Sex in Morocco

The Sex amp The City cast on riding camels celebrating Thanksgiving with snake charmers and shooting the sequel which hits theatres in India this weeku00a0Sex amp The City stars Kristin Davis Charlotte Sarah Jessica Parker Carrie Kim Cattrall Samantha Cynthia Nixon Miranda Chris Noth Mr Big and filmmaker Michael Patrick King get together in New York before curtains rise on the sequel to the Sex amp The City film The girls talk about bonding in the desert female empowerment fan reactions and Thanksgiving And the men surprisingly also manage to get their lines in Starring Kristin Davis as Charlotte Starring Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Starring Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Starring Kim Cattrall as SamanthaWhy do you think gay men are as excited about seeing this movieKing When Im asked that and Im going to call it an antique question are gay men liking these characters whyu00a0 Its because of the style And I always said that the reason that Sex and the City actually became present in peoples mind was because there was a voice that needed to be heard And at that time it was the single girl the outsider anyone who wasnt married at the age of 30 when society told them they should be married So I think anyone whos ever been an outsider whether it be due to your sexual orientation or your gender your race your anything these four girls have moved through the world trying to claim themselves And whats great about the movie for me is that its still an evolution The reason weve gone from a TV show to a movie is because weve been daring and allowed people to change Theyre individuals and if gay men women and children like this movie its because of the story about looking for love maybe with someone else but of course looking for a love for yourself in this great society that we have Parkeru00a0Well I also think that its hard to deny that there is as youve said this wonderful search this endeavour for love But there is an emotional ingredient when I talk to people in the gay community The clothing is fun and its just the cherry on the sundae its the souffle But its really this ability to articulate emotion embarrassing and candid and intimate and the humorous way of observing our emotional journeys that a lot of my gay friends really really love And I think that they are very comfortable saying that And its taken maybe the straight community of men a little bit longer At the luggage carousel they used to go I watch your show Or theyll say My wife my girlfriend forced me Now they seem to volunteer more freely the fact that occasionally they even watch it on their own if the remote got stuck buried or not you know or whateveru00a0 But I think maybe generally that thats been my experienceu00a0 Nixon Also right from the beginning there was a conscious decision made that we would never see these peoples parents We would never you know with maybe one exception see their siblings two exceptions but that because that they were each others family And I think certainly for many gay people and for many nongay people thats the reality now that maybe you have a family that you come from that you love or maybe you have trouble with but that you come to New York and you create your own new familyWhats one of the most empowering thing you find about being a fun and fearless as woman Davis Our characters are different but yet were very very together And no matter if we always agree like sometimes the characters disagree like Charlotte judges Carrie I love that part of the storyline because I think that we do this in life And it doesnt really serve anybody but its human nature And then luckily Charlotte had enough time and honest conversation to realise and tell herself Thats really unfair of me to judge my friend and try to put my own preconceived notions on my friendu00a0 But I love the fact that what weve created all together and what Michael has created in the writing for us is these really powerful women who can be each powerful in their own right and still be togetheru00a0 Cattrall The most powerful thing for me is that we have encouraged a lot of women to change the way they feel about being single about having cancer All the story lines about getting married and then being deserted being alone being lonelyu00a0 Thats a very powerful thing in this era of postfeminism Weve helped define what it is to be successful smart and also feminineu00a0 Parker I really love how these women love each other in an era where women are really unkind to one another and call each other all kinds of horrible names and theres a vernacular that it seems our ears have adapted to which I find really objectionable Nixon There was a time when Charlotte and Miranda were having a big fight about Charlottes decision to stop working and to focus on having a child And Miranda was very disapproving And Charlotte really called her on it And Charlotte said Isnt that what the feminist movement is about Its not about you have to work or you have to stay home Its about choices And I think that as Sarah said these four women are so different from each other and they have such different points of view and theyve made such different life choices But they love each other and theyre not shy about offering their opinions to each other and their advice And I think that thats one of the things that Im extremely proud of I think we are a feminist showu00a0u00a0 What was it like shooting in the Middle Eastu00a0u00a0 King We shot in Morocco for Abu Dhabiu00a0 Morocco has a great tradition of filmmaking They did Ben Hur They did Lawrence of Arabia We actually shot on the Lawrence of Arabia dunes In New York which was here in Bergdorfs in front of thousands and thousands of people watching and supporting it was like an interactive theatre piece Every now and then someone breaks through and we have to stop and get everybody back behind the barricades When we went to Morocco in the middle of the Sahara desert there wasnt a sound no paparazzi just the crew It was a completely different bizarre and magical time Different colours different sounds great crew South Africans Moroccans Brits Germans everyone it was an IHOP of crew with big meals in tents Cattrall Every meal in a tentu00a0 Parker It was laborious and it was Herculean but it was one of the greatest experiences of my professional