a few times. – So at least it’s good comedic fodder for everyone.It’s also fun how they threw all the possible minority representation into the gay deaf interracial couple. But to be fair it’s set in CT and besides the mini cities, CT is really white.
“’The Family Stone’ is a holiday classic! It’s whiter than Mitt Romney!”- Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
I love The Family Stone something fierce, even though most of the Stone family is truly awful to her. That monologue Luke Wilson gives about his dream makes me cry, and I don’t even know why.
The Family Stone achieved the impossible in making me root for SJP.Exactly! I don’t understand the love for a movie about a family of monsters who bands together to antagonize a woman who has done nothing to them except have the nerve to fall in a love with a member of that smug, superior, hostile family. That awful scene at the dinner table makes me crazy – and I’m gay! All that performative tut-tutting.
I mean I get the comedy of embarrassment and I can see that Meredith was forever putting her foot in it, but it was very grating watching her be portrayed as some sort of gay bigot (okay mildly homo-insensitive) or such an awful fiance for golden boy Everett.It’s weird as I don’t mind the film and think it’s actually a good holiday movie, it’s just I can’t stand the Stone family (bar Ben).
That strata looked delicious.
That was one of those movies where I have trouble caring because I dislike all of the characters. SJP’s character was pretty basic but damn, that family was a bunch of assholes.
I think to enjoy the family, you have to be one of those people who’s like them.Like, The Family Stone is basically my family turned up to 15. So it was hilarious to me. But I can totally see not liking them.
She should watch Flight of the Navigator again. She might like it.
Um, that film is like the first half of one movie and the second half of another joined roughly at the seams. Even as a kid I remember watching it and midway thinking “Wait, what happened to the film I was watching? I don’t like this new dumber movie”. Watched it again recently as an adult, wondering if the tonal shift would feel as marked as I remember, and yep, it was.
It’s gets very goofy when Pee Wee Herman takes over.
When Lynch did it in Mulholland Drive, it was a “masterpiece.” 😉
Initially, FotN was a really good, poignant sci fi mystery about a boy who loses 8 years of his life and the damage created by his disappearance. Then it becomes a buddy film about a boy and his space ship, which might have worked if the narrative and tone hadn’t then become juvenile and silly.
EXACTLY! Thank you!
Compliance!
Which one of the feet did she play in Footloose?
I think she was one of the two actors needed to play John Lithgow’s forehead.
Sometimes it is best just to see an actor on screen. This is one of those times. I must now go rinse my head.
I like her.
I loved her in Footloose. I thought she was adorable and I still feel that she was so much more fun and attractive than Lori Singer’s character. Willard was luckier than Ren.
Yeah, Singer’s character had issues that were only going to spell trouble down the road. Are we to believe a dance party solved her daddy issues?
There’s something about Singer’s portrayal that makes her seem like a ticking timebomb that you really can’t fix. Very different from Julianne Hough’s version, who just made me think, “this girl can probably make a subsistence living teaching dance in some mid-sized metro.”
You mean like this shit?
Yeah, a normal person could think up a lot of safer ways to pass the time using that metal drum in the back of the pickup. She shows a lack of imagination.
And now an all-new mashed-up reimagineactiment: Footloose And Sex In The City!
Hmm. So it looks like she’s been in 2 movies I really like.Neigh, 3.
ISWYDT.
Can’t believe it took 12 comment to get there.
So, Sarah Jessica Parker walks into a bar. Bartender says, why the long face?I’m ashamed of myself. I usually use that one with Celine Dion.
I’m ashamed of you too
why? maybe ding an actress for talent, commitment to the job, range of roles or abilities but why appearance? so sad that so many can’t achieve your expectations … but yet they somehow manage to find success in this world, regardless of your judgement.
And people wonder why her interviews have a defensive tone.
+1 Steve Buscemi
In grad school, I read a piece of scholarship and had a course discussion on how men vs women react to SJP. It was very interesting how much men need to denigrate her face while women tend to embrace her (although there’s definitely a “cool girl” contingent that def needs to join in the denigration).If I recall correctly, it boiled down to “why is this woman who isn’t 100 making my boner pop getting to be on the screen” except throw in more academic jargon. See also: Celine Dion, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones.
THANK YOU. What bunch of goddamn romper-room fuckery.
Consider suicide.
To be honest I can’t fault her for her response to the Flight of the Navigator question. When reading “What drew her to it?” my reaction was “A damn paycheck, what do you think!” It’s not like she was Meryl Streep or Julia Roberts at that point, at liberty to only be picking and choosing projects she’s “drawn to” (and even the biggest stars still do things just for a paycheck).
