The following is a.

Special presentation of WTCI, Chattanooga, North Georgia, and the Tennessee Valley.

Six seasons on HBO has led to an international fan following a major motion picture and is now opening doors across the world of fashion for one Southern native like ever, Meet Kristin Davis.

Coming up on this edition of the A-list.

You may know her as Charlotte York Goldenblatt, the former homecoming queen and teen model on HBO's popular series Sex and the City.

But just how different is this fictional character from the actress breathing life into her?

Kristin Davis She was born in Colorado, and then she and her family moved to South Carolina in 1973.

A childhood in the South definitely holds a notable influence on this now well-traveled actress.

Our cameras caught up with her in Birmingham, Alabama, at a department store where she was sharing her latest line of clothing.

Well, Kristin, welcome to the A-list.

Thank you for joining us.

We're so excited.

To have you.

Thank you for having me.

I'm so excited to have you.

You're sweet.

It's fun to be here.

Well, good.

If I start calling you Charlotte, you'll forgive me because I have just known you for so long as the character in Sex and the City, which was my all time favorite show, and now my all time favorite movie.

When I think of Sex and the City, I think when most women think of Sex in the City, the first thing that comes to mind is style.

Because the clothes that you and Sarah, Jessica and Cynthia and Kim got to wear in that show, I mean, every every episode, I love what everyone wore, all to some extent, a little crazy for me.

Tell me about that.

And how that might have influenced your decision to start your own line of clothes at Belk.

Well.

It certainly certainly was an education because I was not a fashionista in any way before the show, and I still don't totally think of myself that way.

I think of myself as someone who's been very lucky to be in this world where I get to wear these clothes and I get to learn about them, and I have people to help me because I don't I'm not really a risk taker.

If you just left me to my own accord because I am a Southern girl, you know, but because we had Pat Field, the wonderful costume designer, and because all the designers really, really supported us, because even with the budgets that we had towards the end, we could never afford those clothes.

Those were samples that we would return in like perfect condition because we're good girls.

Didn't mean nothing for nothing.

No, no, we kept some.

But like for the movie, I think I had maybe three things that weren't a sample and didn't go back.

Well, I know.

Kind of a bummer, but on the other hand, you have to just say thank you to them that they're lending us their samples, that they actually need to be showing to the store so the stores can buy them.

So we're still really lucky that they that they take care of us like they do.

But I had never thought about doing a clothing line.

I thought that was more a Sarah Jessica thing.

And it kind of seemed like an intimidating thing to me to do.

But because I grew.

Up shopping about and because Belk is in the South, I felt like I understood it and like I felt like, oh, yes, I could do that.

At least they're not going to try to push me to be edgy or to be something that I'm not.

You know, that was my initial thought.

And because it took an old company and a brand that I know and that I grew up going to, I thought, you know, I could trust these people because there's a lot of trust involved.

Both ways, they need to trust me and I need to trust them.

So if you.

Have a lot of input in the line.

I have a lot of input.

And you like that.

I love it.

I will say I mean, I didn't even notice it when I walked in.

You look fantastic.

Seven codified because I am.

And Kristin Davis from literally head to toe.

Really, really.

And I love it is it's very wearable clothes.

This might sound like a commercial, but.

Right now they're.

Stylish they they make sense for a working woman, but also to transition to something more casual or going out for night.

So I would make a little fashion story.

Thank you.

I coordinated.

It's really funny that we didn't plan this at all.

I do have a lot a lot of say because I do feel very strongly about the fact that is my name and is my face.

And you only have one of these things.

And I've obviously worked really hard on creating, you know, what we've created.

And then they luckily feel very strongly as well because they're an old company and they feel just equally committed.

So it's been great, but it's a learning curve and I mean, there's so much to learn.

March 2009, Davis appeared with Craig Ferguson promoting the latest project in her illustrious career.

You make them well sometimes to the horror of the people that.

I work with.

I duke it out.

Needles and thread and so things and.

They're just like, Oh.

Because I'm just supposed to be like, you know, the famous person who, you know, gives ideas and whatever.

But I get really inspiring.

So tell me, let's start kind of from the beginning.

When did you first know you wanted to be an actress?

When I was ten, my mom saw a little advertisement in the paper saying that they were having auditions at the Community theater in Columbia, where I'm from, South Carolina.

And it was at a little theater called Workshop Theater.

And it was for a production of Snow White.

And she said, you know, I think you should go to this.

And I said, Why?

