Episode Transcript
Hi, I'm Kristin Davis, and I want to know are you a Charlotte?
So today everybody is a special special day on Are you a Charlotte?
The one and only Kyle McLaughlin is here joining us to talk everything Tray and Charlotte.
Speaker 2I brought the cardboard baby, it's just outside.
Allowed so happy to be here.
Thank you for having me on, Thank you for being here to get into everything.
Speaker 1It's a fun conversation you guys.
Kyle has an amazing, amazing style and home day Corps.
Speaker 2Oh, thank you very much.
Speaker 1I got some really good advice from Kyle back in the day.
Speaker 2Remind me what I said to you.
Speaker 1I had a really really old apartment Upper West Side, pre war and yeah, and you and I said, I don't know, there's like wires coming out of the walls, and I don't know.
And you said, you need an alibat sconce that's the time, and this is where you go to get it.
And I still have them.
I love them.
I don't have anywhere to put them now.
You still have them, you say, because they're gorgeous.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's a beautiful light that comes out of there.
Speaker 1Very fat, very flattery, very warm, light, warm.
Speaker 2And sauce, I know makes us look good like the lighting.
Speaker 1You have hairs warm, and I know I feel strongly about lighting.
Speaker 3It's important, right, oh my god.
And the older we get more important, it becomes right.
Yeah, that's what I love about your hair.
I think your hair.
Speaker 1Is kind of like creating like a beautiful halo around your face.
Speaker 2Thank you, thank you.
I'm glad I have it.
Yeah, you still have a ton of it, a lot of hair.
It's a little different color.
Speaker 1I know, But wasn't it that color then too?
Speaker 2And you were I've been coloring my hair for oh.
I started going gray in my twenties.
Speaker 1She's so crazy hereditary.
Speaker 2She was totally gray in college.
Wow.
Yeah.
Speaker 1And did she just wear it?
Speaker 2Well, my mom.
Speaker 3Changed her look any many times, so she you know, she colored her hair and then she had a wig phase and then oh yeah, the whole thing it was.
It was the sixties and seventies.
It was all about that, you know.
It was kind of upstyle blonde.
Speaker 1You know.
Speaker 3She was very very in the small town of Yakama.
She was very fashion amazing.
I guess fashion aware, not ye a fashion forward, necessarily fashion.
Speaker 1That would be hard in Yakama.
Speaker 2Yeah, oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1But I remember at the time that we were on the show, we would talk about your hair and how like, would you ever be able to just be your natural gray self?
Speaker 2Now you are and now I love it.
It's happy I gave up and you're embracing it.
I think it's to thank you.
Speaker 1And went walked in the Vogue World.
Speaker 2Yes.
Yeah, the other night that was really fun?
Speaker 1Was it?
Speaker 2That was really fun?
Yeah?
It was.
Speaker 3I mean Bazi Lhrman did the whole thing and it was just so beautifully realized, I thought, and a nice a meshing of fashion and the fashion world of course and all of the designers right shows, yeah, films, and it.
Speaker 2Was really great.
Speaker 3And it was huge, big, so big, over one hundred and forty people walking in the show.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3I mean I heard makeup room alone.
It wasn't even a room, it was a They had a sound stage.
Wow filled, Wow, it was wild.
Speaker 1Did you film it?
Speaker 2I did a little bit.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 3I felt a little like not uncomfortable, but like, oh, I don't know, invade everyone's getting ready and I was like not really the.
Speaker 1Time, that's a good point.
Speaker 2So I did it kind of wide and sort of vague.
Speaker 1But that's interesting.
I think that's really interesting.
Yeah, I would like to be there.
That would be interesting, though I would not want to walk in that thing.
Are you not that brave?
Speaker 2Oh?
Speaker 3You just walked down the street really yes on paramount.
Yeah, yeah, you just walked down and there's people from other side.
They're cheering you on, like, okay, that's okay, very positive fun.
Speaker 1I think you're very You've walked in shows before and things.
You've done a lot of things I have not done.
I mean, I.
Speaker 2Feel like you're the time is now.
Speaker 1Well, the time is now, for sure.
But also I think you have to know your like your wheelhouse or whatever.
I don't know that that's mine.
Speaker 2Oh I would I would not discount that at all.
Speaker 1Right, that's very real, perfect, thank you.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I feel I feel like you have had in some ways, like many different careers, but maybe it's just different eras journy mean, and you always kind of had one foot in fashion and design.
Speaker 3Yeah, I like all of that and have been able to sort of I was able to manifest it at a certain time and it sort of stays around.
I mean, that was one of the pleasures of doing this world was I got to see people that I hadn't seen, oh for like over twenty years.
Speaker 1Amazing.
