A Birthday Salute to Sarah Jessica Parker’s Most Famous Film and TV Roles

Sarah in the ’80s

The role that first caught serious attention for Sarah was on the CBS television series Square Pegs, which ran for 20 episodes from 1982-83. The show follows Sarah as Patty Greene and Lauren Hutchinson as Amy Linker, a pair of awkward teenage girls who are desperately trying (and usually failing, despite minor victories here and there) to fit in with the other students at Weemawee High School. In a look at the series, avclub.com writes, “The show appeared promising at first. Produced by Norman Lear’s Embassy Television, Square Pegs was billed as a show ‘about the problems, joys, and experiences of being young and in high school.’ Unlike previous high school shows like Happy Days, which was nearing the end of its run at the time (and featured adults in the adolescent roles), Square Pegs not only spotlighted actual teens, but different peer groups that resembled actual ’80s cliques: valley girls, nerds, preppies, class clowns, and new-wavers.” 

Besides Square Pegs, in the 1980s Sarah appeared in the feature films Somewhere Tomorrow (1983), Footloose (1984), Firstborn (1984), Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985), and Flight of the Navigator (1986).

‘Honeymoon in Vegas’

Sarah is Betsy, the finance of private investigator Jack Singer (Nicolas Cage), who actually agrees to let professional con man and gambler Tommy Korman (James Caan) “borrow” Betsy for a Hawaiian getaway to pay off Jack’s $65,000 gambling debt. What they don’t realize is that Betsy looks like Tommy’s late wife, and he has every intention of winning her heart. Can Jack win her back?

As enjoyable as the film is to watch, what may be most interesting is a behind the scenes story Sarah told on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show: “I was about to do Honeymoon in Vegas and before that I was off to do another movie in Iowa, and the producer was very concerned about me being fit for Honeymoon in Vegas, so they sent a treadmill to Iowa.” She added that she would run on the treadmill to a loop of C+C Music Factory’s “Everybody Dance Now”: “I would very diligently go out every single day and run like a lunatic to that song, and then when I went to Iowa, on the treadmill, I would continue to run like a lunatic to the song.”

Prior to this film, Sarah had appeared in L.A. Story (1991) and she followed it with the Bruce Willis thriller, Striking Distance (1993).

‘Hocus Pocus’ (1992)

After three teenagers accidentally free a trio of witches (played by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker), they have to figure out how to obtain the book of magic spells in the witches’ possession to prevent them from becoming immortal and threatening the world. Not really as serious as it sounds, but still enjoyable. And in case you’re wondering, Sarah does have a favorite memory of making the movie — floating over the set on wires while sitting on a broom — as reported by the Huffington Post: “They’d call ‘cut’ and they’d go to lunch or maybe they’d change the lens, and I’d just stay up there. I could fit an entire New York Times up the back of the corset. And I found that the harness was comfortable, so I would just sit up there and read the Times while people took their breaks or changed the camera and sometimes went to lunch.”

For the actress, this was followed by Ed Wood (1994), Miami Rhapsody (1995), Mars Attacks! (1996) and If Lucy Fell (1996).

‘The First Wives Club’ (1996)

Offers the film’s official description, “Despondent over the marriage of her ex-husband to a younger woman, a middle-aged divorcée plunges to her death from her penthouse. At the woman’s funeral, her former college friends (Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton) reunite for the first time in nearly 30 years. When the three discover the reason for their friend’s suicide, they realize that all of their ex-husbands have taken them for granted — and deciding it’s time for revenge, they make a pact to get back at their exes.” Sarah plays Shelly Stewart, Morty Cushman’s (Dan Hedaya) dim-witted but manipulative fiancée. 

After this, Sarah appeared in Extreme Measures (1996), ‘Til There Was You (1997), and Dudley Do-Right (1999).

