By Sarah Mills
LONDON (Reuters) – Candace Bushnell, the U.S. writer whose work inspired “Sex and the City”, is completely relaxed about dating and not even suffering from stage fright as she takes her one-woman show on a UK tour.
“I don’t have a lot of nerves or anything like that. It just it feels very natural,” the 65-year-old told Reuters on the eve of a series of British stage performances of her “True Tales of Sex, Success and SEX AND THE CITY”.
She says her show, which has already had a run in New York, reveals how she came to invent Carrie Bradshaw, played by actor Sarah Jessica Parker in the “Sex and the City” television series. It was first aired in the late 1990s and had its roots in Bushnell’s newspaper column and best-selling book.
Two films followed, as well as a current spin-off television series “And Just Like That”.
Reflecting on the enduring comic appeal of Bradshaw and her fictional friends Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and their many romantic adventures, Bushnell said independence was what she valued most.
Married for ten years to dancer Charles Askegard, Bushnell said she uses dating apps, but is not bothered whether she meets someone.
“I’m not looking to get married and have kids, so I’m really very relaxed about it,” she said.
“I’m really just enormously grateful that I am able to live an independent life and to pursue my very important message to women, which is to be independent and to be your own Mr. Big,” she said. Played by actor Chris Noth, the character Mr. Big was Bradshaw’s on/off love interest, with the name referring to his supposedly impressive job and large presence in New York.
British audiences will hear about him and Bushnell’s other characters beginning on Friday in the southern city of Southampton.
The UK tour also has dates in cities including Manchester in the north and Glasgow in Scotland, and a night at the London Palladium on Feb. 7.
(Reporting by Sarah Mills; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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