Speaker 3Yeah, some of the makeup and hair people that I remember, and and the Winter was there, and it's nice to see her again.
And I mean I see her occasionally out and everything, but within the confines of the fashion element, it was really fun.
Speaker 2Nice.
Speaker 1Yeah, So let's go back in time.
Speaker 3Let's go back in time.
Do we need to do anything special?
Is there a music cue?
Speaker 1Now?
Speaker 2Do we?
Speaker 1We're a low fie.
We're a little fie.
We just go back in our minds.
Speaker 2I like that.
Speaker 1Just come with me as much as much as you can.
There's your coffee that's going to help.
Speaker 2This is going to help me go back in time, fuel the memories to tell you that right now.
Speaker 1I do think there was a lot of coffee going on our sets because we were working all.
Speaker 2Night, working, oh my gosh, working.
Speaker 1All night, Oh my gosh, all the time, right.
Speaker 2And it was mostly you and me.
Speaker 3That's some people ask me to say, hey, what was it like, you know, with all the girls and everything, And I was like, I don't know.
I worked with Kristen and we did our thing, and then I would come out and you know, and I'd see, you know, I'm somebody else walking around.
John Corporate would be there and it's pink slippers and slippers and whatever.
Speaker 2Bathrob you had on.
You know, you're up.
You know, that was kind of the way it was.
Speaker 1But you know what I did remember too, And I mean, I want to talk about when you first came, but but what I did remember because I was watching last night, right because you were coming.
And I try I do my best to be really disciplined about the rewatch because I haven't rewatched these things in thirty years, right, so it's it's I try to rewatch right before I'm going to come talk to whoever it is.
But with us that we had so many episodes and it's a whole, big, big storyline, and I just fell down the rabbit hole and I was just watching and watching and watching, and I was like, I've got to go to sleep.
I've got to go to sleep.
But it's so good.
Yeah, it's really held up, Like have you rewatched it?
Speaker 2I haven't rewatched it, but I remember it being good.
Speaker 3At the time, I thought I thought the one of the strengths in particularly our stuff was you know, let's say the conceit of what was happening was funny and embarrassing, let's I'll be honest.
But at the same time, they gave us a chance to deal with it in a fairly educational and understanding.
Speaker 1And I think so too, non judge, non judgy.
Speaker 3Yeah, exactly, and you know, the mind of the humor of it.
But it was it was definitely something that was it had I think it had a deeper it was a deeper thing going on there.
Speaker 2That's which I really which I really appreciate.
Speaker 1Definitely.
Did they tell you when you came, because this is what I remember.
I remember that I knew this was going to happen, right, that this storyline was coming.
We didn't know it would be you, of course, and the original plan that I think, I mean, I knew that Charlotte was going to, you know, be hell bent on getting married, which made sense for her blah blah blah.
And I would, you know, had my books and my different things, you know, And I remember that being very challenging for me because I don't really subscribe to that or whatever, but I know there are people who do.
Exactly, I had to do my research and get get the books ready.
And then I knew that you were going to come you whoever you would be, Trey, and that she would get what she wanted.
But then it wouldn't work out.
And I didn't know why right and then, and I didn't know who it would be.
And at that point we had just started to get the significant guys like Eigenberg was there.
You know, we already had Chris of course from the beginning, but then Corbett had come, and you know, Sir Jessica was involved, and I think Cynthia was involved in Eigenberg, and so I thought I might get to be involved.
Then Michael Patrick went to a picnic one weekend and met you.
Do you remember this?
Speaker 2I can't remember a picnic.
Speaker 1You red picnic, I don't know.
He comes to work Monday morning, He's like, I've got your guy and I was like, wait, wait, I don't get to meet it.
I said, who is he?
He said, Tom McLaughlin.
I was like, oh, okay, no complaints, no complaints.
I'm very excited.
That was how it happened.
I said, well, what how what happened?
He said, I went to this picnic and he was there and I just just couldn't stop thinking about how perfect he'd be and he was so charming.
And do you not remember this?
Speaker 3MPK, No, no, no, I remember the picnic, but I do remember the meeting that I had with me and Jenny Bicks.
Speaker 1Oh got it.
So you did have an official meeting.
Speaker 2We did, Okay, we did.
Speaker 1What did they say to you?
Speaker 3Well, the thing that stand out or stood out to me, And this again, this is a long time ago.
I think it had been presented to me like come, you know, join the cast sect in the city.
He's a little bit of a descriptor, like he's on the Upper east Side.
You know, he has kind of a kind of a strong mother.
He is a heart surgeon, you know, he seeks athletic, you know.
And at that point in my career, I was like, this is perfect, I said, because I've been playing Agent Dale Cooper, and I've been playing you know, somewhat eccentric, sort of odd ball.
