I met Kim Cattrall once. We chatted for about ten or fifteen minutes, mostly about the play she was appearing in at the Old Vic in London (Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth). This would have been around 2012 or 2013, I can't recall offhand.
She was much shorter than I expected. I know it's a cliche to say this about actors in general, but in SATC Cattrall always appeared tall and Amazonian, with those sexy broad shoulders and that almost regal bearing, whereas in person she was petite, almost slight. Yet it seemed to me it was all in how she carries herself. I couldn't help thinking just how tiny SJP really must be, since Cattrall in my memory always appeared to tower over her.
Kim had no particular reason to give me the time of day, but she was gracious and unfailingly polite. She struck me as both quite introverted and very earnest about her work.
After we'd talked, it seemed to me that she was one of those people who can appear shy or awkward (not rude, but uncomfortable) in the realm of trivial small talk, but who light up and become fluent and at ease as soon as the conversation turns to a topic of substance which they care about. In her case that day, it was obviously the play.
*Sweet Bird of Youth* is an incredibly dark and unpleasant drama (it makes *A Streetcar Named Desire* look like a comedy) and couldn't have been further from SATC in tone or subject. She spoke about her character with wit and nuance and strong feeling. I came away thinking that she was a much more intense and serious person than I would have expected to meet.
All of that bewitching mix of power and humour and vulnerability that she exudes on screen perhaps flow from just how much she invests of herself. There was a sense, even in that briefest of meetings, that she did nothing by halves. She *cared* about the character. She *cared* to hear how I had experienced the play.
Who am I to judge from one tiny encounter? But my impression ever since then, for what it's worth, is that with all of that introversion, intensity and seriousness probably comes also a vast amount of sensitivity. I felt a bit in awe (starstruck, too, no doubt) and found her terribly interesting and impressive to be around.
By the same token, I also find it is not difficult to imagine such a person having a very difficult time in the film and television industry, and a difficult time working at the centre of a pop culture juggernaut like SATC. The strains and stressors on such a personality type are probably enormous in that context; all that strength of feeling. The other three stars don't strike me as anywhere near as sensitive and complex as Cattrall.
All subjective, these were just my impressions.
