Sarah Jessica Parker explains why Carrie Bradshaw never wore nail polish
Sarah Jessica Parker is in promotional mode, hyping the new season of And Just Like That. These are photos of SJP lighting up the Empire State Building, a fun gig that some actors get to do as part of some promotional tours. Notice SJP’s hands, or more specifically, her fingernails. Unpolished! I’ve never really noticed it before now, but SJP is pretty polish-adverse in her real life and in character. Apparently, Carrie Bradshaw rarely wears nail polish, and that’s by design. Glamour spoke to SJP about Carrie’s bare nails, and Sarah Jessica had a big explanation:
For one, she says, “Carrie’s a writer, so she would have been typing originally on a proper typewriter. She would have learned typing in high school, and she was a practical writer and a necessary writer and a romantic writer.”
She goes on to say that manicures for Carrie “seemed (a) futile because it would always be messed up and (b) an obstacle on the speedy road toward thoughts being written.” While Parker adds that doesn’t mean that other writers don’t or can’t type beautifully or easily with nails, “it just never seemed that it was where Carrie would spend her time expressing herself.”
Executive producer Michael Patrick King agrees. “Anything that Carrie wears that you see on camera is well thought-out by the wardrobe department and Sarah Jessica,” he tells me. “She really tries to play both sides, the high and the low, the real and the fantasy. So notably, she never wears nail polish.”
Another reason for Carrie’s bare nail look is time management as well as episode continuity. Aside from being the star of SATC and AJLT, Parker is busy serving as an executive producer. She’s also heavily involved in Carrie’s looks and therefore in constant fittings with costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago, leaving little time to spend in a manicure chair.
“We also don’t shoot in order,” Parker explains. “You’re moving from scene to scene, so practically speaking, it’s problematic to have a nail color that’s got to match every single scene. It gets in the way of speed and economy.”
[From Glamour]
The continuity issue is something I understand – it would be a pain in the ass to take the time to coordinate nail polish to outfits, and then have to switch up the polish day to day depending on what scenes you’re shooting out of sequence. But the idea that writers wouldn’t wear polish? Nah. Plenty of women work with their hands AND wear polish. I admire those women, because I am not one of them. I also prefer bare nails, but I have a completely different and practical reason: my nails grow fast and I hate the look of polished nails growing out. Plus, I’ve always enjoyed the sort of natural “French tip” look of my long, bare nails. As someone who types for hours every day, my only thing is that I can’t keep my nails too long. Which is why I keep a nail file in my desk!
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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