Speaker 1Characters, romantic character romantic characters.
Speaker 3And I said, this is a great opportunity to finally, you know, tap into that because I've been kind of pigeonholed.
And so I was really excited at the meeting and I came and I think it was at the Region the Regency.
I think, oh wow, I think it was on the hotel.
Speaker 2Yeah.
We went up uptown, Okay, and we sat down and we had you.
Speaker 3Known't coffee and stuff and they were they were talking about the show and pleasantries, you know, and Jenny was there and uh.
And then so they started to go into this thing and I'm kind of like, you know, I'm kind of excited to talking about you know, I think he's he's a guy spends time in Central Park.
Speaker 2You know, he's probably only be some surgery stuff, you know.
Speaker 3And I was like, all this kind of stuff going on, and they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, fine, and they said, but the two things he said.
One, he's he's got kind of an unusual relationship with his mother.
She's got a dominating so he's got very close and and and he's impotent.
And I was like and I was like, he's impotent.
Speaker 2I was like, and I'm there like this, and I'm smiling, and I'm like, you know, just when you think you're going to get out, you back in.
Speaker 4And I was like yeah, and mother, yeah, but they told me, they told me, they told me, and I was like, you know, listen there.
Speaker 2It's a talented cast, talented writers.
Speaker 3The show was incredibly popular, and I was like, I'm in, you know what am we gonna?
Speaker 1Thank God, thank god you're in.
Thank God you're in.
And then do you remember?
And I don't know exactly the specifics, but I think I feel like at some point to two things changed once you came.
One was that I think originally you were only supposed to be like it was.
It was a short arc, right, it was supposed to have three episodes or six fall apart, right like quick.
But then we were like, no, no, we can't part with him.
Speaker 2Yeah that was nice.
Speaker 3Yeah it extended, you know, and I was so happy.
Speaker 2Good choice of worried it extended.
Speaker 1It's okay, that's all right, free here could be whatever this visual.
Speaker 3But I was so happy because I was really enjoying my time and working with you absolutely, and the writing was exceptional, and you know, there was and it was funny.
That was the thing.
I mean, we treated it.
Trey treated it.
He you know, he sort of like stiff upper lip.
Sorry that's another one.
But he kept you know, he kept you know, he kept his sense of humor about you know, frustrated.
Speaker 2But and then.
Speaker 3There I mentioned Francis Sternhagen and more a wonderful, wonderful person and actress and so and I thought, I thought that relationship was also very funny and fraught with all sorts of you know.
Speaker 1So interesting.
Speaker 3Yeah, oh boy, this guy's in trouble.
It was an instant character.
He was complicated and.
Speaker 1Unlike anything else.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I mean, but that's also why, like in a way, like in a what you bring something?
You know, all of us actors have something that we bring, right, and for you, what I think you and why you had someone gotten, you know, somewhat pigeonholed by Cooper because he was so amazing, right because your your relationship with Lina.
I mean, everything was just worked so beautifully.
And I mean I watched every episode.
You know, it was a diehard, which I think when you came, I had to like, you know, like don't fangirl, don't fan girl, you know, because it's like embarrassing in a way because I've got to work with you and you've got to be tray and blah blah blah.
But in my mind, I'm like, ah, anyway, I mean, but I think you bring an intelligence, you bring a bit of a sweetness which is kind of unexpected, and someone so handsome, and then you do bring an eccentricity, and when you mix those things, it's a very unique mix.
And I feel like that you work so beautifully with Trey Well.
Speaker 2I think you're also talking about your character.
Speaker 3Thank you and you because that mix of things is very, very very there and right at the surface, and you have an extra thing which I think is kind of wonderful, which I don't know if you ever spoke about this, but I feel like I said with with Kristin, I said, I don't know if she realizes she she's funny.
I think she knows she's funny.
If she's inadvertently funny, it's one of the great comic comedic qualities that you could possibly have, because I think there are you know, a number of people throughout the history of film and television that you don't know kind of what's going on, you know.
Speaker 2Funny, I do.
Speaker 1Thank you.
I mean, I think I feel that this is what I think about that in life previous to like success, right when you're just trying to act, you know, which I've been trying to do my whole life.
It was the kind of situation where you know with guys, like if I was dating somebody, we got in a fight, they would laugh and I would be so bad, but like my comedic because my feeling, my feelings are so big, right, Like, I'd get very super animated, and then they would laugh at me, and I'd be like, stop laughing, I am serious, but you know they're laughing at me, right, And so at a certain point you'd go like, hmm, well not as interesting.
It does hurt my feelings in the moment.
But once we started the show Jenny Bicks, when she came on, she said to me, I didn't know if you were funny or not.