‘Sex and the City’ (1998-2004)

This landmark series helped put HBO on the map in terms of original programming. Based on the 1997 book by Candace Bushnell, the locale is New York City and the focus is on four women who are the closest of friends, and remain that way despite their differing personalities and sex lives that are constantly changing. Sarah is Carrie Bradshaw, Kim Cattrall is Samantha Jones, Kristin Davis is Charlotte York and Cynthia Nixon is Miranda Hobbes. Most impressively, the show spun off a pair of feature film continuations (released in 2008 and 2010), and a CW prequel TV series (The Carrie Diaries, which ran from 2013-14).

At the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, Sarah explained that she enjoyed the evolution of the characters, part of which she credits to writer Michael Patrick King. “Everybody,” she said, “had a point of view, but he let everyone become far more complicated, more human, more layered. That allowed those friendships to become much more interesting and necessary and relied upon; more disappointing when there was a betrayal. He always balanced expectation and depth so beautifully.”

‘State and Main’ (2000)

Fine Line Cinema proclaims, “A big-budget movie crew descends upon a quaint New England village, sowing a bumper crop of corruption, vanity and greed in David Mamet’s State and Main. In the days that elapse before the cameras finally roll, money will change hands, careers will be jeopardized and love will blossom in the small-town soil.” Sarah plays the film within a film’s leading lady, Claire Wellesley, who refuses to do her contracted nude scene unless she’s paid an additional $800,000.

After this, Sarah filmed Life Without Dick (2001), The Family Stone (2005), and Strangers with Candy (2006).

‘Failure to Launch’ (2006)

Matthew McConaughey is Tripp, a 35-year-old man who is still living with his parents, who desperately want him to move out so they can have a life of their own. To accomplish this, they hire an expert named Paula (Sarah), whose talent is getting guys like Tripp to rely less on their parents and start to rely on her, gaining independence in the process. What Paula doesn’t expect is that Tripp is not suffering from some of the psychological or emotional issues that guys like him usually are, and as time goes on she actually develops feelings for him. You can probably figure out where things go from there.

Spinning into Butter (2007) and Smart People (2008) were Sarah’s next two films. 

‘Did You Hear About the Morgans?’ (2008)

Paul and Meryl Morgan (Hugh Grant and Sarah) are a New York couple whose marriage is falling apart, but when they witness a murder they have to go into the witness protection program and are relocated to Wyoming. The question is whether or not the experience can rekindle their passion.

I Don’t Know How She Does It (2011), New Year’s Eve (2011), Escape From Planet Earth (2013) all followed. In 2013, Sarah also played Gloria Steinem in the film Lovelace, but her scenes didn’t make the final cut. 

‘Divorce’ (2016-)

This series from HBO is about a middle-aged couple in the process of going their separate ways. Sarah is Frances Dufresne, a married woman whose affair with another man paves the road to the impending divorce from husband Robert (Thomas Haden Church). Yet after 10 years of marriage and two kids, neither knows what they really want to do.

At the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival she was questioned about Frances’ likability. “I didn’t worry about whether she was likable enough,” Sarah explained, “because I liked her. I thought she had a story to tell that’s not  unfamiliar to people. A portrait of an American marriage at this point, I hadn’t seen it in cinema or television in a really long time. Is she likable? I don’t know. I think she’s human, and I’m drawn to that.”

‘Here and Now’ (2018)

After receiving the grim diagnosis of glioblastoma, a successful New York singer spends the day reflecting on her life. She crisscrosses the city as she attempts to make peace with her friends, family and failures. The movie, which Sarah also produced, was shot over the course of just 16 days in New York City. Simon Baker co-stars.

“Everything about it appealed to me,” Sarah related to collider.com, “even things that scared me. The scary part was, would I be able to access the emotions that were required and that I believed were necessary? They scared me because, typically, emotion is provoked and incited by conversation with another person, with things that are said and with how you’re treated, and a lot of the emotional life that’s shared is internal. It comes from internalization. She’s internalizing so much, and I didn’t know how I would find it without provocation, but that proved to not be all that hard. So, there were things about it that scared me in theory, but the exercise was actually wonderful. I found it quite accessible to me.”