Sex and the City star Kristin Davis has opened up about a “mortifying” experience she had while shooting for the popular HBO show’s fifth season, alleging that showrunner Michael Patrick King “forced” her to go topless in a busy restaurant for a scene.
In a conversation with Sex and the City writer Jenny Bicks on the Are You A Charlotte podcast, the actress, who played the role of Charlotte York, recalled the scene from the first episode of Season 5 of the show.
“Michael Patrick forced me to do it. He kept telling me, ‘It’ll be fine. It’ll be great’,” she said, adding that she “didn’t want to” flash her breasts, especially since the scene was filmed in a public place.
In the first episode of Sex and the City Season 5, Kristin’s Charlotte, the most old-school member of the group, takes off her top and flashes her chest during a Navy party.
“But we were in a restaurant. There were people everywhere,” the 60-year-old actress said, adding that the experience was “mortifying” for her. “(I had) a lot of stress about it,” she said.
On the podcast, Kristin said that people might not find the story “good”. However, she later laughed it off, saying that the director of the show “knows” how she felt back then.
Created by Darren Star, the hit show is based on a novel by Candace Bushnell of the same name. Running from 1998 to 2004, Sex and the City explores the lives of four career-driven women — Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) — who navigate the ups and downs of their lives in Manhattan.
Kristin’s character Charlotte was depicted as the most traditional, poised and romantic member of the group, prioritising emotional connection and the desire for a perfect, fairy-tale relationship.
Two film adaptations of Sex and the City were released in theatres in 2008 and 2010, respectively, which featured Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Sarah Jessica Parker.
A reboot series, And Just Like That, was released back in 2021. The third season of the show is currently in the works.
