Sarita Choudhury and I are bonding over watching Sex and the City for the first time after moving to foreign countries following our respective heartbreaks. ‘I watched it in Italian and I remember it immediately helping me. I kind of got addicted. When I came back to the States, I started from the beginning again,’ the British actor recalls over Zoom from her home of over 25 years, New York.
Choudhury’s baptism into the world of Cosmopolitan cocktails and Manolo Blahniks isn't too dissimilar to that of many fans who found a kinship with the late nineties HBO television show, which centres on the stories of four single thirty/forty-something women navigating the extremely complex NYC dating scene. ‘When you're going through a heartbreak, or there's a lonely moment in your life, there's a certain embarrassment to it, as if you think you're the only one,’ Choudhury says of the healing power of SATC. ‘When you see the show, and you see people that you love and admire having the same experience, it takes away that embarrassment. Oddly, it gives you a badge of honour following a break-up.’
The 56-year-old is speaking to me just days before the release of And Just Like That’s second season – the spin-off comedy-drama television series, developed by Michael Patrick King for HBO Max, and sequel to SATC. In the first season of the show, fans were introduced to Choudhury’s character, Seema Patel – a real estate powerhouse who develops a strong friendship with Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) thanks to her no-nonsense attitude, enviable dress sense, and problem-solving approach to life. She’s the antithesis to Charlotte’s idiosyncrasies, the sounding board to Carrie’s grief, and the spontaneity to Miranda’s prudence.
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It’s unsurprising then that fans have dubbed Seema 'the new Samantha Jones' (played by Kim Cattrall in SATC), who was notably absent from the first season of AJLT. ‘I find it to be a compliment,’ Choudhury says of the comparison to Cattrall’s SATC character. ‘Samantha's character was so agile and unpredictable. I don’t find her to be like Seema, but I do have the freedom in her pushing certain boundaries, or saying something that is a bit outlandish. There are similarities there. Samantha was such a brilliant character.’
Reflecting on the biggest affect Seema has had on her life, Choudhury says it’s a revelation to play someone who is so 'secure and ballsy. She just says what she thinks - there's no neuroses leading up to it. I don't know what kind of actor I am, I wouldn't have pegged myself as a method actor at all, but I think [Seema] does influence me to a certain degree,' she explains. In the previous season we see Patel looking and finding love - or at least a romance - with club owner, Zed (William Abadie). 'I don't know what Seema would think about me, the actor continues. 'I know so many strong Indian women, for example, but whether that strength is played out publicly all the time is another thing. I would love to have a friend who happens to be Indian and is publicly like [Seema], without shame.'
Growing up in Jamaica and Italy, Choudhury’s breakthrough role came in Mira Nair’s 1991 indie romance Mississippi Masala, about a young woman of Ugandan-Indian descent who falls in love with a Black man, played by Denzel Washington, in small-town Mississippi. Since then, she's become a household name thanks to parts in cult-favourite TV shows like Homeland and Little Fires Everywhere. ‘The fans of Homeland are very different to AJLT,’ Choudhury explains, sharing that she wasn’t sure what to expect of the fandom surrounding the SATC and AJLT franchises. ‘I'm used to my fans being 35 and above, but there's this whole group of 20 year olds... it's so invigorating! A lot of the comments I hear now are, “I moved to New York for Sex in the City”, or “I just moved to New York, because I finally saw all the old episodes [of SATC]”. It always shocks me that actually happens and how much of the show is the fans.’
Minutes into season one of AJLT, we witnessed the cast explore the complicated reality of love and friendship in their 50s, catalysed by Carrie's bereavement following the death of John Preston (aka Mr Big, played by Chris Noth) following his widely-debated Peloton workout. Praise of the show was wide, but diluted by heavy criticism, with some believing it to be clunky, ‘cringe-makingly crass’ and 'too woke' with its direct addressing of issues such as race, gender and sexuality. ‘I grew to understand that with this show that’s going to happen, and we have to take some of the criticism if we're going to take the compliments,’ Choudhury muses. ‘There's something about the amount of talk that happened that I started to realise, “Oh, this is good. They're at least talking”'. In defence of the first season, the actor notes that it would be near impossible to revisit the characters' stories in a modern day context without the accusations of being try-hard. ‘I was trying to figure out if there was a way to escape the accusation of "wokeness" and still not be caught in the 1990s, and I just don't know if there's a way to do it without being criticised,’ she says.
It's been over 18 months since AJLT season one hit our TV screens, so to say anticipation for the second season is high is like saying Carrie doesn’t mind a Manolo sample sale. ‘Sex is one big central thing we want,’ Choudhury says of what fans can hope to see in the second season, now that new friendships have embedded themselves as part of the show's fabric. ‘There’s a faster momentum and more mistakes are made, which I love,’ she adds. While grief permeated season one, as we watched Carrie come to terms with the loss of 'Big', and fans mourned the demise of Steve Brady and Miranda’s relationship, Choudhury assures us that season two will be a celebration of fun. ‘Everyone's being unleashed,’ she says. ‘After a death you want to see how fast [Carrie] is going to feel free again. There’s a different temperature with everyone's freedom in the show.’
