And Just Like That EP Talks Working With Season 3's Top Scene Stealer: Carrie's Cat
Last season on And Just Like That..., Carrie Bradshaw let love back into her heart — and no, we're not talking about Aidan.
In Season 2 of Max's Sex and the City continuation, Carrie took in a fuzzy baby kitten that she (naturally) dubbed Shoe, and the cat has been prominently featured so far in Season 3, whether helping Carrie pick out a dress or (unfortunately) interrupting a round of phone sex between Carrie and Aidan. The cat even facilitated the first meeting between Carrie and her new landscaper Adam, with Shoe escaping outside and Adam scooping her up in his arms.
Series star Sarah Jessica Parker actually adopted the cat that played Shoe last season, but Shoe is played by two different cats in Season 3, executive producer Julie Rottenberg tells TVLine: "They're both delightful, but good at different things." But Rottenberg, who directs a pair of episodes later this season, admits that she was "spoiled" by working with the dog that plays Charlotte's pooch Richard Burton and "didn't realize that cats do whatever the heck they want. They're not matching the last take."
She and the crew learned, though, "to really embrace whatever the cat wanted to do, and to set up shots so that if the cat walked off screen, we could live with that." (Bill Berloni and Rochelle Scudder are the show's animal wranglers who handle the two Shoes off-camera.) Plus, "it helps that Sarah Jessica is such a cat person," Rottenberg adds. "You can see she's so at home, and loves working with the cats, and was very willing. It was like, 'Oh, let's see what she does.'"
The cat does some unexpected things, too: For an upcoming episode, Rottenberg was directing a scene with Cynthia Nixon in Carrie's kitchen, she recalls, and "the cat was lying on the window, very happily asleep... and Cynthia's doing her thing. And then in one take, the cat did this crazy back stretch, where the cat becomes, like, 10 stories higher than they are. It's behind Cynthia, so she couldn't really see it, but we were all laughing so hard watching this cat just completely steal the scene."
Are you (happily) distracted by Shoe's cuteness this season? Let us know in the comments below, cat lovers.