Kim Cattrall

Kim Cattrall0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand and four, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:31

My castaway this week is an actress. The television role which has made her famous is the epitome of female emancipation. As the PR mogul Samantha Jones in the American series Sex in the City, she's romped her way to celebrity status through her character's immense appetite for sex and liberal attitude towards it. The actress herself originally turned down the part, but, six series later, is now at the very top of her profession. She played her first film role for Otto Preminger when she was seventeen, had starring roles in the comedy films Porkies and Police Academy, and among many serious stage roles, played opposite Ian McKellen in the Broadway production of Chekhov's Wild Honey, and she's about to star in a new production of Brian Clark's Whose Life Is It Anyway? in the West End of London. Of the part that's made her famous, she says, I don't think there's ever been a woman on television who's expressed so much sexual joy without being punished. She is Kim Cattral. She's a great character, Kim, Samantha Jones, a free spirit. She really has touched a nerve with people, hasn't she? Oh, she really has. She's touched a nerve in me, playing her for the past seven years. People, especially women, have been reaching out to me since it started airing.

Presenter1:44

Oh my God, that happened to me, or I wish that would happen to me, or I want to be you, you know, in my next life, or I am you, not knowing at all who I am. But we should make it well, quite, and there is obviously a confusion between the real you, Kim, and Samantha, which we'll come to. But but

Kim Cattrall1:53

I am

Kim Cattrall1:59

We'll come to

Presenter2:00

The fascinating thing about it is, in case people don't know about Samantha, I mean, not only is she pretty promiscuous, but she tries lesbianism, she tries to seduce a Roman Catholic priest. I mean, is this what women in the street are saying to you? I would really like to do all these things. I think I don't know if they'd like to do them. But we all have those fantasies, and this character was living them out for all of us, me included. But on any given week when I would get a script, I would be absolutely terrified. Because I thought, how am I going to do this? And I thought, how am I, first of all, going to make this truthful? How am I going to make it funny? And are people going to be turned off? Because it was so outrageous. I mean, dying a character dyeing her pubic hair, you know, brown and then it comes out bozo red. I mean, how do you do emotional recall on something like

Kim Cattrall2:22

For

Kim Cattrall2:38

Because it

Presenter2:52

But the important thing is what I quoted you as saying, isn't it? That she

Presenter2:57

Can be promiscuous, she can do all sorts of crazy things, but she is not punished, she is not judged. That's what made her a twenty-first century character, isn't it? Absolutely.

Kim Cattrall3:04

Uh 24.

Presenter3:07

You know, I think the word promiscuity, you know, it it it just hearing you say it, it conjures up really negative connotation. It's a judgment. It is a judgment. And I think that that was the one thing that this character had, was she had no judgment of anything. Whatever her appetite had wanted at that time, she experienced it.

Speaker 33:14

It's a judgment. It is a judgment.

Speaker 23:25

Uh

Presenter3:25

So it's an exciting time, I think, because Sex in the City has, and I think specifically Samantha in her own specific way, has really changed the way people look at women and how they really are in touch with who they are and what they want and asking for it. That's the real difference that women are asking for it. Women are taking the reins. Tell me about your first record.

Presenter3:52

Uh it's after that. It's um Roxy Music to Turn You On.

Presenter3:59

I think it's not just turning you on sex sexually. I think it's just turning you on as a person. And how if you're turned on to the sensual parts of life, you can have a wonderful meal and be turned on. You can put on a fabulous cashmere sweater and be turned on. It's life to me as a sensual entity, as a sensual experience.

Speaker 34:19

I could show you

Speaker 34:21

In words.

Speaker 34:24

If I wanted to

Speaker 34:29

A window.

Speaker 34:33

With a lovely view.

Speaker 34:41

And the

Presenter4:47

Roxy Music and to Turn You On. But back in the beginning, Kim Cattrall, back in 1997, you turned the role of Samantha down three times. Now why? Do you were you frightened by her? What didn't you like? You know, I really was. I had just turned forty, and I really thought to myself, this is a one-node character, and no one's going to believe me playing this character.

Presenter5:09

And I had I had played, you know, sex sirens before and those kind of roles weren't really coming to me anymore. And it doesn't matter. But you'd have known her, wouldn't you? Because she appeared first, I think, in a newspaper column. A bit like Bridget Jones here. She was Well, actually the character of Samantha was uh a combination of two or three characters from Candice Bushenel's book, Sex in the City.

