Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall thought she would be bullied and ridiculed when she was diagnosed with Astigmatism and prescribed her first pair of spectacles at just 10-years-old.
“I thought ‘Oh my God’ they’re going to call me four eyes,” Kim tells The Carousel during our interview with her.
However, the bubbly and inspirational actress need not to fear, explaining that it gave her her ‘first unique shopping experience’ and a chance to develop her own unique sense of style, rather than waiting to wear her sisters hand-me-downs.
During our interview, Kim confided that she learned from Sex and the City‘s famous costume designer Pat Field that glasses really “are the ultimate accessory”.
“They’re something people look at immediately because if they’re interested they will be looking at your face and every face deserves a great frame,” adds Kim, who was dressed in a pair of Karl Lagerfeld frames, Yves Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt and Stella McCartney trousers.
Kim, now 66, says one of the things she loved most about playing Samantha Jones was her “joie de vivre”, and her non-judgemental attitude toward other women: “She was very supportive, like the big older sister of the group.”
She adds: “I’ve always been an actress and it can get quite confusing when you play a character for a long period of time, like I did Samantha for almost 14 years, which can get very complicated in your personal life. I used to feel personally, I was a disappointment. I would show up to dates and men would be expecting Samantha, not Kim.
“The film industry for many years has pitted women against other women, like a cat-fight, which is so disappointing and limiting,” she said.
“One of the reasons I’ve been proactive and also became a producer and a writer is because I have witnessed and experienced first-hand discrimination against women in the industry. But that doesn’t stop me being creative, challenging and growing.
“My series Sensitive Skin took 10 years to make. Because it’s about a woman in her 50’s challenging the choices she made in her 20’s and 30’s, and through my life experiences I can express and explore my own personal struggles in life through my work.”
There really is so much more than you expect to Kim Cattrall, who is even better in real life than her famous role of Samantha. However, the common ground they both share is a desire to support and empower women.