I thought, well, she's really pretty and she's really nice and talented, but I don't know if she's funny.
And then they wrote a scene in one of her first episodes where I contemplate having a threesome and then it really is just the other two want to make out, do you know what I mean?
And they kind of pushed me off the bed.
Yeah.
Speaker 5I'm like, oh no, you know, it's very Charlotte moment, like she's trying something that's uncomfortable and it doesn't go right, and I kind of fall slowly off the bed, but I'm also trying to keep my skirt from writing up, which was really me, you know, right, Kristen as an actress as.
Speaker 2Well, like.
Speaker 1And then she thought, oh, thank god, she's funny, right, and then they because they knew me, and I think because Charlotte had such an earnestness, yes, which played to my strengths, yes, right, so that I could.
I always knew as Charlotte that the way to make Charlotte funny was to really have deep feelings, to really invest, which I think is something that I think some young actors sometimes don't understand, Like they want to play it cool, but cool is not really funny, right, you know.
Speaker 3I think that following the truth, which I think is what you're saying, and in terms of what's happening in the emotions and really believing it and then kind of it's like you turn the dial up one more thing.
Yes, so it's not extreme, but it's enough to just people go, oh my god, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1Absolutely, thank you, thank you that little extra.
I appreciate that.
I think I've always admired that, and I think we had it together so well, like we were so well.
Speaker 2It was super dry, right, very you know you were super dry.
Speaker 1I'm not super dry, do what I mean.
But that's why it works, right, Yeah, When I watch us, I'm just kind of amazed, like I don't know, and I've had amazing coasters.
Obviously, Evan's amazing, you know who came later, such a great actors, But like the ease, I don't feel like I have a different thing with him.
And obviously it's been forever that we've worked together, where like you kind of just know what each other's going to do in that way, and I didn't really feel that way with you, Like I wasn't quite sure what you were going to do in an exciting way, right, like in a way where you're like there right right.
And I also think because the relationship was written so unusually like that, it's not something that we've really seen before or since.
Yeah, right, And I think that's partly why.
And I'm just going to leap in here because it's on my mind partly why you didn't want to come on and just like that and wrap it up.
Speaker 3Well, it was partly that, yeah, because I feel when they came and presented an idea and I was like, I get I see it.
Speaker 2It's so kind of a one joke idea.
And I was like, and I really felt I.
Speaker 3Felt like we had invested so much in this relationship and and I think culminating in that moment when I actually return and we do the photo because it's important to you so sweet.
Yeah, and I felt like, you know, there's there's more here than that, and I and I was just like, and I felt I felt like because it would have been fun to come back.
I mean, we just really wanted I know I was, and I was like, this would have been great.
Yeah, But I just felt like and so I kind of, you know, said, you know, I'd love to hear an idea.
Not to insinuate myself into the show, but let's have a couple of episodes or something or something.
Speaker 1That has, I agree, a beginning, middle, and an end, not just like putting a correct finished like this is what it is I could put.
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
When I saw you at the party, I'm glad that I started at the party because I was so sad that she didn't come back.
I was like, oy said no, I was like what, And of course I didn't hear anymore, right, I just heard that you said, right, So then I observe what I saw you because it didn't make sense.
And I also feel like people like because I wasn't ever rewatching right, because I felt like, well, I'm just going to live in the past if I just watch the show all the time.
Right, So now I have a job where I get to rewatch the show, which is fun.
And it's also fun because people talk to me about it all the time, and people talk about us in a very interesting way, which is not that they don't love Harry.
They do.
And I think that people feel like that was the right thing for Charlotte.
But I think there's also like whenever I anything comes up and I put it on social media, I can't remember what I put on.
I must have been a podcast related thing.
But people start in the comments like, you know, you shouldn't have given up on Trey or you know whatever, and then other people.
Speaker 2Are like, of course, cardboard baby, it's a problem.
Speaker 1Baby is a problem because then I think I put like I can't really remember, and I still can't remember every detail because there was kind of a lot.
Speaker 2Yeah, there was a lot going on there.
Speaker 3I know it was kind of a blur to the end and then we you know, we went through kind of the difficulties, and then then there was then there was too much you know what I mean, which people forget about that, and then and then and then it sort of ended.
And I think in some ways, and I don't I've never asked anyone.
I said, I feel like they had to end it somehow, right, and they didn't know.
Speaker 2Yes, that's a good.
Speaker 1Point, well, because I think everything had gone off the track of the plan when you showed up.
Because the plan also and I don't know if you knew this, remember the boat that we go on this boat with Sarah, Jessica and Chris.
Yeah, I had forgotten that scene until I watched it, and then I remembered that the original idea was that you were going to be like a dud and that everyone was going to be born in general, in general, a short version of Trey was that Tray wasn't interesting.
