Kristin Davis remembers unconventional casting in ‘Sex and the City’ season 1 episode

Sex and the City was never shy about pushing boundaries, but even its stars had moments that caught them off guard. 

The actress, who played Charlotte York on the HBO hit for six seasons, recently took a trip down memory lane—revisiting some of the show’s most unexpected moments from its early days.

On the March 16 episode of her Are You a Charlotte? podcast, Davis, 60, rewatched Season 1, Episode 6, and reflected on Miranda Hobbes’ (Cynthia Nixon) brief romance with Ted (David Aaron Baker). 

The relationship took an unexpected turn when Miranda stumbled upon his collection of magazines focused on, well, a very specific interest.

“She finds a [magazine] about spanking, and she’s kind of, like, a little miffed, which is also kind of funny because she’s Miranda,” Davis shared with her listeners. 

She added that while the topic “seems pretty benign to today’s world,” at the time, it was a moment that led Miranda to turn to her best friend for advice.

“Spanking kinda seems pretty benign to today’s world [but] she has to go and talk to Carrie [Bradshaw] about it.”

As Davis recalled, things only escalated from there. “Carrie’s already had to watch the modelizer having [a private moment] … and then has to have a cigarette and act like it’s fine,” she laughed. 

“Now, we’ve got Miranda with this [discovery].”

And then came another unforgettable scene, “Soon we’re gonna have all of us watching the people in the window,” Davis teased, turning to her guest star Christine Taylor. 

“Do you remember this when we, like, turn our heads sideways because we’re watching people [together]?”

That head-tilting moment—featuring Charlotte, Miranda, Carrie, and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) watching from afar—became one of SATC’s most memorable visuals, even making its way into the show’s promotional teasers at the time. 

But for Davis, one behind-the-scenes detail stood out even more.

“We hired two [actors] for [that scene],” she recalled. “Which I remember, we were like semi-traumatized about it.”

Looking back, Davis says her perspective has shifted. 

“More power to them,” she admitted, before acknowledging how groundbreaking Sex and the City was in exploring relationships and intimacy on TV.

“It is kind of a theme in the beginning,” she noted of the show’s bold storytelling. “I guess it makes sense because Carrie is trying to, you know, investigate relationships and [figure out] what do people like? What do people do?”