Sarah Jessica Parker Explains Why She’s Maintained a No-Nudity Stance in Her Career

The Season 2 premiere of “And Just Like That” opens with a montage with the three main characters — Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) — engaged in intimate acts with their respective lovers. And while the latter two appear in states of complete undress, Carrie does not.

Parker has talked openly about her “no nudity” stance in her career which dates back to her breakout role on “And Just Like That” predecessor “Sex and the City.” Davis, Nixon and Kim Cattrall all appeared nude on the show — which ran from the late ’90s to early ’00s on HBO — but Parker never did.

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Parker appeared on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show on Wednesday to discuss why she never appeared nude on the HBO show.

“I thought the script was really interesting, and really exciting, and different, and fresh, and I’d never seen anything like that,” Parker said of her first impression of “Sex and the City.” “The only thing I said to [creator Darren Star] that I was concerned about was that I just didn’t feel comfortable doing nudity, and I suspected that if it wasn’t in the pilot, it would be a part of a series.”

“[Star] said, ‘Don’t do it then, I don’t care. Don’t do nudity. We’ll have other actors, if they feel comfortable doing it they’ll do it, but you do not have to.'”

“I think I was just shy. I just never felt comfortable exposing myself that way,” she told Stern. “I never had any judgments about anybody else doing it, it wasn’t like a morality thing. If somebody else felt comfortable doing it I was admiring of them, but I just never felt comfortable being nude.”

Even before “Sex and the City” aired, Parker talked openly about her no-nudity stance in an interview on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” back in 1998. She and O’Donnell addressed the sensitive topic via a musical number (yes, really).

“Hey SJP, back on TV, don’t mean to rude,” O’Donnell sang. “But tell me, on ‘Sex and the City’ are you nude?”

“Rosie, one tip, I never strip, there is nothing like that.” Parker sang back. “My agent got that written in bold in my contract.”

Their number ended with Parker singing, “Remember there is some nudity, but it don’t include me.”

Nearly two decades later, in a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter about her HBO drama “Divorce,” Parker again confirmed she had a non-nudity clause in her contract. “I’ve always had one, and it’s apropos of absolutely nothing,” Parker explained. “Some people have a perks list and they are legendary. They have to have white candles in their room. I don’t have a crazy list like that. I’ve just always had [a no-nudity clause].”

Then, in a 2018 cover story for People, Parker recounted how she stood up for herself after being pressured to take her clothes off for a role early in her career.

Given her consistent no-nudity stance and the fact she’s portraying the same character that she did in “Sex and The City,” TheWrap reached out to streamer Max and Parker’s reps to see if the clause was in place for “And Just Like That.”

Max had no additional information to share, and Parker’s reps did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Check out Parker’s interview with Howard Stern, where she discusses nudity and swearing on the series, below.

New episodes of “And Just Like That” airs Thursday on Max.

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