I don't want to go.

I don't want to go.

And she said, You're too shy.

I want you to go and come out of your shell.

And I was like, You go very mouthy, little girl.

I'm an only child.

So she, of course, convinced me to go and I remember all of it very clearly, still remember what I wore.

I remember what I said.

I remember how nervous I was.

And you had to get up on stage in a line of girls and smile.

That was the audition, and maybe we had to say her name.

Something really challenging like that.

And I was very, very nervous.

And I got that part and I had one line and it was, I'll go, I'll go.

And that was it.

Ever since then, all I want to do.

It was all uphill from there.

Right.

Actually, that was a pretty fantastic experience, to tell you the truth.

I remember all of it.

I remember going to the theater.

I remember my costume.

I remember my costume fitting.

It was so exciting.

I got to wear like a, you know, princess cone with the chiffon coming off of it.

You know, it's.

Every girl's.

Dream.

It's true.

It's so true.

So I remember all of it, and it was great.

And I think the thrill of being able to be on stage and be part of a production, you know, never really leaves you that thrill.

Are you still shy?

Some part of you?

Sometimes, absolutely.

I've had to learn to turn it on when I have to turn it on for work, like like interviewing or doing, like the events that we were doing earlier.

But it isn't my natural state, no.

Like, I'm never the life of the party and never really.

Yeah.

So you went to Rutgers University and then you got out.

Where did you live after that?

I lived in Hoboken first Hoboken, New Jersey.

Loved it.

Loved it.

Loved it.

Loved it.

Then I moved to the city and I lived in Gramercy Park before.

It was cool and fashionable like it is now.

And then I moved to L.A. eventually.

Do you have to move to L.A. to be an actress?

No.

But you have to move to LA to make money, right?

So it helped.

It did.

I was very lucky at that point.

Then I was doing commercials in New York, and so I was waitressing still, but also making money from commercials.

And my agent at the time, very, very sweetly, I still run into her sometimes and she's a manager now, convinced me to come out to L.A.

I was doing a play in Berkeley at Berkeley Rep, and my agent had gone out.

They were a New York agency.

They had gone out for pilot season, which is usually in the winter.

In the olden days before.

Now it's year round, but it used to be like January to March.

And she said, you know, you should fly down on Mondays on your day off and audition for pilots because there's so much more work in L.A. than there is in New York.

And I said, Oh, I don't know, you know, Los Angeles television.

I don't know.

I'm so scared.

She's like, Oh, just trust me.

Just come down here.

You'll love it.

And I came down to New York from New York.

I was in Berkeley, went down to L.A. and it was so sunny and beautiful.

And there were so many parts jobs and auditions.

And you drove around.

Your little car from the different studio to the other.

Studio.

And I was like, This is cool.

This is good.

So then she said, You know, we're going to open up a branch of our agency here and we think you should be out here.

And I said, okay.

And that was that.

And then many years later, I can't remember how many I got.

Sex and the City and move back to New York.

So it all worked out.

But I had to go to L.A. to get the part to move back to New.

York for it to come full.

Circle.

Exactly.

Full circle, indeed.

From commercials and spot appearances on shows like Seinfeld.

I my mouth feels.

So clean.

But the idea, you know, believe it or not, I think I'm getting a little cold.

I don't want to give you any of my germs.

Oh.

Okay.

Thanks.

Because this is before HBO had The Sopranos for us.

When we did the pilot for Sex and the City, our model was The Larry Sanders Show.

I love that show, too.

Absolutely.

And we all love that show.

But that was a tiny show compared to what we came to be.

But we had no idea That's how little we knew.

Like, that's how little we expected.

We just wanted it to be a show that we love didn't.

I mean, which is how Larry Sanders was.

It had like a cult following and we loved it.

And I was actually on Larry Sanders.

I'd been a guest on Larry Sanders.

That was my big claim to fame.

But it just goes to show like HBO had not created their name brand original, programing it at all.

So it was very smart on Darren's part to take the show, was very smart on HBO as part to make the show.

Now, did you audition for Charlotte?

Show her and say, This is the girl she's playing?

Oh, no, that never happens.

I mean, it only happens.

To like tiny group of people.

They sent me the script originally and Darren said he wanted me to read Carrie.

And I was.

Like, Why?

I don't think so.

Because on the page and in the book, I don't know if you've ever read the book.

That was the selection of the columns.

Carrie is much more like Candace, and Candace is much more like Samantha.

