Kristin Davis has called out Sex and the City showrunner, claiming they "forced" her to go topless in a scene.
The 60-year-old actress, best known for playing Charlotte York in the iconic HBO series, recently recalled a "mortifying" moment while filming the first episode of Season 5.
During a conversation with Sex and the City writer Jenny Bicks on her 'Are You A Charlotte' podcast, Davis claimed that she was pressured to bare her chest during a scene in a busy restaurant.
“Michael Patrick forced me to do it. He kept telling me, ‘It’ll be fine. It’ll be great’,” Davis revealed. “(I had) a lot of stress about it,” she added.
The scene in question featured Charlotte at a Navy party, where she suddenly flashes her chest - a bold move from the show’s most traditionally-minded character. “But we were in a restaurant. There were people everywhere,” Davis said.
Despite her discomfort, the scene made it into the episode. The Deadly Illusions star admitted on the podcast that people might not think the story is “good”, but eventually laughed it off, saying the director “knows” how she felt about it at the time.
The popular HBO series, which was created by Darren Star and based on the novel by Candace Bushnell, ran from 1998 to 2004 and followed the chaotic lives of four career-focused women navigating love and life in New York City.
The franchise exploded with two blockbuster movies in 2008 and 2010, reuniting the original stars, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Sarah Jessica Parker. HBO brought it all back in 2021 with And Just Like That, which is now gearing up for its third season.
Davis’s character, Charlotte, became iconic for her buttoned-up style, romantic ideals, and longing for a picture-perfect relationship.
But behind the scenes, Davis says filming those steamy scenes wasn’t easy in the early days. The actress admitted in a previous interview that she was "scared" of doing sex scenes on TV and struggled with how exposed she felt.
"I did not feel protected," she said, per PEOPLE. "I had to hide in my dressing room at the end of the scenario. I had to hide in my dressing room and call my manager in LA, at two in the morning."
Reflecting on how each cast member coped, Davis pointed out that Cattrall, who played Samantha, was always bold and could "definitely protect herself." She also said Parker, who portrayed Carrie, was the "most protected" but also the "most uncomfortable" about being nude.
Thankfully, things did get better for Davis as she revealed the sex scenes eventually "became much more our gaze as it should be" and focused on "us being comfortable."