Cynthia Nixon Defends How ‘And Just Like That’ Approaches Samantha’s Absence: ‘It Was Great’

usmagazine.com:

Seal of approval. Cynthia Nixon defended the way And Just Like That handled the absence of Kim Cattrall and her character, Samantha Jones.“I thought it was great,” the Gilded Age star, 55, confessed during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen on Thursday, January 27. “I have to say, I love how we addressed it head-on in the first minute.”Cattrall, 65, was the only one of Sex and the City‘s four leading ladies to not take part in the HBO Max spinoff series.

During the December 2021 premiere, it was revealed that Samantha moved to London after a falling out with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), who fired Samantha as her book publicist.While many fans were confused about the fight and the ladies’ current relationship with Samantha, Nixon thought the And Just Like That writers handled the tricky situation perfectly, noting that the loss of Samantha provides additional “layers” to the ways the characters interact with one another and the rest of their social circle.“Like, there’s the thing you tell Bitsy von Muffling, and then there’s the way you talk about it amongst each other,” Nixon said.Most of all, the Ratched alum is happy that And Just Like That left the door open for Cattrall to potentially return one day. “I felt like the flowers [Samantha sent to Carrie] at [Big’s] funeral were just [so special], and I love how we keep checking in with her from time to time,” Nixon said. “I love that.”While Cattrall, who is currently starring on Hulu’s How I Met Your Father, has not publicly commented on her decision to skip the SATC revival, showrunner Michael Patrick King told Us Weekly and other reporters in December 2021 that he never planned for Samantha to appear.“And Just Like That was never, ever intended