So Carrie, in her original form, smoked literally nonstop and curse nonstop and was a little more risque.

And and the description that Darren had written was the body of Heather Locklear with the mind of Dorothy Parker.

Wow.

And I was like.

No, I'm.

Not playing.

That part.

So, yeah, no pressure at all.

So Sarah Jessica, they'd want to Sarah Jessica to do the part originally.

And she had said yes, and then she had had second thoughts about doing television.

So that was when they sent it to me, was when she was like, I don't know.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

Then she came back, thank goodness.

And when I and I had called Darren and said, Darren, I feel really terrible that I can't play that part.

I can't pull that off.

I don't understand why you told me that part.

He was like, You're crazy.

You could do it later.

I'm obviously telling you that.

Too much information.

No information.

I like sick out the too much.

Okay.

Okay.

So then they did have Sarah Jessica.

They called me back.

They said, we have Sir Jessica.

And to me, I thought they're very, very smart because she's very, very unusual.

She's very intelligent.

She's going to play that character with a lot of intelligence, which is what I thought it needed.

And I obviously had lived in New York and I wasn't part of that world at all, but I kind of knew they were that group.

And I thought, you know, she's a really, really good and interesting choice and I want to be part of that show.

So I said, you know, I'm this other girl.

And in the pilot I had a tiny little part.

Charlotte's part was very small, but I was like, I'm that one.

I need to be that one.

So then I had to go in and read for that one, and then I had to go in and test for that one.

And since you're a 30 minute show, I can tell you that story.

If you want to hear it.

Yes, I'd love it.

So I go in and I say, We have to you have to go to they call it like a network test, even though it's HBO.

And for HBO, it's not that many people.

If you go to a network, there's literally like 50 people sitting there for HBO.

There were four people sitting there, all of whom I could name two and came to be good friends.

But there were four of them.

The head of HBO was there at the time, and we went and it was Willie Garson who played Stanford, was there.

And I had never met.

I had met him, I had met him, I had Willie knows everybody and I had met him.

And just like I say.

Exactly, exactly.

But he's not gay in life, just like a non-gay version of Sam Stanford.

So I had met him on The X-Files set in Vancouver because he'd been on The X-Files.

So we were there, and then there were these other girls there.

There was another girl there for Charlotte, and there were some other girls there for Miranda, I believe.

I don't think there's a Samantha there, and there was a mr. Big there.

And we go to do the test and when you go to do the tests, they make you sign your test deal.

And your test deal is about this thick.

It's like your contract for the next seven years.

If the show goes.

It's a very scary document that's been negotiated on the phone with your lawyers and your agents and everybody.

Right.

But you're probably haven't signed it.

So they make you sign it for you go in the room so that they know that you're locked down for seven years if they want you.

Right.

So we go down to HBO and HBO used to be in the Towers in Century City.

Okay?

And we go down there and their computers have crashed and they can't print out the contracts.

So they say, Oh, please bear with us and we're so sorry.

You know, we're working on it.

So we were sitting there all together for an hour, literally like four.

Hours.

And each one would get printed out and they'd come out and they'd be like.

Okay, Alice, in your contract, Ready?

Come on.

And like, one by one.

And I was the last one.

And it was good because I had gotten nervous and not nervous and then nervous and not nervous so many times in the course of that 4 hours that by the time I went in, I was like, Whatever, You know what I mean?

I was like, My gosh, I have never in my life had to wait this long.

And I talked to Willie the whole time because Willie can talk to you for days if he needs to.

So I go in and I did my version of Charlotte, which was very specific and very much like how it turned out to be.

And the head of HBO at the time, Chris Albrecht, stood up and he said.

Can you can you hit the jokes more?

And I was like, What?

I mean, really?

It's like, Oh, wait.

This is HBO.

And it wasn't a joke script.

I mean, you know how it was single camera.

It wasn't like sitcom humor.

So I was like, Hmm, he's ahead of HBO.

I should try to do this.

So I was like, okay.

So I tried, but I mean, sure, that's not a big draw.

And there were no big jokes in the scenes I was doing.

It was very.

Straight, no laugh track.

So no.

So I was like, weird, right?

So I do it and I'm like, Gosh, I hope I did that.

And I go back outside.

And what they do at a test is they make you wait and then they confer and talk about you and then they might bring you back in.

And this is how it is.

It's very, very difficult.

So I'm sitting out there.

I've already been there, like the whole day, right?

And I'm just like, Oh my God.

So Darren comes out.

