Technically, there were four first villains in HBO's Sex and the City. And we're not talking about the Darth Vader or Hannibal Lector type of bad guy. We're talking about the type of bad guy in a show where women are the front and center. In the case of Sex and the City, it's "the a**hole" who breaks the heart, manipulates, or abuses one of our four heroines.
With the reboot in the works, the one Kim Cattrall isn't coming back for, we're bound to get a bunch more "a**hole" types. Especially since Mr. Big himself (Chris North) is also not returning, leaving a romantic interest position open for Carrie Bradshaw. While she may end up with someone else, she'll have to kiss a few frogs beforehand.
The pilot of Sex and the City, which aired on June 6th, 1998, featured four frogs. This is a title that the four actors who played them have had to live with their entire life. In fact, according to a great article by The Cut, they've even been treated poorly by fans in real life. After all, they did act like total pigs. Here's what they had to say about their experience...
Introducing Sex And The City's First Awful Bachelors
Let's jump all the way back to 1998, shall we? We're talking about the pilot for Sex and the City and the assortment of terrible men we were introduced to. First off, there was Tim (played by Scott Bryce) from the cold open of the show. According to The Cut, he was the character who set the tone for the series after ghosting a woman. But the pilot spent more time on three other men. There was Kurt Harrington (Bill Sage) who continuously broke Carrie's heart; however, she kept going back to him because their intimate life was so hot. Then there was Peter Mason (Bruce McCarty) who claimed that women should just marry ugly rich guys. Finally, there was Capote Duncan (Jeffrey Nordling), who went on a date with Charlotte and then hooked up with Samantha.
In short, these four men represented everything Sex and the City criticized about men. They set the stage for positive male characters and also made us relate to the four women we'd be spending the most time with over the course of the series. Therefore, they had some significant importance and director Susan Seidelman knew that when she cast the roles.
"I played Kurt Harrington," Bill Sage told The Cut. "He’s known in Sex and the City lore to be the first one to bed Sarah’s [Jessica Parker] character. It was great to work with Susan Seidelman, and the leads were all women, and it was unlike anything else — we knew it was special in that sense. Susan and Darren explained what they were doing a little bit, just that women were going to be allowed to be promiscuous and unscripted about relationships, and they were going to be flawed and exciting. And I gotta tell you, I was honored to be a part of it."
While Jeffrey Nordling, who played Capote, claims that he was the "original toxic bachelor" on Sex and the City, technically Scott Bryce's Tim was.
"I was Tim, an incredibly wealthy investment banker dude who spies this beautiful, hot girl at an art gallery," Scott Bryce explained. "I seduce her, and woo her, and schmooze her, and start talking about the future and babies, and we start looking for a house together, and I start talking about 'let’s go meet my parents,' and then I vanish and break her heart. And it’s the first sort of realization — it goes into Carrie’s description of, you know, how she didn’t tell her [Carrie was her friend, recounting her story in voiceover] that love is dead in New York, and this is the new age; she didn’t warn her about toxic bachelors. So I am, indeed, toxic bachelor number one."
The Truth About Being On Sex And The City
It was Candace Bushnell who was the inspiration for Sex and the City. She had written a column for The New York Observer (much like Carrie's) that was adapted into some books which, in turn, made it to television. This was something that the four men who played the show's first villains had no grasp of. Instead, they were just excited to be cast on a television show with a number of actors they respected.
For the most part, filming the pilot for the show was fairly normal, with the exception of one strange element...
"The only odd thing we had was security because Rudy Giuliani’s soon-to-be first ex-wife played the real estate agent. I think her name is Donna Hanover?" Scott Bryce explained. "So she was the real estate agent showing us the place. She had, like, security detail around her that escorted her on the set, which was kind of fun."
Aside from that, the pilot actually felt like making 'an indie film', according to Bill Sage. At the time, none of the actors had an ego and were all just excited to be there.
While a juicy story about diva-behavior is what we're all craving, especially given the tension that arose between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall, the truth is that everyone got along on set. However, this was just the beginning of the show.
Although all of these horrible male characters could have been brought back in some capacity or another... none of them were.
"I was going to be a series regular, and my twins had just been born," Jeffrey Nordling admitted. "In one of my more brilliant career decisions, when it was picked up, I said, 'Look, I can’t move to New York.' So. That went well."
While it seems like Jeffrey regrets this, he and the other three actors who played Sex and the City's first 'a**holes' have not lived the characters down.
"I was walking down the street with Chris Noth, coincidentally, and somebody recognized me," Scott Bryce said. "She said, 'Oh, Mr. Big and the first —!' and she used a terrible word. I was like, 'Yep. That’s me.'"