That Tray looked perfect, right, and it was kind of scenario was perfect, you know what I mean, like the side exactly right.
Speaker 6So you came that's the plan change, right, And obviously I mean I'm in that scene and you're You're telling the story of us meeting, and Carrie's like, I've already heard this story three times, you know, on the voiceover, right, and you're telling it and.
Speaker 1I'm just laughing.
I just think it's the best thing.
But the original idea was that you it would be like that couple that's super boring together and that everyone is like, oh God, who's going to go talk to the new husband?
Right, No one was to be stuck in a corner with the husband who's going to like jack your ear off about some boring something, right.
But then you were you, and so it didn't really work okay, right, I mean it kind of worked like that.
We were an annoying new.
Speaker 2Couple, do you know what I mean?
Like most new couples are pretty annoying.
Speaker 1Right, And I'm just giggling at everything you say, and I'm just like yeah, and then you know, like it's a little over the top, and she's like, oh god, right, but we couldn't.
That didn't last.
But that had been the original I didn't know.
Speaker 2I didn't know, interesting.
Speaker 1Well it was.
I think it just had to go out the window when you showed up and they had to shift.
Speaker 2Yeah, and I had to figure out and then they had to figure out kind of how to end it.
Speaker 3Yeah, which and I still to this day because I said, what's why would I bring her a cardboard baby?
I was literally I was like, this doesn't track for me at all.
But I said, I understand it from the outside, like, oh yeah, he's like so off track whatever, Yeah, that he thinks that this is acceptable.
And I said, well, do I do I play it that I'm clueless?
And I said, I'm not clueless, or do I play it that I'm deliberately trying to end it and being so kind of cruel?
Speaker 2Oh?
Do I play that?
Speaker 1Did?
They say?
Speaker 2Yes, No, this isn't me thinking to myself, how I make this work?
Speaker 1Yeah?
Would you do?
Speaker 2So?
Speaker 3I finally just kind of didn't make any choice at all.
I just kind of just said cardboard baby, and I just said, oh, well, the it's going to be.
Speaker 2I don't know what it's going to be.
It's going to be so outrageous.
Speaker 3I said, people are going to have any number of reactions to it, and I didn't really.
Speaker 2Know how to place it.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, you know, but I thought because in general, and I didn't get that far last night because I was like, I will be up all night watching the Show's.
Speaker 2Amazing, right.
Speaker 1I know it would have been amazing, but I would be very, very tired right now and probably not making full sentences.
And I always tough.
Speaker 2Work as well.
Speaker 1I was like, he's not that far away.
I could maybe make him come back.
That's what I thought, But I I think that what I think that the idea, at least from my understanding, And I also think about this in retrospect, like I wasn't I was.
I can't remember how old I was at this point, like mid thirties.
All my friends hadn't started doing the fertility stuff yet later on they all did, right, And I thought, Oh, I do not know if I play this like right?
Speaker 2Oh you know what I mean?
Speaker 1Because you remember like I'm trying and I want to try, and you're like, I'm tired, I don't want to try anymore and I want to play golf.
That's what I remember as being the end.
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2Because I'm like, that's very funny.
Speaker 1I mean, it was painful and also exactly the Carpoord Baby I felt like was like a I felt like Trey was trying to be funny like to like in a weird way, like I'm just going to try to make light of this because I don't know what else to do, you.
Speaker 5Know what I mean?
Speaker 1Because at that point we were not on the same and we were not on the same track, and you were just like, I'm going to hope that I can make this joke and that we can get on with it and just live a happy life.
That's kind of what you wanted.
And I mean I have known couples where the woman is just so like you know, the baby thing can be all consuming, right, like fully all consuming, almost to the detriment of the relationship, you know, right, like you get like it's in your bones or whatever that you have to continue, do you I mean, even though it's hell right like hell on earth.
I mean we probably all have friends have gone through this.
I certainly have, and the guys just like miserable and so miserable for the woman, do you know what I mean?
But there's nothing you can really do, right like once you've gone to the science, you know what I mean.
And I feel like that's kind of what they wrote.
But I think also because I have talked to our women writers and I've said, like I don't know if I really like I might have needed to be even more crazy than I.
Speaker 2Was because of all the hormones and everything.
Speaker 1Yes, how deep it can go, you know what I mean?
They were like no, no, no, you did great, because I also think part of them they didn't want us to really go right.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Into a drama, like a hardcore drama of baby making with science.
Speaker 2Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3You know, that's that's the tone of you know, following the tone of the show, which is really important that it's you know that there's there's humor in fun and there's like a little bit of a sadness here.
We're a bitsweet and then you know, pop out into the humor.
