Sixty Second Therapist: Kim Cattrall

Sixty Second Therapist: Kim Cattrall

On the couch with the Sex And The City star

The Sex And The City star, 54, tells Stylist's life coach Lisa Merrick-Lawless about surviving in Hollywood and why she won’t rule out another marriage.

In the last six years you’ve worked a lot in the UK starring in everything from Antony And Cleopatra at the Liverpool Playhouse to Channel 4 drama Any Human Heart. What attracted you to work over here?

At the end of Sex And The City, the series, I was pretty tired – it was a really intense six-year period and I needed to take time out. There were personal challenges both in my family and my marriage, and I just thought I needed to go away for a while. So I came to London to do a play [the 2005 West End revival of Whose Life Is It Anyway?]. I was also born in Liverpool and have a lot of family in England, so I feel at home in the UK.

You decided to trace the history of your family in the BBC factual series Who Do You Think You Are? What did you learn from the experience?

It really shook my roots, actually – you have no idea. We knew my grandfather had disappeared [when Kim’s mother was eight years old] but we didn’t know why or what happened to him. So it was upsetting when we found out [that he was a bigamist] and it was all on camera. I felt incredibly vulnerable. On the plus side, I got to know the family that has been around me for my whole life in a much deeper way.

Did the programme bring your closer to your mother?

Oh yes, we’re incredibly close. Not only because of that. When it comes to my career she really gets it. I think she has enjoyed watching the whole progression from it becoming a dream to very hard work. She has bled for me through all the pain and rejection!

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?

That acting is your craft but you also need to have a life. You need to recognise that three months on location in the middle of nowhere, far from your family, is very uprooting and that you need to have hobbies and surround yourself with people who support you because it can be a very lonely lifestyle.

You co-wrote a book with your ex-husband [audio designer Mark Levinson] called Satisfaction: The Art Of The Female Orgasm. What spurred that decision?

So many women don’t have very fulfilling sexual relationships so I thought it would be interesting to write a book about women’s sexuality from the point of view of somebody who is playing such a sexually iconic figure [Samantha Jones in Sex And The City]. I also thought it would be a way to separate myself from a character that I was being so closely associated with – wrong! People thought, “Oh, she’s written a sex book” and that further cemented me to Samantha [laughs].

You’ve been married twice. Do you hope to be in a relationship again?

Yes, it hasn’t put me off at all. In fact, my attitude is I’m quite hopeful. I think I’m in a really good place and I hope I’ll meet someone who’s in a good place too. Who knows what will happen?

Your latest role is a former porn star [in Meet Monica Velour]. Surely you’ll be seen as a pin-up again?

[Laughs] I don’t think I’ve ever been sexualised in that way. For me, there was a whole other connection to the character. At this point in my life I feel there is a marginalisation of actresses of a certain age in Hollywood, where you’re no longer as cute as the next crop coming up and you’re not considered sexy and sweet, so you have more of a mind of your own about what you do or don’t want to do.

Has the fact people associate you so closely with the character of Samantha Jones made getting other work more difficult?

I think that the people who meet me are smart enough to know this is a job I do. And it’s been a fantastic job that’s given me a totally unexpected career in my 40s and 50s. I mean, it’s pretty much an anomaly to start your career in your 40s and your 50s – as a woman.