SPELL BINDING
STAR ON HOCUS POCUS
SARAH Jessica Parker channelled her Sex and the City alter-ego at the premiere this week of new Disney+ film Hocus Pocus 2. At 57, she cast a magical spell on the red carpet wearing a floral-printed Armani Privé jacket, pink-harem-style trousers that were a favourite of Carrie Bradshaw in the second Sex and the City movie and pink pumps from her own shoe collection, SJP.
But the mother-of three claimed there was no extra pressure being a style icon when at these kind of events – and usually she’s make-up free and doesn’t wear heels.
She said: “I’m like everybody else. You get shined up and make yourself appropriately presentable when the occasion calls for it but a lot of the day, even at work, I don’t even wear make-up.
“When you’re running for a cab or you are on the subway, heels really aren’t practical. A lot of real life doesn’t allow for the version of ourselves maybe people would like to see more often.”
While Sarah likes to work in her own New York shoe boutique and will show off some of her own collection, when it comes to fashion her tastes have changed. As Carrie she was at the forefront of 90s style and wore the infamous tutu, crop-tops, little black dresses and cowboy hats but now her inspiration is simpler.
“I like what I like,” she said.“That’s how I make choices now I’m older.”
In the past, Sarah – who brought along husband Matthew Broderick to the Hocus Pocus 2 premiere – has admitted she’s as obsessed with shoes as Carrie is.
She even admitted to Oprah she had 100 pairs of Manolo Blahniks. But she said: “I don’t have as many as you might imagine. I have far less than many women I know but I have a nice amount but I wouldn’t say it is staggering.
“I get to borrow a lot which makes a difference. Anyone who saw my closet would be enormously disappointed because I don’t have a big closet.”
After the young Sarah found fame in the 80s in films like Footloose, Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Flight of the Navigator, she became an A-lister in the 90s with a string of big hits like LA Story, Honeymoon in Vegas and in 1993 Hocus Pocus.
The fantasy comedy saw her, Bette Middler and Kathy Najimy play three witchy sisters who are inadvertently resurrected by a boy in Salem on Halloween night.
The film was a scream and has become an October family must-see for generations since.
In the sequel, the Sanderson sisters – Bette as eldest Winnie, who has the power of electrokenesis, Kathy as Mary, who can track children with her sense of smell, and Sarah as the airhead youngest, Sarah – return 29 years later when the Black Flame Candle is lit and they return to present-day Salem looking for revenge.
Sarah said they have been overwhelmed by the love for the movie and interest in the sequel.
She added: “It’s always amazing when you do something that people have a connection to and maybe even integrate into their lives somehow. It’s
very meaningful and I feel very grateful. I find the affection for this particular film in people’s lives, through fans of the original and now their children, very touching. I think we all feel very lucky to be a part of it.”
Sarah’s 13-year-old twin daughters, Tabitha and Loretta, were not even born when the first Hocus Pocus came out but they were at the premiere of the new one.
Sarah, who also has an older son, James, with Matthew, said: “It’s so much fun. They’ve grown up with the first movie.
“They love it and so they were so excited from the moment I told them we were doing a second movie.
“We shot in Rhode Island so they were able to come and visit a few times.
“They just really wanted to meet Kathy and Bette and even though we had all the procedures in place due to Covid, we got them tested and they got to meet.
“Loretta was especially excited to meet Bette as Winifred. She had an all-access pass to all the waiting around on a film set and then watching a scene in action.
“But it’s really nice how much they both genuinely love these movies. With or without me in it, this is something they really do love.”
Sarah said she didn’t have much time to think about making the new movie. She began filming Hocus Pocus 2 the day after she’d finished shooting the first series of Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That… – switching from fashionista Carrie to a 300-year-old witch.
The Ohio-born actress called on “muscle memory” to remember what Sarah Sanderson’s voice was like and how she walked. And she said that becoming the Sanderson sisters again after so long wasn’t all magic.
She added: “It felt a little peculiar but also so natural and so familiar. It was so
easy at first but it did get a little harder as the days went on because you started to realise what you didn’t know and didn’t remember that you felt was important to get right.
“But to be there with Bette and Kathy was just a joy.”
Sarah is a big fan of Halloween. She said: “I loved it as a child.
“My mother made our costumes on a Singer sewing machine filled with rage the entire time I’m sure because I am one of eight.
“I always liked being a lion. My mother made a lion costume with a mane.
“That I adored. It was yellow and brown and it was beautiful.
“I grew up for a large part of my younger life in Cincinnati, Ohio, so Halloween was cold, wet and rainy so I would have to put on horrible boots which would ruin it.
“But I didn’t care because dressing up for trick-or-treat meant candy. We weren’t allowed to have candy at my home.
“My mother was rather modern because she didn’t allow candy, sweets or any of that stuff. So Halloween meant we could get candy out.”
Fans of Sex and the City are happy a second series of And Just Like That... is currently heating up, with a read through and Sarah showing off the new script to her social media followers.
The first series – which was minus Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones because she didn’t want to be involved – wasn’t without it’s critics but clearly there was enough interest for it to be green lit again.
Sarah said: “I’m so happy, so excited and so grateful. I can’t say too much yet but it’s going to be great.
“It’s coming and I can’t wait for everyone to see it.”
Hocus Pocus 2 is streaming on Disney+ from today.
I’ve a nice amount of shoes but I wouldn’t say it is staggering SARAH JESSICA PARKER ON FOOTWEAR COLLECTION