‘SATC’ FAVE ON APP-ALLING TURN
“Sex and the City” is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week, but don’t ask Mario Cantone, the show’s Stoneham-raised star, to talk numbers.
“I don’t want to know! I don’t like looking at those repeats that are on constantly,” Cantone told the Track.
“I don’t want to look at myself from 15 years ago. I don’t want to see that! Bette Davis once said, ‘Old age is not for sissies.’ And guess what, I’m a sissy and it’s not for me.”
Cantone played fiery wedding planner Anthony Marentino on the iconic HBO series, which followed columnist Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica
Parker) and her gang of gal pals, Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), as they scoured New York City for love — and then some. And although the comedian/actor would rather not discuss how many decades it’s been since “Sex and the City” first hit our TV screens, he can’t escape the vicennial chatter from fans. Not even in France, where he’s currently vacationing.
“I was at a champagne tasting yesterday in Paris,” Cantone said. “It was only this small little group of people, and all of these women were coming up to me, telling me how they still watch it and are turning their daughters on to it. And now the younger generations are binge-watching it. It holds up.”
Despite its undying popularity, “Sex and the City” is starting to show its age in just one way: its absence of apps, a staple within the current dating landscape and what some may consider a mild form of legalized torture.
“I don’t know how the kids do it today,” Cantone said. “I think, in a way, I’m glad it didn’t exist back then. Meeting someone you want to be with is more of an event and has more drama when it’s in person.”
“We had (the characters) meeting lovers, boyfriends and husbands at parties, at the supermarket or at an event in New York City,” he continued. “That’s a lot more interesting than shooting someone sitting alone in their apartment flipping through an app. If that’s the whole scene, that’s a snooze.”
Surely, Cantone assured us, Mr. Anthony Marantino would have no time for any of this swiping nonsense.
“I don’t think he would have patience for it. I think he would get very frustrated with dating apps very quickly. He’d probably walk out on people or slam the door in guys’ faces if their pictures weren’t true because people lie on those apps.”
Cantone did clarify that his famous character might have given
Grindr a whirl, adding, “He was adorable then, so he would have done pretty well.”