One of the biggest conversations surrounding the release of AJLT season two is the reappearance of Aidan Shaw, after images of John Corbett and Parker surfaced online last year, leading to speculation that AJLT was very much Team Aidan. In a previous interview, Choudhury noted that she was neither Team Aidan nor Team Big. ‘There wasn't that much thought going into it,’ she laughs about her comment, adding: ‘When you're watching [SATC], you're like, “Oh my God, finally, this is going to be her love” and then a few episodes in you’re thinking, “Oh, no”, and you have to shift. The show isn’t about “Who is the one?”, but that searching – that longing. Longing is more of a protagonist than the actual [love interest], and that’s why I couldn’t settle on anyone for Carrie.’
Since its conception, rumours of cattiness and tension among cast mates, notably between Cattrall and her co-stars, have plagued Sex and the City's reputation. (Hours after I speak to Choudhury, news broke of Cattrall and costume designer Patricia Field's 'return' to the franchise). So, it's refreshing to hear Choudhury happily describe returning to the set of AJLT as ‘a shiny, colourful adventure’. ‘I think people must think we're lying when we say we get along, as if there’s infighting, but it's such a pleasure to be around women your own age, and to be in a make-up trailer, where everyone has the same issues,’ she says. ‘It's like going to camp. I didn't expect this to happen right now in my life.’
Of course, SATC isn’t the only show to have seen journalists pit groups of women against each other for clickbait. You need only recall the headlines surrounding Noughties shows like Gossip Girl and Girls to know that some, in the media, enjoy using women's relationships as canon fodder to further fuel the misconception that women simply can't get along. ‘A lot of people writing the narrative are men, and I don't think men realise what we're like in the bathroom at the back into the disco telling each other how great we look and how we like each other’s lipstick,' says Choudhury. 'I don't think they realise the amount of nurturing that goes on within the giggling! We're so supportive and nurturing as women, we can't help it, and I think the more women writers there are, the more the narrative will change.’
Of course, no discussion about SATC is complete without talk of the clichéd fifth character of the show – the fashion. For over a decade, Field was known as the mastermind behind culture-defining looks like Carrie’s Versace ‘mille feuille’ gown in the final SATC season, the bargain-find tutu mini dress and ballet pumps in the opening credits, and John Galliano’s famous newspaper dress. Fast forward to 2023 and AJLT’s wardrobe has been brought to fruition with a 2023 lens by costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago. ‘ I've never had this kind of wardrobe in any show that fits so well and make you feel so good,’ says Choudhury, whose character is known for wearing eye-wateringly high heels in every single scene of AJLT season one. It’s a trait the actor has had to quickly adapt to. ‘I put the same work into wearing the clothes and heels as I do having a cigarette or opening the bags,’ she explains of her preparation on set, revealing she often spends up to 10 minutes before shooting practising how to open and close a handbag.
In the last season, Seema gained a legion of sartorial fans thanks to her brand-filled wardrobe, which included Lanvin’s Pencil Cat Bag, a white Ralph Lauren Arely Jumpsuit, a Fendi handkerchief-hem silk-georgette blouse, and an Etro tailored leopard velvet jacket. While the star describes herself as ‘shy’ in so far as she doesn't take the clothes home from set ('I don't want to be the actor who asked for anything'), we're glad to hear she plucked up the courage to agree to keeping one item of clothing in particular from season two, which she described as ‘heaven’. '[The producers] sent it to me so I have it hanging up. I’m not sure if I should wear it before the show comes out,' she says of the mysterious item.
In a year that’s seen the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett and Jennifer Coolidge clean up during awards season, AJLT's season two arrival couldn’t have come at a better time to further highlight the need for, and normalisation of, diverse age representation on screen, rather than it being a fleeting moment shrouded in glitz and glamour. ‘When I saw what started to happen to Jennifer Coolidge [after The White Lotus] it made me so excited, because she's breaking so many barriers. I would consider her to be the coolest, most famous one at the party, no matter where she goes at this point,’ says Choudhury, referencing the Golden Globe winner's 2023 acceptance speech.
However, the actor warns that Coolidge et al's recent award recognition doesn’t guarantee real representation. ‘We have to be careful of imitating the characters that Michelle or Jennifer have played, and instead keep moving forward,' she adds. 'Sometimes what stops a revolution is the excitement and when writers are told that we need more characters like [them]. But the truth is, [Jennifer’s The White Lotus character] was only like that because she found some humanity and humour in it. The ticket has to be pushed into thinking “Ok, what's the next character [we can create]? That’s where the freedom lies.'
And Just Like That… is available from June 22 on Sky Comedy and NOW.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