I know Darren and he's very nervous.

He's like a New Yorker and the other people are over there and he's like.

You've got to do it again.

You've got to do it bigger.

And he's waving his hands like that.

And I'm like, Wow, he's really nervous.

I must have really not done well.

So I'm thinking, okay, I've got to I said, I've got to do this.

So I go back in and they're like, you know, bigger, bigger, just be bigger.

And I was like, Who could, you know?

And so I tried.

To do Charlotte Bigger, but Charlotte shouldn't be bigger, you know.

So when I left, I was really like, Wow, I might have blown it and I had to wait two weeks, which is what the contract says.

They have two weeks to hold you until they tell you.

And they took every day of that day, like every hour of that hour, to the point where I went to a movie on the final day because I couldn't take it.

I couldn't take the pressure.

And finally they said, yes, who?

So that was the.

Story to be true.

He probably is.

I don't believe this.

Now we're dumping guys for being too available.

This is all solid proof of what I've been reading.

In this great new.

Book.

It says that if you really want to get married, you shouldn't be spending so much time around.

Dysfunctional Single women.

As Charlotte evolved in her quest for the perfect man on the show and in her friendships with Carrie, Miranda and Samantha, so did the relationships Davis now shares with her costars off camera.

When you shot that pilot episode of Sex and the City, I believe in June of 2007 and then it ran in 2008, did you have any idea what would.

What would know?

And Cynthia and I were literally just talking about this three days ago.

We thought two things.

We thought that it was really different and really cool, that there were four women leads and there was no other like kind of interesting non sitcom show where that was true.

So we thought we all remember talking to each other and saying, you know, I would watch this.

And we.

Were all like, Well, yeah, I would.

Watch this, but we just didn't know for many reasons.

One, HBO didn't really have any huge successes.

Two, it was just strange.

I mean, it was like reinventing.

The wheel in a weird way to do that pilot in New York with HBO because I had been in L.A. with like regular television, like studio television, right, with money and sets and things like that.

And we were in New York.

And I remember that our craft service, which is like, you know, the food that you have all day, like we would work all night almost every night.

And craft service was a small card table with like no name chocolate on it.

Like there were no Eminem's.

And I remember going at one point, like for him and saying, like, How.

Can you expect us to work with no names?

And they were just like, Well, we can't afford them.

And what job that they signed on for.

So there was no.

No telling at all.

And I don't know how much of this you remember, but like I remember shooting the group scene at that crazy Asian restaurant with the drag queens.

And so Jessica used to still have to turn to the camera and talk to the camera.

Right?

Right.

Like it was a different show.

She broke that barrier for a little bit at the beginning limitation.

Really want to.

So when you watch the reruns, it's a little kooky.

It's totally kooky.

And I remember at the very, very first time we did the.

Scene, you don't come.

Oh, come on, ladies.

Are we really that cynical?

What about romance?

I mean, was it true?

Were women in New York really giving up on love and throttling up on power?

What a tempting thought.

I mean, there felt like there was energy, let me put it that way.

There was energy and it was like it did have like a certain strained kinetic energy that not many things have.

And I felt that that was really something.

But you never know.

I remember Jessica was staying about half a block from my house in L.A. because Matthew was shooting in L.A. while we were waiting that whole long time for them to pick the show up or not, like eight months, I think.

And I would I would be walking the dog and she drove in like, Did.

You hear any news you couldn't carry new to use?

I mean, we.

Really didn't know, you know.

When did you know that?

When did you know.

That it was going to work?

When did you know that it had become not even just working, but iconic?

Two things stand out in my mind.

One was when we got nominated for an Emmy, which we never, never, never thought.

And I don't think a cable show had ever been nominated at that point.

And I remember I was sleeping.

We've been working to like 7 a.m. and I'd gone to bed and my phone rang and I was like.

Who would possibly be calling.

Me?

I think it was Saturday morning or no, Thursday morning, whenever the nominations come out, it was my mother and I was like, Mom, I'm sleeping.

She was like, Oh yeah, you wouldn't be sleeping.

I mean, she was just ecstatic.

And I was like, bolt upright.

And of course.

You know, Cynthia barely knows what the Emmys are.

So I was like, We don't know every name.

And she was like, Huh, Now I know this is big news exactly like, Oh, you know, it was very, very.

Exciting and made me realize that we had had broken boundaries within our industry, at least then.

Secondarily, and almost more exciting was when we were on the cover of Time.

And that was.

Cool.