Kim Cattrall5:16

But you don't know.

Presenter5:30

Based on an article that she had written for the New York Observer called Sex in the City. But when I read the book,

Presenter5:38

I read about half the book and then I threw it across the room.

Speaker 25:42

What?

Presenter5:43

Well, I was single at the time and I just thought to myself, This is so bleak. There are no men out there and most of the men are pussies. There's nobody really here that I care about. Well, except that, as you say, when you get into your forties, you're not often offered a kind of quintessential sex bomb role, are you? You're not. But it would be. If you think about Mrs. Robinson, it's probably the only other example. You're absolutely right, yes. And there was also this sort of, you know, she takes off her top, and I thought, oh, I don't know. I don't know about that.

Kim Cattrall6:02

But if

Kim Cattrall6:04

You're absolutely right.

Kim Cattrall6:11

I don't

Presenter6:13

But you're suggesting it touched into your personal anxieties as well. As a single woman, yes. Yeah, it did. It really did. Because what it really basically talked about that women are great, and men, there are no men. And most of them are Peter Pan's, or they're so macho that they're into their new jet or their 18-year-old girlfriend. So where does this leave me? And I thought, I don't want to see a show about that. I'm living it. It's painful. But in the end, you took it. And not least, because if it's comedy, I would have thought, that's what in the end relieves it or makes it all possible, isn't it? I mean, it's hilarious. The heightened quality of the series was really made it all, oh, well, I can see myself, and it's tragic and terrible and frustrating, but it's also really funny. And I'm not the only one experiencing this. And women in their 20s and 30s are experiencing this. Absolutely. And it was all there in your CV. I mentioned, you know, Police Academy and Pawkers. So you've done that kind of.

Kim Cattrall6:16

As I see

Kim Cattrall6:17

Yeah, I did.

Kim Cattrall6:49

Yeah.

Kim Cattrall7:00

Yeah.

Kim Cattrall7:02

And women in

Kim Cattrall7:04

Absolutely.

Kim Cattrall7:09

Isn't it?

Presenter7:11

Sexy comedy stuff, you'd got the touch, hadn't you? I did, but I I must say that I really did them because I wanted to eat.

Presenter7:19

I didn't do them by looking, oh, well, I think I should be playing something sexy today. I did most of those films in my early career to support my habit, which was theater. I was doing View from the Bridge at the Lee Strasberg Institute while I was doing Porkies. So on that show, I could save my money. I didn't really care so much what the script was. I thought it could be funny, but I didn't even really know. I'd done another film called Tribute with the same director, and he said,

Presenter7:46

This is going to change your life. This is going to be so much fun. You're such a good comedian. And I was like, oh, whatever. I'm really doing View from the Bridge, the Arthur Miller, View from the Bridge. So you preferred the stage wide. You liked that sort of unencumbered relationship with the audience, do you? I just thought that the parts written for women on stage were so much better.

Kim Cattrall7:54

Say

Presenter8:05

than they were on film at that point in my life. And I just thought to myself, theater is my home. I love a live audience, but I also love good writing. So I basically did film and television to support my theater habit.

Presenter8:19

Cord number two.

Presenter8:20

Oh, Frank Sinatra's I've Got You Under My Skin. This is really a tribute to my mom. My mom's first big well, two loves. One was Errol Flynn and one was Frank Sinatra. And this was always playing in our house. And I just

Kim Cattrall8:30

Yeah.

Presenter8:33

I guess it's sort of like the acting bug for me. I got you under my skin.

Speaker 38:39

I've got you.

Speaker 38:42

Under my skin

Speaker 38:46

I've got you.

Speaker 38:50

Deep in the heart of me

Speaker 38:54

So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me.

Speaker 39:02

I've got you.

Speaker 39:05

One

Presenter9:06

Under my

Speaker 39:06

Yeah. Yeah.

Presenter9:07

Frank Sinata, and I've got you under my skin and memories for you, Kim, of growing up in Canada where he was always on your mother's stereo. But the fact is, and this will come as a surprise to a lot of people, you're technically anyway a liver puddlian, aren't you? That's right, love, I am.

