Kristin Davis says that even at the height of “Sex and the City,” she couldn’t shake the criticism she received about her body and that co-star Sarah Jessica Parker eventually spoke to her about it.
During the Aug. 11 episode of her podcast, “Are You a Charlotte?,” the 60-year-old actor opened up to guest Benito Skinner about how public comments about her body affected her.
“I have had so many negative comments for, you know, probably the entirety of my career,” she explained. “But I think the things for me that lodged in there, where I had to create a thing around it… I think mine was relating to the thinness issue.”
Of all the criticism she’s faced, Davis said the remarks about her body stuck with her the most, but that time has given her perspective.
“It’s hysterical to say, I can realize that now, right?” she explained. “But like, there were times when Sarah Jessica would be like, ‘You have body dysmorphia.'”
The actor added that she would often reply to her co-star with uncertainty. “Like, ‘I don’t think I do, because the world is literally telling me daily that I am pear-shaped.
Davis explained the scrutiny became so constant that her sense of self began to distort, “so much to the point where, like, you can’t think straight.”
The actor described developing habits of disordered eating.
“I remember fainting in a parking lot one time because I was on some crazy diet,” she explained.
Davis recalled a period when the show was still airing new episodes on HBO, and fans — often strangers — would approach her on the street.
“People would see me on the street here or in New York, they would say, ‘Oh, but you’re not fat,'” she explained, noting that while they might have meant well, their words still carried a sting.
Davis’ anecdotes emerged out of a broader conversation she and Skinner had during the show about online criticism. She recalled that during “Sex and the City’s” heyday, the harshest feedback she would receive would come in the form of printed reviews, which she could avoid reading.
During the conversation, the two actors also spoke about the rise of social media and how negative comments are readily accessible on phones, right alongside the ones she actually wants to see.
“There are so many people who are so mad and critical,” Davis noted. “And this is the way I’m thinking of it currently — their way to express themselves and get that out is towards other people online.”
And just like that, it’s time to say goodbye to Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte. On Aug. 1, Michael Patrick King, the showrunner for the HBO Max series that expanded the universe of “Sex And The City”— a cult classic dramedy that premiered in the late ’90s — announced that the spinoff will end after Season 3.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