So just't dwell in that area, right.
Speaker 1And I think also dwelling in the IVF area is just like it's like a whole other sh Yeah.
Speaker 2And how do you treat that with some humor because it's really.
Speaker 1It's really hard.
No, it's pretty serious and art.
Right.
I think that the idea was that Charlotte's down that road and fully fully committed, and you're just like I can't, you know, I just can't.
That's what I thought it was, and that's just so disappointing for her.
Speaker 3Well it's also hard for me just as a person because I've always I always feel myself as I'm very supportive, you know.
Just but but this would not have been that I would not have been playing that side.
Speaker 1And because then it would have probably worked out, you.
Speaker 2Know what I mean.
And then yeah, and then we'd still be on the show.
Speaker 1Well then you went on, you left us, you went on to do The Housewives.
Speaker 2Yes, I entered another world.
Speaker 3Yeah, see there a long time I was, well, here's the story on that.
I was brought in the first season to be the kind of the every season there's the one, you know, person that the killer, the murder or whatever, you know.
Yeah, and so they brought me in and Mark Cherry, the creator, was saying, you know, here's the kind of here's the arc, and you know you're going to end up, you know, obviously being being the killer at.
Speaker 1The end, rightway.
Speaker 3Yeah, And I was like okay, and I got in and I started working where we were a couple episodes in, who are three episodes four?
Speaker 2It?
Speaker 3So you know, you can tell pretty early on how it's going, you know, whether you feel great, comfortable and this is wonderful.
Speaker 2Yeah, or it's kind of like.
Speaker 3I really I don't want to get out of here, you know, it's not worth And I was like, I went to Mark, I said early on and I said, hey man, I'm just I'm having such a great time here.
I love working with Marsha, I love everything.
I love the fact that it's ten minutes from my house.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I didn't say that, but it was like super convenient.
Speaker 3That was just like, you know, any chance that maybe talk to the writers are considered maybe keeping me around for a little bit longer.
I didn't specify, just asked, you know, I said, what's the harm, right, And he sort of looked at me and he said, let me, let me, let me uh, let me go talk to everybody and see what they think.
And he came back not long and said, we've got an idea.
And they brought in Dixie Carter.
She was my mom, another another one of those, and she was actually the mastermind and so she became the villain.
Smart yeah, And I was like, that's so clever because it added another layer, unexpected layer, so then I could be potentially I was going to be the color but then it sort of fell to her, so it actually worked out.
Speaker 2Interesting and and that was this.
Speaker 3I started was on the second season or third season, second I think a second season, and then and then we went.
Speaker 2I went for another like six years.
I know.
Speaker 1When I looked at the dates, I was like, ha ha.
Speaker 2How well they ultimately ran out of stuff.
It was one of those things.
Speaker 3You know, the storylines revolve around around the women, of course, and so that was the most important, and we and the men would sort of feed into the stories, right.
Speaker 2But they couldn't.
At a certain point time.
They were like Jesus, what are we going to do with this guy?
You know, he's like stealing things and he's running around doing you know, they have you do crazy things.
Speaker 3It's one of the scary things about it is one of the scary things about television about getting a script week to week.
Speaker 2And I don't know if you have this experiences, well, but.
Speaker 1On Meloe's Place, I totally had this experience.
Speaker 3Okay, next script, it arrives and you see it on your desk and you look at it and you're like, oh boy, okay, and you open that first page and as you kind of look at it, like this because you don't know what they're going to ask you to do totally.
Speaker 2Are you going to be naked or are you going to be clothes?
Are you going to kill someone You're going to kill you emotional breakdown totally page seventeens or you know what are they going to have you do?
Speaker 1Yes?
Speaker 2And I was always a lot of trepidation.
Speaker 1You know, I get it, Melros.
That's how it was for me big time, because Darren brought me in and then Darren left, And once Darren left, he thought that my character was a little bit funny.
But then he left and they were like, we're just going to make her really mean and the villain and then crazy, and then I mean I was just like, oh my Jesus God.
And then they were like, now you're going to die.
And I was like okay.
Speaker 2I mean I was.
Speaker 1Upset because I was young, but I was like, yeah, I see, I see that.
Because you don't know what to do.
Speaker 2I mean, it's a it's a it's a double edged sword.
You have a job.
We're so grateful we're working.
I mean it's fantastic.
Yeah, time we have no control and you have to try to make it work, and you have.
Speaker 1To make sometimes it just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2You're just like a cardboard baby.
Speaker 1Totally.
That's funny that you felt that, because I didn't know that you felt that.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was just trying to wrestle with it.
Speaker 3Ultimately the choice that you said, which is he's trying to make fun of something, but I said, see that, I was just I was rankling at the cluelessness.
