Spotlight on Sarah Jessica Parker
The actress is back on our TV screens in season two of Divorce
Next chapter In season two of the dark comedy series, which returned to M-Net earlier this month, Frances (SJP) and Robert (Thomas Haden Church) from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, have finalised their divorced and are trying to make a fresh start.
“We went for a lighter feel,” says Sarah (53) who’s also one of the show’s executive producers. One of the main reasons for this, she says, was to show that divorced parties can go forward separately but together.
“We wanted the second season to be one of hope. After a first season spent in battle, we were excited about looking at liberation and what that means for Frances and Robert.” Finding Frances Sarah says it took her a while to find a role she could sink her teeth into after her hit series Sex and the City ended in 2004.
“It’s taken me a long time to find anybody I thought had as much potential as Sex and the City’s Carrie, who was complicated yet understandable, relatable yet foreign,” she says. “I find her honesty sobering but I admire it. I love playing her. I think she’s an interesting, real person.”
Sarah’s also interested in the subject of divorce. “We could look at the brutal honesty of a divorce, especially when people aren’t good at it.” On the home front She’s been happily married to fellow actor Matthew Broderick (56) for 21 years. Their secret? “We don’t talk publicly about our marriage,” she says. She adds she’s sure she annoys him “and he annoys me too sometimes but I’m enormously proud of him, I love him and I think he’s brilliant”.
They have three children – son James (15) and twins Tabitha and Marion (8). “Parenting is exhausting. You’re one big old-fashioned secretary, organising peoples’ lives. But with that comes witnessing somebody hopefully develop into a really interesting, decent person.”