That was huge.

For two reasons.

One is our publicist had nothing to do with it.

They called us and we were like, Why?

How?

That's shocking.

And then the caption was, Who needs a husband?

And I have never laughed so hard in my life now, particularly for me.

It was funny.

I've never been married.

Derek I still think it's really funny, and maybe it's.

Because I'm from the South.

I don't know, but.

I have it framed in your kitchen somewhere, so I.

Have it framed.

But I don't look at it.

I have it framed it in the closet.

I can't look at that stuff because I can't look at it every day.

It's weird to me to look at that, but I do have it for for like, posterity or whatever.

But the thing that was cool about that was that the whole story was about women who aren't married or who were married and are now divorced or whatever, and who choose not to be and who have their own money.

And are consumers that need to be taken seriously.

And when you think about what has happened with our movie and the success of that and everyone being so shocked, it was really prescient in a lot of ways because I think that female consumers are completely taken for granted unless they're thought about buying like kitchen cleaner.

So, you know, it is something that it's a battle that I feel like we're still fighting, you know, because we're never taken seriously as a group.

We're always like, oh, you know, if they're buying kids for their husband, we'll target them.

They're buying things for their kids, we'll talk to them.

But like, well, what about us?

And we want to buy ourselves shoes and we work hard for our money and you better take us seriously.

And that's what we went through when we put out the first movie.

I mean, the reviews were like it was like we were children.

Like the patronizing, strange tone of some of the reviews was shocking.

And then the box office and everyone was like.

Oh my gosh, people went to see this movie, Women, Women went to see the movies.

Like you would have thought that, like.

I don't know what miracle had occurred, like some shocking and you want to say like.

How could you ignore the larger part of the population?

I mean, it's.

Crazy, but Hollywood sometimes does ignore that group.

I've been on a tangent.

But as we move forward and well, you you know, we decided to get married and I'm death we the.

Movie had a number one opening weekend and was a multi-million-dollar box office hit in the United States and even bigger internationally.

Now, you talked about the first Sex and the City movie.

Is there a second.

One or is.

There is it in the works?

In the works.

Working hard.

Coming out in.

2010?

Very exciting.

And you and the girls, you talk about them as if you're actually really good friends in real life.

Is that true?

Yes.

You hang out, you still talk.

You.

I'm from you miss it.

The Sex and the City, the show.

The show.

I don't miss the schedule.

Of the show.

I don't think any we'd have to be kind of certifiable to miss the schedule because it was very, very, very hard.

We're so lucky that we can do the movies now because, I mean, it's still hard when we're doing it, but then we don't have to keep doing it all year long, which is great.

And you know, my friends have kids now and they're busy and I'm busy kids, but it's it's a really it's been just a little kind of a miracle, really, in a lot of ways.

And our fans support is why we get to keep going.

So we're always aware of that and very thankful.

Well, I know in the movie not to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it.

I can't imagine there's anyone on the planet who hasn't.

But Charlotte York Goldenblatt pretty much lives happily ever after.

She gets the man of her dreams.

She has the two children.

I mean, she has that life.

She always wanted for Kristin Davis.

What does that mean?

Living happily ever after?

How will you know when that happens for you?

Oh, it's already happened.

It's definitely already happened.

Definitely.

Definitely already happened.

Sure.

I mean, I never know what's going to happen.

And I I'm sure there will be bad things and I'm pretty sure there will be good things.

But it's definitely already happened.

I mean, I get to do what I love and I get to travel all around the world and I have great friends and family and dogs and it's all good.

Is there a role that you're just dying to play?

I have to say, Charlotte is what popped back into my head.

I mean, I've just been so lucky, you know?

Michael Patrick, our writer director, just gets me and I can't wait for her next chapter.

And we can't wait for her next chapter.

And I'm so excited to meet you.

Thank you so much for being on the A-list.

We hope we can interview again after Sex and the City Part two.

Oh, that would be great.

I'll ask some questions.

Good.

Looking for that medium pass in the mail.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So good in the storm.

Coming up next week on the A-list, meet three renowned authors and southern writers, a musical poet, a national poet laureate and a jack of all trades.

These are just three of the amazing authors that were recently at the Arts and Education Council's conference on Southern Literature.

Which is sort of like, you know, if you get into Harvard and they say not only get in, but we're going to change, we're going to name the university after you, right?

Oh, but somehow that's.

Coming up next week on the A-list.

I'm Allison Leibovitz.

See you then.