After decades in the entertainment industry, Sarah Jessica Parker knows how to brush off haters and online trolls, but she didn’t always have an easy time navigating criticism, especially about her physical appearance.
During the June 18 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, the actor opened up about “cruel” comments she faced in the early days of her career while starring on “Sex and the City.”
Parker began by acknowledging that she “wasn’t prepared” for the level of scrutiny she would receive while starring on the hit series, which premiered in 1998, and called it “a real test of my coping mechanisms.”
“There was no chatter about me (before this time). There was just my work,” she said.
Host Alex Cooper then asked Parker which comments bothered her the most.
“I think just discussions of my physical person,” Parker said, gesturing at herself. “Like stuff that I couldn’t change, and wouldn’t change, and had never considered changing, or even still after hearing something that was like, ‘What? Somebody would say that?’ (I) even still (had) no interest in changing it.”
The 60-year-old went on to say it particularly bothered her that these comments were either made behind her back or in news publications.
“I didn’t feel like it was actually a conversation. I didn’t feel like I could sit in a room, and someone would say to me, ‘You’re really unattractive.’ And then I could say, ‘Wow, um, well first of all, that’s hard to hear. But second of all, why do you seem angry about it?’ Or, ‘Why do you feel it’s necessary to say it?'” she said.
As for being able to let something go, especially when considering unrealistic beauty standards, Parker said, “I think, maybe, there’s a threshold where, maybe, crying about it because it just seemed so cruel was like done.”
She then inserted one of Carrie Bradshaw’s famous catchphrases and “couldn’t help but wonder” if these critics would say these mean remarks to her face.
Earlier in her conversation with Cooper, Parker recalled the one time she cried about “really mean” comments a magazine made about her appearance.
“It was like a kick in the rubber parts. I was just like, ‘Why is this a problem? Why is this deserving of your time? And why do you seem to delight in saying it?'” she said.
“I was sobbing because it felt so purposeful,” she added. “And I think that’s the only time I really cried about it.”
Parker described the moment as an “accumulation” of comments she’d recently read and at another point in the conversation said she considered herself a “fairly confident person” at the time.
“I think (confidence) really comes into question and is tested when you’re kind of filleted in a way, when you’re opened up,” she said. “And I know you know this, we’re better for those kinds of experiences. But not all of us are good at it right away.”
Cooper understood completely and said, “And it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
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