Speaker 1I get it.
Speaker 3But at the same time I recognized, Hey, they need the end to somehow.
Why not we'll go out with a with this because it's so it's so unfeeling.
Speaker 1There's a lot of things where I have like crystal crystal clear memory, Like I remember reading you, meeting you at the read through.
Do you remember meeting me at the read through?
Speaker 4No?
Speaker 3But I remember rescuing rescuing you that first scene in the taxi cab, Yes, that scene the street.
Speaker 2Yeah, so good.
Speaker 1It's so good.
It really holds up.
It's so exciting.
Speaker 3Ye like that it was shot and everything about it.
Speaker 1It looked so much like a film, and I think it was Alison Andrews directed.
Can anyone check wow?
If right?
Speaker 2That's good?
Speaker 1I know.
But also, do you remember Charles McDougall who directed the Tiffany's and he's so brilliant.
And one of the things that I'd love to look at when I look back at the show is the kind of evolution of the visuals because we really started out quite simply, you know, because remember we used to have people talking to camera, break the fourth wall.
It was very kind of like a reportage, you know, like on the streets, you know, very unassuming in terms of like the shots, you know, just straightforward.
And then it gets better and better and better.
We start getting the sopranos directors coming in and her dollying through the rooms, you know, then we get Alison Is.
It was Alison Alison Anders.
Speaker 2Do you remember her.
Speaker 1Be like, baby, good job, let's just do it again.
She's like so warm, like commable and comfortable.
But also she was like very indie film maker, so she had a bit of a edge in her the way she filmed things, which is what I liked about because I'm with that husband of my friend, because I've gone to the married people.
I've basically said in that episode, which we could talk about when we get to it, but I've said to the girls at the table, like without apology, I've been like, I'm not going to be seeing you guys as much because I have to go hang out with my married friends, which is so rude.
I'm like, Charlotte gosh.
And they're like, oh okay, They're like, wait, how does that help you find a husband?
And I say, because they know people.
The husband's know nice guys, and you have to meet the husband's friends.
So then I go to the friend of my husband who you've you've never seen these people before, right, like now with social media the way they dissected and just like that.
Sometimes when I'm looking at Sex and the City, I'm like, see they would complain about that.
Speaker 2People know everything.
Speaker 3My god, Yeah, it's tween peaks And I'm like, I don't even remember doing that, you know exactly, And I'm like, what I know.
Speaker 1But I mean like it's it's kind of impossible in a way to withstand.
Yeah, you know anyway, like when I look back at like also, Miranda has a cat and previously she never had a cat, and then Steve gets a dog, and then Miranda has a cat and Steve has a dog, and they they there's no mention.
It's really odd.
Do you mean that the cat is going to be important because she's going to have the I'm going to die learned and the Cat's going to eat my face storyline.
So I can see that they're prepping the next storyline.
But like nowadays, if you did that, the internet would be up in arms.
Like Miranda never had a cat.
Where did that cat coming from?
It makes sense, But back then, we just did it every week.
We just did our stuff.
You didn't worry about it.
Speaker 2Now.
That was the beauty of it.
Speaker 3And I think, you know, going back to speak about the directors, and each one was different and brings a different sensibility and different energy on set and a different really a different style, which was and the show was strong enough to handle all these different interpretations.
They completely interpretations, but the kind of you know, yeah, the way the way the camera was used, and it's such a fun thing.
I remember on twenty Peaks the same thing that they would bring into guest directors and they always had a different kind of a different take on things, a different rhythm, different energy, and it was always interesting.
I remember Uliadel came in and directed the Amazing at that time, and I initially was sort of rankling at him, and then I sort of settled in and relaxed, and he said, don't know, he's actually because there's always that moment that first day we're like, you know, to trust.
Speaker 1Not sure.
Speaker 3Yeah, am I going to let you sort of in here?
Or am I going to like do my own thing?
Speaker 1And also think as actors, you have to have the ability to do that.
Speaker 2You have to express yourself and tell what you need and what's feeling.
And this is important to you, you.
Speaker 1Know, right, And cut to when we do the Tiffany's when so we go, I had forgotten about the whole dinner, you know.
I go to have tea with you and Bunny, and Franny is just so unbelievably great, just so great, and she keeps putting her hand on you and trying to basically tell you that you don't know what you're doing or whatever, and you need to do what she's saying.
And then you go, alrighty, and I see I clocked this whole thing.
So then we go out to dinner and I've been telling the girls like, oh, he's gonna propose.
I can tell I can feel it.
This is the one, this is it.
And I do believe that Charlotte one hundred percent means that, like, it's not just her wanting to get married, like you are it, you know what I'm saying, Like, there's no there's no like I'm making this happen.
