Sarah Jessica Parker Q&A

The 'Sex and the City' star discusses new film 'The Family Stone' with Anwar Brett.

Dec 16 2005

'Sex and the City' star Sarah Jessica Parker returns to the big screen this week with 'The Family Stone', a culture-clash comedy that also stars Diane Keaton, Luke Wilson and Claire Danes. Time Out recently caught up with her to discuss the seasonal flick as well as her plans for Christmas.

Are you a Christmas person or is it all humbug to you?

I'm definitely a Christmas person. There's nothing religious tied to it for us, just traditional. I have a very large family, I'm one of eight children, so Christmas is been another opportunity to spend time together. We love it. And now that there are children and new family members, it just gets better every year.
 
How aware is your son of Christmas?

We thought he was pretty excited about it last year. He and I went to meet Santa, he was intrigued, and he spoke a lot about presents. And then he slept on Christmas morning until 10am! That's the only time he's ever slept that late in his entire life, and of course Matthew [Broderick] and I were up at six. We finally dragged him out of bed and convinced him to leave his crib at ten. He was mildly interested in his gifts, but really only wanted to play with the first thing he opened. But this year we've made a list, mailed the letter to the North Pole and he's spoken about what he expects to get. He really seems to have connected the whole idea of what it's about this year, but we'll see. Watch him sleep late again.

What family traditions do you observe at Christmas?

We have a tradition of not putting up the tree until Christmas Eve, so the younger children always think that Santa decorated it. They go to bed and when they wake up it's all decorated and the presents are under there. We leave the tubes from the wrapping paper out, that means Santa’s been, the cookies are gone, and there are crumbs and a little bit of milk in the bottom of the glass. Stuff like that. Nothing revolutionary.

Have you wondered what would happen if your character in 'The Family Stone', the uptight Meredith Morton, met Carrie Bradshaw?

My guess is that they are fundamentally different people; Carrie is all about introspection and curiosity, looking at the other person and inter-personal relationships. She's really comfortable in her physical person and her skeleton, and easy-breezy and delighted in taking chances and taking risks. And of course Meredith is the absolute opposite of that.

So was this role part of a conscious effort to get away from 'Sex and the City'?

Yes, but it wasn't quite as specific as that. Once I made the very difficult decision to end the show, I really felt it was important to pursue my career the way I used to, which was to look for interesting, challenging roles. It was certainly in my mind that she was different from Carrie, but Meredith was also different from any role I'd ever played. And I think that was what was important to me. That and the fact that here was this beautifully written part for this highly complicated person, and that she was part of this beautiful, bigger story of this family.

Coming from a large family yourself did you identify particularly with the members of the extended Stone family?

I did. I'm one of eight kids so there was much about them that I recognised, that familial chaos, that very deep and profound affection, that proprietary nature that siblings who really love each other have – all of that was immediately recognisable to me.

Is there a parallel with Meredith's experience, joining a large family and joining a big ensemble cast with the cliques that inevitably exist?
 
It was amazing, it wasn't at all like that on this movie. Claire Danes came into shooting three weeks into our production and on her first day she said 'I've never seen a happier set'. After 'Sex and the City', where I was so happy and comfortable, they had to really tear me away from that environment, I was resolved to that being an unique situation where I was not only creatively satisfied but personally so reliant on these people. I found myself feeling in many ways the same way on 'The Family Stone'. The cast was so happy and liked each other so much, and spent so much time together. When they were changing the lens or changing the sets we would move en masse outside, and play darts or talk, or eat or just hang out. And it was like that from the first day. Those are the kind of things you can't plan, it's just alchemy.

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