Presenter9:22

I see. I'm that strong. Personally. And so you learned to speak in the first three months of your life, because that's all you were there. No, but um, my my me dad.

Kim Cattrall9:23

That strong.

Speaker 29:27

Is that

Presenter9:31

Particularly me dad had a, you know, Scout accent, so I grew up with it.

Presenter9:38

That's great. Absolutely spot on. So, but you were brought up in Canada. How did you get from one to the other? What were they doing?

Presenter9:45

Um my dad uh was a an officer in the British Army and uh after he had come back from India he was at a dance one night and met my mum. And uh after about three months they were married and two years later my sister was born. But my dad was having he was a construction engineer, he was having a difficult time making a go of it. So my mum was pregnant then with me and he said, I think we should immigrate. I think there's a possibility for a better life for us, you know, for the moment.

Kim Cattrall10:12

So he went to myself.

Presenter10:14

$20 in a bicycle and a ticket to Montreal and a lot of hope and courage. And about three months later, my mom had had me, and she brought us over with a big trunk, which we still have, and a pram, which I slept in, I think, for the first year and a half of my life.

Presenter10:35

And it was really like struggling pioneers. It really was. Did he find work?'Cause you moved around a lot, didn't he? He did for periods of time. I mean, he would do anything. He he bought these chickens and they were, you know, all over the place with this little tiny yard and he was like putting the eggs and anything to make a little money.

Kim Cattrall10:37

It really was.

Presenter10:51

But we finally uh moved west and there were some more job opportunities there. And what kind of child were you? Would would anyone looking at you have spotted the potential performer in you?

Presenter11:03

Oh, absolutely. Yes. My sister, my older sister was very retiring and shy. She would always hide behind my mum's skirt. But me, I wanted I was always asking the question, why? Why not? Why not? Why can't why not? Why can't I go up on the stage? You know. One of my earliest recollections of performing is being in a Christmas pageant and saying to my dad, I want to sing. I want to get up there and sing jingle bells. I mean, it must have been horrific for the man emceeing the event.

Presenter11:32

But I just thought that what was happening on stage was just seemed like so much fun, and I wanted to be part of that.

Presenter11:39

Next record, tell me about that.

Presenter11:41

Oh, this is uh John Coltrane, My Favorite Things.

Kim Cattrall11:46

Why do you want it?

Presenter11:47

I guess because uh this is a really beautifully constructed song, but what John Coltrane does is he makes it his own. It's sort of uh his improvisation of something that everyone knows, and he makes it unexpected and quite thrilling.

Presenter12:32

John Coltrane and my favourite things. Now when you were ten years old, Kim Cattoll, you did a school play which changed your life. Tell me about it. I played a cold germ in a production at my school called Piffle It's Only a Sniffle and I infected a whole classroom of young kids with the cold. And in the end the sun comes and kills me. Very tragic.

Presenter12:56

I had this big feather that I tickled all their noses and they were sneezing. Um but it was really the first time that uh I really got the acting bug. And it came easily to you. You just enjoyed being someone else. You've talked about the magical if.

Presenter13:12

Yes. I mean, if I was a cold germ.

Presenter13:16

If I was uh a quadriplegic, if I was a sexual dynamo, what wha what would I be like? Who would I be like? Quadriplegic, obviously, as in whose life is it anyway? But but that's what turned you on, that's what made you happy. I mean, if I've seen it suggested that

Kim Cattrall13:26

Yeah.

Presenter13:33

You know, you found happiness in that kind of world of make-believe because perhaps, you know, life was a bit insecure and difficult at home. Well, I think it's it's it's hard growing up, period, but when you're growing up really poor and you don't have the stability of a family unit around you. I mean, my mom and dad were basically alone. They didn't have their brothers and sisters or moms and dads there as a support system. They were so far away. So I think it was very lonely and very hard for my parents. And they didn't get along very well. My father was in some ways very fantastical. And my mother was very brass tacked. She was very down to earth. And he would go away, my dad, for long periods of time because that's where the work was. It was up north in Canada. And he'd do very well financially by going away. But when he came back, you know, there was a whole

Presenter14:25

There'd been a whole six months period where we had been as a family existing in one way, and then he would come back and the power struggle would always be there. And then when you were twelve, you went away. You came back to Liverpool and stayed with an aunt, I think, for more than a year. Alo I mean, alone, as it were. Your your parents had gone back to Canada.