That it really happened for her, you know what I'm saying.
And I feel like that's that moment when you pick me up off the street, you know, and that's why they did it so beautifully.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1So we're there with Franny right and I'm like, hmm, she gets him to do what she wants.
That's so interesting.
And then we're dinner whatever I can't remember closure some restaurant and you don't like your salad, yeah, yeah, yeah, and I put my I try it.
I'm like, I'm going to try it.
And I put my hand on you and I say, you know, maybe you should try you know, the tomato and mozzarella or whatever, and you're like alrighty.
And I'm like, oh my god, it wor and I think there's some voiceover Mary, and then I just barrel right in there and I say I think we should get married, and without a doubt, You're just like alrighty and you look away and then I'm like oh, And then I go to carry and I kind of I don't.
I didn't love my performance in this scene.
I remember being stressed about it at the time, and I can't remember if it was Alison or if it's McDougall.
I think it might be Alison.
I don't know that she is.
The Thing with Charlotte that I think was hard is that her stakes are so high for everything that you don't know how to modulate the scenes sometimes.
And I know sometimes even with them just like that, Like I would read it on the page and I would think, like, you know, this is like a regular group scene where Charlotte's just asking some questions.
And then I'd get there and Michael Patrick would be like, yell at her, and I'd be like, okay, yeah, I'm like, oh, I didn't understand.
He said, you are the voice of reason in this scene and she's being insane, she's blowing up her marriage.
You've got to yell at her.
I was like, oh, I've got to yell at Miranda.
Oh my god.
But I would and he would be right, right, But like sometimes it's hard to know, like because she's so committed to all the things that she believes, you know, and loves.
Right, we don't know which is like one hundred percent, which is one hundred and fifty percent, which is fifty percent.
Right, So that scene with Carrie would I go and I'm like all shocked.
I'm like playing shock, which is also kind of hard for a whole scene, right, And I've got my eyes are all like super big, and I'm like I proposed to myself, you know, like that, right, and she's like, oh baby, you know she's very motherly, which is sweet, and like there was no ring and he didn't get down on his knees or anything.
What did I do?
Speaker 2You know?
Speaker 1Because I think I've ruined like my one and only moment moment, right, which I kind of did because I'm so like hell ben on this happening.
Then the payoff comes the next episode, which is when McDougall directed.
And I don't know if you remember, he would put the camera like blocks away we're on for the avenue, yes, I remember.
We don't even know if we're in, yeah, and it's real people.
Speaker 2Are walking by.
We're there trying to do a little.
Speaker 1Scene totally and he's like, just just walk, it'll be fine.
He's British.
I didn't do his accent well, but he's like, just just walk it'll be good.
And we're like, I'm like, oh, but I need to know my mark.
And you were cool as a cucumber, having been through you know, been in all the films, You've been in everything.
Okay, but you well you are pretending very well.
But it was really so great because we walked down and I've got the little bow and I've got kind of the Audrey Heppern asked Cardo, and we walked down to the corner of Tiffany's and somehow you just sense that I'm upset.
I'm like pouting, and then we get to the window and it's so beautifully framed.
They go inside and they frame us in the window and you say, you know, how about we go in there and get you the best engagement ring there is.
And I'm like, it was so good.
Speaker 2That's what.
Speaker 3And also I'm just remembering shooting on the York shooting in the streets of New York.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's really it's special.
I've never done that before.
I've been there for we've.
Speaker 3Done the Doors and we'd come to New York for that, but that was interior and you really weren't really in the city, but Sex and the City really really used the city and really showed the city.
Speaker 2So so well.
Speaker 1I agree, I agree so well, especially in the olden days because we were we had not enough time, so we would like take the lights and like roll them down the street.
Do you remember this.
It was like kind of gorilla ish filmmaking.
But then by the time Charles came, because Charles would do like we also shot in Burgdorf with the china and we had to flip the china and he had a crane in Burgdorf and we had like thirty six takes of the crane shot to flip the china, which was insane, and like at a certain point the HBO guy would come and like lart us, like, you guys are over budget.
Speaker 3Yeah, Charles was definitely OCD.
It was one of them.
It's got to be perfect, it's pretty close.
But he was just so talented.
Speaker 1I was always like the man say, yeah, it's great, God, so did I but.
Speaker 2So cool, so cool, so so.
Speaker 1And he always wore suits, very posh, very posh.
We were lucky to have him.
All Right, Kyle, you're too much fun.
We're going to have to keep talking.
Can we come back and do Part two Pleasure fantastic.
All Right, you guys come back later in the week and we're going to continue on talking about train and Charlotte moments and how we remember them.
Yes right, all right, thank you Kyle,
