Bridget Moynahan’s Sex and the City character, Natasha, is one of the more memorable guest stars of the iconic series — but her TV husband, Chris Noth, could never seem to remember her.
During the Monday, October 6, episode of iHeartRadio’s “Are You a Charlotte?” podcast, host Kristin Davis, who played Charlotte York, recalled Moynahan, 54, making her SATC debut in 1999 during season 2.
“Then you go off and do Coyote Ugly. Then you come back third season,” Davis, 60, explained, before asking her guest, “[Would] they would just call you and just say, like, ‘Are you available? So, you were just doing [episodes] one by one?”
Moynahan called herself a “day player,” noting she would get called by the producers ahead of every guest appearance, which apparently made it harder for Noth, 70, to recall who she was.
“Every time Chris Noth would be like, ‘Hi, nice to meet you,’” Moynahan recalled. “[I was] like, ‘Dude, I’m your wife.’”
Davis burst into laughter over Noth, who played Mr. Big throughout the series, forgetting his TV wife so frequently. “Oh, my God, that is classic,” Davis said.
Moynahan joked that it was only after she exited the series that Noth knew her name and character.
“I love Chris,” the actress said, revealing, “Years later we’d bump into each other in California. He’s like, ‘And there’s my wife.’ I’m like, ‘You couldn’t remember I was your wife when I was your wife. Now I’m not your wife.’”
Davis teased, “Chris was weirdly in the moment in weird ways,” so his lack of memory tracked.
Moynahan was introduced as Natasha during season 2 of the HBO series after she and Big got engaged after just five months of dating. The couple met while Big was in Paris after breaking up with Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), the show’s protagonist.
Carrie was surprised to learn that Big was engaged at the time while attending a rodeo party in the Hamptons because he was supposed to be in Paris — and not tied down.
That awkward meeting spilled over into how Davis thought of Moynahan. Davis confessed on the podcast that Charlotte’s negative feelings towards Big’s new woman clouded her own judgment of the guest star, and decades later, she still was remorseful about their introduction.
“I remember I was in the trailer for a really long time. … And then I had to go out into this massive party,” Moynahan recalled of her first scene on SATC. “Yes, it was scary for me.”
Davis completely understood, saying, “Normally, what I would do for guest star people, which were usually men, I would go and try to kinda proactively be friendly because it is such a scary situation.”
Moynahan didn’t get that kind treatment, however, because she was “the nemesis.”
“I don’t think I was that nice to you,” Davis confessed, noting that Charlotte’s blind allegiance to Carrie as one of her three BFFs somehow spilled over into her set etiquette toward Moynahan.
Moynahan had a lightbulb moment, saying, “That’s why nobody was talking to me,” but wasn’t upset.
“I feel really bad about that, Bridget,” Davis told her. “I felt really bad because we were all young-ish. You were new. I just feel bad.”
Moynahan insisted that David didn’t need to “worry” about it and it was in the past. Plus, she recalled Davis being kind years later when they ran into each other at the gym in Los Angeles.
“[I thought], ‘Why is she being so nice to me, she was not nice to me at the rodeo party,’” Moynahan joked.
Davis revealed, “I’m glad that I had a chance [because] by then we weren’t in our characters anymore. I could be a normal person.”
She once again apologized for her mistreatment of the Blue Bloods alum, adding, “I have always felt really guilty about it because I didn’t even really realize how much I had internalized Charlotte’s world view.”