life to live and work with this cast and crew every single day to see the sun rise and set over our locations in the most far flung places to lie in a bed all day with these women exhausted and laughing to be on a camel with Kim Cattrall as it disobeyed all orders Catrall Not many people can say theyve done thatu00a0 Parker No but Im telling you it was it was indescribably wonderful to be so far away in such a wonderfully foreign place and to have this incredibly cinematic experience To be in the dunes of the Sahara for days and see things that we will never see again to smell things to eat things I mean yes it was hard but it was we could not have done it anywhere else this wayu00a0 We didnt even have a bathroom There were literally literally no interruptionsMichael what was your inspiration this time aroundMPK My inspiration for the first movie was the girls reuniting And my inspiration for this movie was the audience at the first movie When I saw the audience showing up dressed and having cocktails before and groups and going out and saw some people taking pictures of themselves in the theatre seats I thought this is an interactive party The one rule we always tried to follow on Sex and the City from the writing camp is Dont repeatu00a0 Dare yourself to change it break it move it forward It started out as a four single girls and very early we married one of them off I mean we defied the rules So I knew it had to be a different vibe And I sat down to write in what was the beginning of economic downturn And we still are in it And I thought Whats my job Im not a banker I cant go and balance your books Im a movie maker happily And like they did in the Great Depression I thought Hollywood should take people on a big vacation that maybe they couldnt afford themselves So I thought its going to be a big party I want to make a big extravagant vacation I dont think it was my job to have Carrie Bradshaw sell apples under the 59th Street Bridge Could each of the girls tell us about their best memory of Moroccou00a0u00a0 Nixon Those first very heady days in the desert Its like Wow we really are far far away in a place that weve never been before And what was so great was that we were mostly in Marrakesh but then our first filming was out in the desert When we arrived we had musicians waiting to greet usu00a0 Catrall And scarvesu00a0 Nixon And scarves We were in wardrobe but everybody else was taught to tie turbans to help them keep cool in the desert And I mean it was just it was so amazing to land in this small airport kind of in the middle of nowhere Parker We were shooting out of country for the first time In New York we go home to our friends family children and our animals and it changed For me it just changed everything They became ever more necessary And I was challenged by the work they were doing and how good they were and what thoroughbreds they were and how nothing could get us down no matter whatu00a0u00a0 Cattrall We were welcomed by the people of Morocco and felt so protected that we really did feel like a royal family I couldnt believe that people actually watched the show and knew the characters They didnt know our names in particular but kept calling us by our characters names We also had weekends off so it was a bit of a vacation Mostly on locations you dont get that you usually work on a Saturday Davis So beautiful so beautiful So on Thanksgiving day our fantastic English caterers make an American Thanksgiving for us which they thought just the Americans would want to eat And then everybody wanted to eat it and there was none left Cattrall Overlapping They ran outu00a0 Davis Overlapping Exactly they ran out of the apple pie and the pumpkin pie Everybody loved itu00a0 When Cynthia and Sarahs sons came to visit for the weekend we had another Thanksgiving at our hotel We had snake charmers visit to show the boys because we were in Moroccou00a0 King Overlapping The traditional snake charmer What will men learn from this if they go with their wives and girlfriends Nixon Possibly nothing but maybe something Im sorry Im always a little suspicious about learning from an entertaining and fun movie But maybe to trust themselves and in a tradition and God I dont know what the hell Im sayingu00a0u00a0 Parker Maybe theyll learn that its okay to just Cattrallu00a0 Just spend a lot of money on your gal King The men will learn that Charlottes nanny is Gods gift to menu00a0 Ladies could you tell us what you want men to learn from this King I think theyll be surprised how much the movies for them as wellu00a0u00a0 I mean when I sat down to write it I realised that Mr Big is now very prominently a part of Carrie Bradshaws life And so theres a couple of deliberate shout outs to men in this movie in terms of their point of view because it is the struggle of the men and women together that makes the women better Nixon There is one thing though there is something that happens as you know an event that happensThe kissKing Dont say thatu00a0 Nixon Dont say a kiss no an event that happens that could King Please dont say a kiss just say an eventu00a0 Nixon An event possibly poisonous to their relationship And I give credit to the writer of Mr Big to turn poison into medicine to not go to the impulsive place that men often do in an event like that and instead create a bridge to a deeper relationship And I think thats somethingu00a0 Parker You know its really its wonderful the couple of people Ive spoken to theyre straight men they might think that this whole franchise is anathema but they have loved that really the men there is not a villainous move by any man in this movie Any consequences are on the part of us and the choices we make and some momentary reckless behaviour or cavalier attitude about cultural standardsu00a0 Thats all its all usu00a0 And we become frankly a little wiserPlot of the sequelIts two years since Carrie Bradshaw married Mr Big the man shed always dreamt of being with Carrie has to deal with her relationship taking a turn for the worse Big likes to watch old blackandwhite movies on TV and eat takeout food and that doesnt let Carrie be the freewheeling party girl she used to be Miranda deals with a new boss who cant handle an intelligent powerful woman and Samantha works as a public relations executive who gets the fashionable foursome an allexpensepaid trip to Abu Dhabi