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‘Sex and the City’s First Sex Scene Was Supposed to Feature Kennedy Family Member
Do you remember the character who had the first sex scene in Sex and the City? Well, it wasn’t any of the core four — Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), or Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) — instead, it was English journalist Elizabeth (Sarah Wynter).
Turns out, Elizabeth’s experience was supposed to look differently than it did. Wynter hopped onto Davis’ new podcast, Are You A Charlotte?, and revealed all the secrets she was holding onto for over 25 years.
The Australian actor’s segment on the show starts with Carrie narrating the story of Elizabeth’s disastrous affair with an investment banker (Scott Bryce), who essentially ghosts her after several months of dating. Their sex scene was portrayed as a tastefully silhouetted moment with Bryce early in the pilot episode.
However, she noted that Bryce wasn’t the original actor cast to play Elizabeth’s boyfriend. “I remember the person that they had cast to play the boyfriend was not the person that wound up getting the job on set,” she told Davis. “So, I was surprised when I got on set.” Wynter shared, “They had cast Christopher Lawford, who was John Kennedy Jr.’s cousin.”
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The actor was known for his appearance on All My Children as Charlie Brent, but he was equally as famous for coming from a notable American family. Lawford, who died of a heart attack in 2018 at the age of 63, was the son of English actor Peter Lawford and President John F. Kennedy’s sister, Pat Kennedy Lawford, which actually made him JFK Jr.’s nephew not cousin.
The reason why Wynter assumed Lawford would be her love interest was simple. “He was at the read-through,” she explained. Neither Wynter nor Davis remembered why Lawford ultimately didn’t appear in the episode.
Davis also recalled how nervous the entire cast was about the show’s sexual content while filming the pilot. Then, there was an incident on the day when Wynter was shooting her sex scene, which made the nature of the content even more nerve-wracking.
“The day that you had to do that nude scene, I was in the hair and makeup trailer getting ready,” Davis said. “One of the makeup artists came running in, like, ‘We need cups of ice for Sarah Wynter’s nipples!'”
“We were like, ‘What is going on?” Davis continued. Wynter confided, “I was trying to be so cool and calm and collected.” She added, “But they needed ice.” The duo then chatted about what would’ve happened to Elizabeth.
The duo then chatted about what would’ve happened to Elizabeth.
Wynter’s character only appeared in the opening moments of the pilot, even though the English journalist’s story was taken almost exactly from one of Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell’s earliest columns for The New York Observer. The person she was based on was named Charlotte. Meanwhile, Davis’ character was not just derived from one character, but from a multitude of people.
Thinking about what could’ve happened to her, Wynter professed, “Maybe she won a Pulitzer or something. I don’t know. She was a journalist. Maybe she does a cover story on Carrie.” Thinking back positively on her time as Elizabeth, Wynter stated, “I feel like my character had all her, you know, triumphs off camera,” she concluded. “She found love. She found a great guy.”
