Sarah Jessica Parker will do a lot of things on screen, but she won't get naked. Ever.
The actress spoke of her no-nudity contract clause as she gets ready to reprise her role as Carrie Bradshaw in the "Sex and the City" reboot titled "And Just Like That."
"Some people have a perks list and they are legendary. They have to have white candles in their room. I don't have a crazy list like that. I've just always had a no-nudity clause," she told The Sun. "I'm a modest person. You couldn't pay me enough to have someone pretend they were me doing a nude scene. No body doubles — that's part of my contract."
Sarah noted that producers often tried to get her to strip down in her early acting days, but she always took a firm stance. One time she sobbed because of the pressure she felt. Luckily for her, she had people willing to go to bat for her.
"There was so much pressure for me to take my clothes off. They were like, 'Sarah's going to be nude tomorrow', and I was like, 'I'm not going to be nude,'" she said. "My agent sent a car and a plane ticket to the film set and said, 'If anybody makes you do anything that you are not comfortable doing, you don't.'"
"I know how lucky I am that there was someone — in this case, a man — who stepped in," she added.
Considering her resume and power within the industry, SJP is now in a position to tell producers what she feels comfortable doing. In "And Just Like That," which also stars Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis, SJP answers to almost nobody as an executive producer.
"I'm excited about being back with Cynthia and Kristin and on the streets of New York," she said. "It's very possible that a great actress will join us, and she will have a huge impact and we'll want to be with her more, the audience will want to see her more. I'm just very excited."
While reuniting with her friends is certainly gratifying, Sarah is also looking forward to her wardrobe.
"Some of the happiest memories I have are fittings for the show. I worked 18 to 20-hour days for years," she said. "After filming, I would go into fitting at 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. for three to five hours because you'd be doing two episodes back to back. At points, I was wearing 20 to 30 costumes per two episodes. But they were so much fun and I did whatever I was told. I would try on anything. No matter how ridiculous."
"We'd double over laughing sometimes because so much of the stuff was from thrift stores and vintage shops and pulled from the most peculiar and outrageous spots," she continued. "Sometimes Michael Patrick, the director, would be like, 'What are you wearing?' And I would be like, 'Just trust me on this'. Like the bird in the veil or the dress in Paris, from a thrift store. We had no reason to put that dress on, we could not rationalize it but it was beautiful and knew the audience will love it."
With the new mini-series, designers will be clamoring to dress Sarah and her costars, which is far from the way things used to be on "Sex and the City."
"In the beginning we had a very tiny budget," Sarah said. "Nobody would loan us anything. I mean, nothing. We couldn't get a bag, we couldn't get a flip-flop."
And Just Like That… everything changed.