Kim Cattrall14:40

Yeah.

Presenter14:44

That's also quite strange, although you had a great time.

Presenter14:48

I really did. You know, I didn't I considered it going to Liverpool and doing trips to London to be an absolute gift. I remember going to the Haymarket Theatre and seeing this amazing production of It Was the Importance of Being Earnest. And it was truly a life-altering experience. Was that the first time you'd been to the theatre? And been to variety of shows, but it was my first real theatrical experience. And I think it was Dame Edith Evans that played Lady Bracknell. And I just remember sitting in the audience and the laughter around me and the sets and the costumes and

Speaker 215:07

He said.

Kim Cattrall15:07

Is that

Presenter15:22

These consummate performers who were just leading the audience and telling this amazing story. And I remember our tickets to come back to Canada were a certain date, and my great aunt, Mae Bradbury, had said to me, Well, you know, they're doing these Guildhall exams and these Lambda exams, and you know, if she could stay a few more weeks, she could do the exams. Well, I did the exams. Age twelve? Yes, I did these exams, and I came away with honors.

Presenter15:50

from Lambda. So I ended up going to this wonderful school that had a drama department in it in Liverpool. In Liverpool. But it was such a wonderful, wonderful moment in my life. It was so exciting to be in Liverpool.

Kim Cattrall15:56

In Liverpool.

Presenter16:03

in the late sixties. I mean, music was everywhere. The Beatles were the hottest thing. I mean, uh Penny Lane, I used to stop there and and get my bus ticket. Just really at at that early age, feeling I was I didn't even feel like a teenager, I felt like a young lady.

Presenter16:18

Well, record number four, I think, don't you? Yes, the Beatles. Please, please me.

Speaker 316:25

You never even tried the

Speaker 316:29

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

Speaker 316:35

Come on, come on, please, please be oh yeah. Let our please you oh yeah

Speaker 316:45

Uh

Presenter16:54

The Beatles and Please Please Me. So eventually, Kim, you went to theatre school in New York. I think you were sixteen. That must have been scary. I mean, you were a small town girl, suddenly in this big city. It was, and before I knew it, I was on the plane.

Presenter17:08

going to New York. And I remember when we landed it was raining, but all the bells were ringing in New York City because it was the end of the Vietnam War.

Presenter17:16

And I called my my family collect, of course. And I said, Dad, you know, I arrived and all the bells were ringing and he said to me, He says, You know, honey, he said, They're ringing for you.

Presenter17:28

Because he was very ambitious for you, wasn't he, all the way? You know, my dad was a very talented athlete, and he was a Liverpool champion, especially in track. His dad died when he was very young, and he hadn't gotten a lot of support from his family. And I think that he saw one of his kids wanting to reach for something, and he was going to be there. He was very encouraging, and very disciplined. I mean, he was an officer in the British Army. He was strange.

Kim Cattrall17:55

British

Presenter17:58

But at the same time very nurturing and encouraging. Straight out of drama school into a film, as I mentioned earlier, directed by Otto Preminger, which sounds impressive except that apparently it wasn't, it was the most dreadful experience.

Presenter18:10

Oh, it was a baptism by fire. This was a man who was screaming and yelling, What by your bow and you

Speaker 218:16

I think I am

Presenter18:17

Ectors?

Presenter18:19

And I absolutely was terrified of him, and I didn't I didn't really know that much about him. Was it was only towards you, was it, or to the rest of the class? To everyone. He would pick someone every day. Um I remember one day we had a wonderful scenic designer

Kim Cattrall18:25

Uh

Speaker 218:25

Yeah.

Kim Cattrall18:25

But they

Kim Cattrall18:27

The cost is every

Presenter18:34

and Premager had never had any problem with him. And he had uh a number on his arm from Auschwitz, and he came up to Otto and he said, Otto, I can't work with you any more and Otto

Speaker 218:44

But I have no problem with you what's going on.

Presenter18:47

And he said, Well, you know, your screaming reminds me so much of the Nazis in the camp. You're giving me nightmares. And it was really one of the first times that he shut the hell up because he just wouldn't stop. He was just ranting. And the film turned out to be an absolute disaster. What was it? It was called Rosebud.

Speaker 319:05

Uh

Kim Cattrall19:05

What was it?

