Sarah Jessica Parker on new TV role: ‘You can like somebody even if they make poor choices’

Sarah Jessica Parker in Divorce. Craig Blankenhorn / HBO via AP Photo

The National catches up with Sarah Jessica Parker on her new show, what she learnt from Sex and the City and her return to television.

Divorce is billed as a comedy, but it is actually very dark …

Yes, but it's dark in a way, I hope, that you understand why we made the choice to do it that way. That was really important to me, and every time there was a concern about the comedy aspect I was always like: "Don't worry" — I mean, we have funny actors, and the funny will happen and it's there. The thing I think that I learnt on Sex and the City is that what people respond to, what you can hang your hat on, is the emotional fillet. And without that, the funny doesn't mean as much. So even on a show that's a half-hour comedy, I prefer the profundity. The comedy comes from great comedic actors and funny, strange, odd lines, and ridiculousness and behaviour of smart people doing stupid things, and being cruel, and selfish, and being in battle.

What was it about Frances, and this show, that drew you back to television?

I had been developing this show for about four years. There wasn't a script, specifically — there was a story I was wanting to tell and had been curious about, the story of a marriage and an affair, and this was before The Affair was on the air. And what does that mean, and how can that work in a marriage, and what is an ordinary middle-class marriage in ­America right now?

New York City was so much a character in Sex and the City, and the suburbs feel like a major player in this, too, particularly in terms of that feeling of isolation from the city. Was that deliberate?

Yes, it’s an isolation that some might find, and many rightfully find, very comforting — they feel a community and they feel like a parish. And, I think for many people it really is the destination point. It’s what you earn, it is the reward for your hard work.

And I think, in this instance, that eventually it’s going to feel very quiet to her, and very lonely, and that’ll be interesting to see what choices she makes in another season — about staying, and what that house means, and whether she can even­ ­afford it.

That is an aspect of the economic circumstances of this divorce, isn’t it — how huge mortgages are, and the fact people can’t move out?

Yeah, I know someone right now, very close to my life, who’s living in the home with her husband while she’s [going through] divorce. But that’s economic circumstances now. And to separate is so costly and scary. And in this case, this person close to me, she just gave up her career for her husband, and she’s gone back to work, but can she really support her children on her own? It’s terrifying, and it’s devastating — it’s such enormous disappointment. Even if it’s not where you want to be ­anymore, it must be such a sense of loss and failure.

There is not a lot of explaining about Frances’s motivations. The viewer is left to work them out. There’s not a lot of judgment. Was that deliberate?

Some people have asked: “Aren’t you worried she’s not likeable?” I don’t know — she’s real. Tony Soprano was a murderer — and we loved him. You can like somebody even if they make poor choices. I sort of think they are equally unlikeable.