Kim Cattrall's depiction of the bold, provocative, openly sex-loving Samantha Jones on HBO's "Sex of the City" had viewer's jaws dropping throughout the '90s and into the early 2000s. But what drew the actress to the part was something deeper, she recalled in a conversation with HuffPost Live on Wednesday.
"The thing I loved about 'Sex and the City' and playing Samantha Jones is that she was so honest," she told host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani. "She had no hidden agenda, and I feel the same way. If I get behind something, it's because I'm passionate about it."
The similarities between Cattrall and the character she made famous largely end there, however. The show, which was "never improvised," forced the actress to take on a more open and suggestive persona.
"She challenged me," she said of her character of Samantha. "She really did. To open up my mind."
The character often challenged viewers to do the same.
"You have to remember, we know Samantha now, but as she was progressing, it was the first time someone was saying those specific words and those given circumstances to deal with," Cattrall said. "They were kind of risqué. I always worried 'are we going to get away with this?' The subject matter was out there."
Oh, yes it was. But Cattrall credits the show's frank dialogue about sex as having paved the way for other TV shows to do the same.
"Because of, really, [the show's] humor and intelligence, it really has brought television and the portrayal of women in TV so much more forward than it had been," she said.
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