Kim Cattrall talks ‘Sex and the City’ and being ‘Filthy Rich’

Since Kim Cattrall laid “Sex and the City’s” sex-positive power publicist Samantha Jones to rest in 2010, her roles have largely flown under the radar.

The English-Canadian actress opted to return to her theatrical roots, performing in plays in London’s West End and on Broadway and choosing to work on TV series outside of the U.S. To Americans who thought she was synonymous with her “SATC” persona, it might have seemed as if Cattrall had been left behind by the industry.
She hadn’t, really — she had just become more intentional about what kind of acting gigs she pursued. “In America, I was being cast as a character of a certain likeness to Samantha,” says Cattrall. “In England the casting opened up to a lot of possibilities, which I was really happy to take on.”
But whether she likes it or not, Samantha has remained a defining part of her career. “I don’t think anybody really knew what it would become, or how it would be at that moment [part of the] zeitgeist — to open up doors … for women to express themselves in a very honest, forthright way about how they felt about sexuality, or how they even interacted with their girlfriends in a real way,” says Cattrall.