Speaker 319:05

Uh

Presenter19:07

Time magazine called it Rose Dud, and it was a dud. It made no sense, it was rambling, it was all over the place.

Kim Cattrall19:10

Was it

Presenter19:14

But unfortunately for me, this was my first film experience and I ran physically, emotionally, ran from any kind of work in that medium because I thought these people are crazy and I don't want that.

Kim Cattrall19:28

Record number five.

Presenter19:30

Ah Leonard Cohen, closing time.

Presenter19:33

Go on why.

Presenter19:34

He represents a rawness, I think, that and he was also one of the first songwriters, singers that really spoke on such an emotional truth. He was also Canadian and a poet and an artist. And I was very, very excited when I first heard his record. First of all, I thought anyone who had a voice like that could never get a recording contract.

Speaker 320:03

Oh goddamn place goes crazy twice And it's once for the devil and it's once for Christ But the boss don't like these dizzy heights We're busted in the blinding light

Speaker 320:16

Busting in the blind with light to close in time

Speaker 320:23

Closen time.

Presenter20:29

Leonard Cohen and closing time. As I mentioned, a lot of serious theatre then followed in your career and award-winning Miss Julie, Wild Honey on Broadway, Masher in the Three Sisters Masher, you say, of course.

Speaker 320:41

It's always the three sisters.

Presenter20:42

And of course you were Tom Hank's wife, um the wafer thin Judy McCoy in the film Bonfire of the Vanities. Wafer thin, I mean, that must have been some dire.

Presenter20:51

It was very difficult. Brian DePalma, who's quite big himself, and he said, I think that you should lose some weight. I said, What are you talking about? I'm really thin. He said, No, no, no. This is going to help you with the character. You're going to experience a vulnerability that at this weight you don't have. And he was right. So I went on this liquid protein diet for about six weeks and lost 16, 17 pounds. And from the time we started rehearsals, from the time we started shooting, he came up to me and said, That's it. Don't lose anymore. You're really looking like death now. But it fed me tremendously doing that role. It fed you? Yes. Not with the food. And then along came the voluptuous Samantha. Well, she's not particularly voluptuous, she just acts voluptuous, really, doesn't she? You inhabit her so convincingly. As you were implying earlier, people constantly want to know how much of you is in there. And I think what they're really asking is.

Presenter21:51

You know, are you as radical in your attitude towards sex as she is? Do you believe that sex is an important recreation? I do believe that sex is an important recreation, but I don't practice it on the same with the same variety that she does. I don't think anybody does. No, I think the similarities are that we're both courageous and we both stand up for ourselves and we don't take a lot of crap. And that's something I think that starts with liking yourself and knowing yourself. And I think that th those are the strong similarities. I also think that she and I share a sensuality about life. And you've written a book about.

Kim Cattrall22:07

Yeah, she does.

Speaker 322:17

Mm.

Speaker 322:20

Uh

Presenter22:36

a sort of sex manual, haven't you, of female sexual satisfaction, which has sold millions and uh you know, Samantha couldn't have been a better platform from which to launch such a book. And no one would blame you for kind of seizing the moment. But was it

Kim Cattrall22:46

Noah

Presenter22:49

A money spinner, as I say, for which no one would blame you, or is it because you felt you had something new to impart?

Kim Cattrall22:52

Because you felt you had

Presenter22:54

No, something had changed for me, Kim, as a woman. It was like the magic if came into my head again. If I was sexually satisfied, this is the way I would be, or this is what I would ask for. But my personal life was never like that. I had had a really tough time in my relationships. And yes, it was an opportunity to speak to a lot of people. And now you're making a documentary about something. Yes, yes. Well, that's a little bit different. The documentary is more the history of sexual desire.

Kim Cattrall23:20

Yeah.

Kim Cattrall23:21

Well that's a

Presenter23:27

You know, I'm an actress, this is what I do. I have a platform to talk about sexuality for the moment. What are the questions I'm asking myself? And that's where it came from. And I also wanted to start to produce, to be behind the camera as well as in front. So I thought this was a great opportunity to, you know, experience this whole learning curve of why this is and presenting it to the public and also producing it and hosting it.

Presenter23:52

Oh, Aretha Franklin, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, respect. Go on, explain to me why. Oh, I guess because I think it's what everyone needs. The times in my life where I have stood up to my to to who I am and what I believe, those have been the happiest times of my life.