I mean, she did just say that she originally turned down Footloose.
Nahh… her weird aggressive answer “it was a paycheck!!!!!” sounded like it was a film she’d just rather forget… or have us all forget, for some reason.
I didn’t find it aggressive at all.
But the question was phrased poorly. “What drew you to that?” Come on, she was a teenager in a dumb Disney sci-fi movie. What do you think?
I don’t blame her. It’s not a particularly good movie, and her role in it isn’t particularly memorable. I think her answer was refreshingly frank: I did it because it made me money.
sounded like it was a film she’d just rather forget… or have us all forget, for some reason.Which is crazy, because we’re talking Flight of the Navigator here.
It’s oddly the first movie I’ve seen her in that I don’t see HER in. I mean, based in the clip. She seems like a different person.
Some of these comments (not yours)… God forbid the woman not do cartwheels over every fucking job she’s had. If an man answered the same way I’m sure he wouldn’t be considered “self-absorbed”.
ETA: Nevermind. I just saw your “neigh” comment. So include your shitty comment along with the rest.
No, if a man gave such a piss-poor interview for random roles, the only difference is no one would be making excuses for him and saying it would be perfectly acceptable for a woman to be this dull and shallow.
I LOL’d at her response.
She is unbelievably vapid and dull.
I loved her in “LA Story,” and that’s the source of my lifelong celebrity crush on her.I never noticed before that she sort of slyly looks at him when she says “big D.”
I just noticed that as well but I was a kid when it came out and I wouldn’t have caught on to something like that.
Heh, I was 19 when it came out, so I’m honestly shocked I didn’t notice.
I love Random Roles, but there are times when it’s glaringly obvious that an actor is only doing it because it’s a chore for their interminable press junket. This is one of those, sadly for us and for Gwen. SJP’s responses were about as deep and entertaining as a sidewalk puddle.
Well she was nice enough to share with us that she is a mercenary hack who has nothing interesting to say about any of her roles. Though I would have guessed that from her performances.
*shrug* Not everyone is in it for the art, man. Some people just want a paycheck.
That is fair enough, but she still should have better stories.
She probably does. She owes us nothing.
One can hardly begrudge a teenager SJP for taking “Flight of the Navigator” for a paycheck. Let’s relax. She was extremely complimentary of several directors she worked with.
I’ll cut SJP a bit of slack for this uninteresting interview – I have no idea what else she was occupied with that day, how much time she had, if she’s ever read a Random Roles or the AVC. I would like to have heard more from her but it seemed like she was short on time, not necessarily short tempered or whatever.I remember loving Square Pegs, and I think it holds up, but jeez, that laugh track. I guess most comedies had them, and the “filmed before a studio audience” ones still have them (sure it’s real people but really laughing that much each take??). But it’s particularly irksome (nowadays) when it’s obvious there’s no audience, like following the kids around the high school….
It’s an awfully long interview if she was short on time.
Was this an interesting interview? I say, “neigh”!
“Do I really have a face like a horse?”Ed Wood was such a great film.
Stop horsing around.
Kill yourself.
Nah.
They can’t all be Kelly Lynch.
I haven’t seen her in much besides Sex In The City, but I love her part in State And Main – would’ve liked to hear her thoughts on that one.
I really liked Honeymoon in Vegas when it came out, but I haven’t seen it since. It’s no Raising Arizona, but it’s odd and a little off for a rom com(?) with Nicholas Cage being the weird treasure that he is.
Raising Arizona was a rom-com? Huh, I did not know that …
Im pretty sure I’m implying Honeymoon in Vegas is, but with a question mark. So a debatable rom com.
yeah but … rethinking Raising Arizona as a rom-com is an engaging thought project. Edwina as the hapless beauty and Hi” McDunnough as the hapless “wrong-side-of-the-tracks” loser breaking the stasis of life. Then Gale and Evelle Snoats as the jealous interloper/s first love for Hi … which forces him to grow and mature to be with his one true love. Even Arizona becomes a character … like NY in “Harry Met Sally” or LA in Steve Martin’s “L.A. Story”I’m spending too much time thinking this thru … but could be worthy of a thread sometime …
Ahh ok that is interesting.
Honeymoon in Vegas was a disappointment because it was Andrew Bergman’s follow up to “The Freshman.” And “The Freshman” is fucking genius. “Honeymoon” is not…
GirlsThey WantWanna Have Fun GirlsWanna Have …
YES! I can’t believe they didn’t ask about Girls Just Want to Have Fun! I freaking love that movie.
