Sarah Jessica Parker Wasn’t “Comfortable” With Sex And The City Nudity

Although Sex and the City is known for its spicy love scenes, Sarah Jessica Parker has shared a surprising admission about the show’s nudity. During a June 29 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Parker (aka Carrie Bradshaw) recalled working on the series early on, revealing that she had some initial concerns about the script’s nude scenes.

“I thought the script was really interesting and really exciting, and different, and fresh, and I’d never seen anything like that,” the actor explained. “The only thing I said to him that I was concerned about was that I just didn’t feel comfortable doing nudity, and I suspected that if it wasn’t in the pilot, it would be a part of a series.”

Parker went on to reveal that SATC creator, Darren Star, soon reassured her that she wasn’t required to bare it all on screen. “He said, ‘Don’t do it then … we’ll have other actors, if they feel comfortable doing it they’ll do it, but you do not have to.’” During her Howard Stern Show interview, the actor also clarified that she “never had any judgments about anybody else” who agreed to film nude scenes, adding: “I was just shy. I never felt comfortable exposing myself that way.”

Meanwhile, Parker also explained that she wanted to be mindful of how Sex and the City utilized its freedom from censorship. “We were on HBO, and I knew that meant we could say anything we wanted,” she explained. “But I also thought therefore it meant we had to be disciplined, and we shouldn’t just use language because we could.”

As for Parker’s co-stars, Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes) didn’t share the actor’s anxieties when it came to nude scenes. “I feel like I was always fairly game for it,” she revealed to Entertainment Tonight. “It's just one of the main subjects of the show is sex — people having sex and people having great sex and people having terrible sex and people having hilarious sex.”