Speaker 324:13

Kisses We

Speaker 324:17

Guess what? So is Mama!

Speaker 324:22

All I want you to do for me is give it to me when you get ready. Whip it to me, till you get up.

Presenter24:42

Aretha Franklin and Respect. There's a great moment in one episode of Sex in the City, isn't there, when Samantha's moved into her loft apartment, you know, and she has the girls around and they're all having a drink and supper and she opens up the window and she says, you know, ladies, we have it all. Great jobs, great apartments, great friends, great sex. I mean, that is the holy grail, really, isn't it, of the feminist, you know?

Kim Cattrall25:01

Really, isn't it?

Presenter25:03

But is it really possible? Because those girls are spending, as you've said, the whole time running around looking for the right man.

Presenter25:09

I think it does. I mean the great thing about this is they were four independent women, so completely different. I mean the four of them together, I always think, made one complete woman on any given day. Sure. But they're all in search of a man.

Kim Cattrall25:19

Sure.

Presenter25:22

Yes, yes. That's the point. And they're just trying to define in fact I think that's what the ep what the series is about, isn't it? Trying to define how a man should be. You know, he should be romantic, but when does romanticism become cheesy?

Kim Cattrall25:23

Yeah.

Speaker 325:35

Mm-hmm.

Presenter25:35

Should he let you see him sitting on the lavatory? It deals with the big issues, right? Well, to me, it always defined women in the sense of.

Presenter25:46

This desperation, you know, to go outside of yourself and find all the answers in a relationship.

Presenter25:52

And really the answers, that's why the coffee shops were my favorite scenes, because tho the answers were right there. They were right there within yourself, and that's when you get a guy.

Presenter26:02

It's not when you're out looking. No, it's true. We gotta make it known that you're looking, though.

Kim Cattrall26:04

Next year.

Presenter26:08

And then there's having children. Samantha has none. Um you have none. Um when Miranda in the series produces her first born, that was quite difficult, wasn't it, for Samantha?

Presenter26:19

Oh, yes. Samantha doesn't like children.

Presenter26:23

They take too much time. She's got other things to do. And they're messy and she just really doesn't want to get involved. But don't they also, for a woman of forty-something, kind of focus up on your aloneness, as it were?

Presenter26:40

No, I think that there's so many ways that a woman can become maternal and motherly in this world other than physically having a child. I was always going to have kids, but it was going to be, well, when well, this isn't working here, or this is a man, this is a great boyfriend, but I don't wouldn't want him to be the father of my child. And there was this whole period of time of, yes, I'm going to do it, but not now. And then suddenly, not now was never. And then I thought to myself, well, is this going to be okay with me in 20 years? And I thought, well, what other ways is for me to be in the world a mother?

Presenter27:17

And that's why my production company means so much to me. And that's why my niece and nephews mean so much to me. And the young assistants that I I work with in my production company and who work with me personally is because I feel that I am being maternal and I am being motherly. It's just not, you know, I'm not having the puke bibs and the diapers and and that's fine with me.

Presenter27:40

Another piece of music. Oh, this is Billie Holiday. God bless the child.

Presenter27:45

I guess um this song has always meant a tremendous amount because it's about making it for yourself. And I've always been very proud about uh the fact that, you know, my family gave me a tremendous uh support and uh encouragement, but I am the child that got his own.

Speaker 328:04

While the weak ones fade.

Speaker 328:08

Empty pockets, no

Speaker 328:11

Ever makes a dream

Speaker 328:15

Mama made hat

Speaker 328:18

Papa May.

Speaker 228:22

Yeah.

Speaker 328:22

God bless the child that's got his own mouth.

Speaker 228:22

Uh

Speaker 328:28

That's got his own.

Presenter28:31

Billie Holiday and God Bless the Child. So, Kim Cattrall, you're into the West End now. Very testing role in Brian Clarke's Whose Life Is It Anyway? which audiences will remember Tom Conte playing here some twenty five years ago.

Kim Cattrall28:43

Some

Presenter28:45

Um but it's rewritten for a woman. You're on stage throughout, in a hospital bed, paralyzed from the neck down, you're quadriplegic. So it's all all the acting's in the voice and the eyes. That's that must be difficult. It it is. I think what's more difficult is just laying down for those periods.