This whole interview was like being on a really boring date.
I actually like SJP. I think she can be really funny in the right role. But wow does she seem uninterested in these questions.
Exactly.
I’m not ragging on her skills, she just clearly wishes she was somewhere else talking to someone else about something else.
She didn’t come off great. More self-absorbed and patronizing.
Frankly most of her interviews are kinda like that…
The whole thing can pretty much be summed up as, “It was a paycheck.”
Wasn’t “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” her first starring role? It ran in a constant loop on HBO in the 80s.
Can’t believe SJP treated Flight of the Navigator as “just a job.” I loved that movie as a child, and I wanted to be friends with her!
Lynne Taylor-Corbett choreographed Footloose? That kind of blew my mind.
Loooved Square Pegs. There’s a weird cable channel that shows the full run every so often, and I always wind up watching it. RIP Johnny Slash.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun with Helen Hunt. There are nuns and quirky friend and poor cute guy and evil rich girl and hairspray as a flamethrower!!You guys know this!!
I wanted to be Lynn soooo badly. She was the coolest.
Ugh, when I look at her all I see is a bland version of Laura Dern. Yet she has a damn Oscar. Stupid American Oscar voting block.
“Miami Rhapsody” isn’t just made by somebody who was “very influenced by Woody Allen.” The entire thing seems like a bad photocopy of a Woody Allen movie- the dialogue, the types of jobs the characters have, the pacing, the costumes, the sets, the camera set-ups, the music, and even Mia fucking Farrow. It’s embarrassing to watch. You could well imagine the director wearing horn-rimmed glasses and watching Ingmar Bergman movies when he wasn’t on the set.
But one very memorable line that I’ve always loved. SJP’s character has just been told that she won’t land the big client because she’s getting married and will probably be knocked up soon.
SJP: So this is it— I’ve hit the glass ceiling!
SJP’s boss: Oh come on. You don’t really buy that glass ceiling stuff do you?
SJP: No, I don’t really _buy_ the glass ceiling. I get it for free when I wake up every morning.
Oh I totally never connected her with Flight of the Navigator, I probably didn’t give a crap about girls at the time.
I loved SanDeE*. Fight me.
I did too. It is a guilty pleasure.
She’s one of those people whose fame far outstrips any minuscule talent. I just want to punch her face any time she opens her mouth.
Hate Woody Allen movies (always have, not a “he might well be a pedo” thing.) Really liked Miami Rhapsody. My takeway: Woody Allen movies are a lot better without Woody Allen.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a long article with so little to say.SJP the only one who returned your calls or something?Also a wasted opportunity to ask her about her feeling about the horseface line from Ed Wood. I highly doubt that was in the script before she was cast.
Excuse me? Where’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun? First Wives Club?
I had to scroll all the way down to your excellent comment about the lack of First Wives Club. She played a character that I fully believes encapsulates her. Maybe that’s just me.
The Sex and the City movies? Striking Distance? If Lucy Fell? ‘Til There Was You? Failure to Launch? Did You Hear About the Morgans?There are so many crappy movies I would have liked her to talk about. They should’ve got Will Harris on this.
Ms. Parker’s command of the English language is astonishing.
and Thomas [Haden Church] was definitely my first choice, and we were all very excited about the idea that he—no one thought he would say yes, because he hadn’t done television in a really long time. But I said we should let him turn it down. Let’s not turn it down for him.Word salad, but a nice sentiment.
I loved LA Story. The only role other than in Hocus Pocus I could tolerate SJP in.
I feel like this is a transcript of an average dinner conversation between her and Matthew Broderick.
Forgot she was in Flight of the Navigator, a touchstone film of my childhood, and distressed at her lack of insight with the role. Maybe it wasn’t such a classic as I remember?
As a kid, Flight of the Navigator was my all-time favorite movie, so her response to that one made me laugh out loud.
c’mon no “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”?
“Square Pegs” should be canonically declared to be Carrie Bradshaw’s high school experience.
Why did SJP think she could get rid of her mole at the age of 50. We’ve all seen it before! We have photographic evidence and everything. You’re not fooling anyone.
Maybe she wasn’t worried about what LaurenceQ thought
Just remembered the first thing I ever saw SJP in: Equal Justice
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098789/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_40
A really generic law show with a good cast but she was a standout.
You didn’t come within Striking Distance of one of my favorite SJP performances.