Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones in Sex and the City: The Movie Courtesy of New Line Cinema

Sarah Jessica Parker talks about being Carrie on the big screen.

Read Elle's interview with SATC sex bomb Jason Lewis.

Kim Cattrall (Samantha Jones)

ON HER CHARACTER:
This is not just a TV show. It has been an anthem for so many women about friendship, and singlehood and marriage and disappointment and struggle and surviving. I thought that this is not just a job, not just a show. It is a zeitgeist and it continues to be right on the pulse.

It was so much fun [to go back to Samantha]. It was a little nerve racking because the expectation is so high.

Jason Lewis' [character, Smith] seems to accept [Samantha] and not try and change her and manipulate her, other than for them to be together and have this relationship — which she is not used to.

ON THE MOVIE:
At the time, looking back, it was so overwhelming. A job that I loved that had been such a seminal moment in my life… was coming to an end. On a personal note, my father was diagnosed with dementia. At the time it was very important for me to take care of business, and be with my family and go back to Canada. I was losing my job, my Dad and my marriage. Looking back on it, I think: "How did I get through any of that?" But I did. I think ultimately it turned out to be the best scenario, because they had much more time to write something and to take into consideration that four years had passed. And another important thing that I was not totally aware was that the show had grown from a cable network show to an international show.

Filming in the streets, when we finished in '04, we would get some people who were curious but there were crowds of people waiting and watching [the shooting of the movie]. And it was fall in New York, which to me is the most romantic time to be in the city because all the leaves are changing, it is still warm but it is not too hot and the dollar is so low — so everyone was there! Our poor security guys were run ragged. We couldn't do a scene because people were screaming: "I love you, Samantha!"

ON HER PERSONAL LIFE:
[Playing Samantha] has really made it tougher for me. I found that out when I became single. Men were very nervous because this was such a powerful character and her sexuality was very strong.

In my personal life, I am dating a younger man. And I think because the mothers of younger men — most of them, not all of them — were very emancipated and a lot of them worked (my boyfriend's mother worked) and that gave them an independence. I think that gave them more of a reality check on women having their own life as well as a family life. I think that is what is attractive for me, Kim, [about] younger men.