Presenter29:04

It's giving me a backache. It really is a discipline. I just lay there and they cart me back and forth.

Kim Cattrall29:04

Quite nice.

Kim Cattrall29:09

I just

Presenter29:13

But it really is an incredible challenge. I think that I wanted to do something as extreme as this after doing Samantha and Sex in the City, who is always so physical, is to really talk about your mind and your brain and your humor. And it really focuses. I mean, all you basically see is a head. And I thought that was a tremendous challenge to go from someone so physical and free to someone so contained, but also free. It's a challenge, certainly. But are you happy doing it? I mean, do you feel...

Kim Cattrall29:38

And it's a challenge.

Presenter29:42

Yes, yes, I can inhabit this role. Oh, yes, I do, I do. It's an amazing challenge every night to get out there. And then and she's a tough character too, because she's angry.

Presenter29:53

You know, that's uh two of my very dear friends, one has passed, uh are both disabled. One of them was Chris Reeve. And I knew Chris before the accident, and I know that he went what he went through. And one of the things that you didn't see on the reports, you know, and the award ceremonies, was how angry he was.

Presenter30:11

And another girlfriend of mine had a horrific stroke in her early 40s, and she is terribly disabled mentally and physically. And the anger about that and the frustration. I mean, I wanted to bring a very honest portrayal of what someone goes through in a situation like that. I can only imagine. But it has been an amazing journey playing Claire Harrison. And also, I mean, when it was written for Tom Conte in the 70s, I mean, when could, of course, again.

Presenter30:37

politically correct to act like that, but now there's a woman coming on to the young orderlies, and I'm enjoying that.

Presenter30:44

And Six in the City is over, is it? You've done six series. Is that it? Yes. No more.

Speaker 330:47

Yes, never

Kim Cattrall30:48

Uh

Presenter30:49

No more. No. No feature film. There was talk of one. I don't know. I I think that uh that's a possibility, but without a script and a contract I d I don't know that that's gonna happen.

Presenter31:00

I miss Samantha. I really do miss her. And I miss the whole experience of the the city and um

Presenter31:07

Not so much the sex.

Presenter31:11

I'm fine privately, but

Presenter31:14

But I do miss her her uh shenanigans. I do miss her Joie de Vive. I I miss that terribly, yes, I do. Lost Reco. This is Joni Mitchell's uh A Case of You. Again, a an a formative artist uh well I was growing up.

Presenter31:32

To me this song is

Presenter31:34

is about being

Presenter31:37

in in your body, in your selfhood, but also uh wanting to encapsulate someone else or something else. And that's uh I guess that's what me being an artist is about.

Speaker 331:50

I am a lonely danger.

Speaker 331:56

So sweet oh I'm good

Speaker 332:00

Case of you and I.

Speaker 332:06

Still of the Almighty, I will still be your might.

Presenter32:18

Joni Mitchell and a case of you. Now, if you could only take one of those eight records to your desert island, which one would you take? Oh, does it have to be one?

Kim Cattrall32:27

Um

Presenter32:28

Oh, that's so hard.

Presenter32:31

Oh

Presenter32:34

Hmm. I guess I'd have to say junk ultraman.

Presenter32:38

I would.

Presenter32:40

My favorite things. Yes, I have. Um, and then w you're allowed a book. We give you the Bible and we give you the complete works of Shakespeare, which is quite enough to go on with. But you're allowed one book of your own choosing. What should it be?

Presenter32:52

Oh

Presenter32:54

I think it would have to be a dictionary.

Presenter32:56

It would have to be a dictionary. An English dictionary. An English dictionary. Yes, yes. I love words.

Kim Cattrall32:57

Uh

Kim Cattrall32:58

In English to the straightforward.

Presenter33:01

And your luxury.

Presenter33:04

A luxury.

Presenter33:05

Something that really makes you feel good.

Presenter33:08

Should we go here?

Presenter33:11

I guess is a man a possibility. Or a few toys. Oh, a luxury.

Speaker 333:16

Yeah.

Presenter33:21

I guess it would have to be some fabulous body cream. Some wonderful wonderful fragrant body cream. Yes, something like that.

Presenter33:31

Kim Katral, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island is. Thank you. Pleasure.

Kim Cattrall33:43

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists archive. For more podcasts please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.