Sarah Jessica Parker on Golden Globes honor, And Just Like That ending

“It feels like a punctuation mark that feels appropriate,” Sarah Jessica Parker tells The Times the day before receiving the Golden Globes’ Carol Burnett Award. “Not that I should even be getting this.”

There’s that trademark self-deprecating tone she shares with Carrie Bradshaw, her most indelible character that she played for the better part of three decades, first in “Sex and the City,” which ran for six seasons on HBO in the late 1990s and early 2000s, then in the reboot “And Just Like That…,” which concluded last year after its third season.

The Carol Burnett Award, presented at the “Golden Eve” special airing Thursday as part of the Globes’ “Golden Week” celebrations, honors excellence in television, which, for Parker, extends beyond the “Sex and the City” universe and into roles on “Square Pegs,” “Glee” and “Divorce.” In fact, she got her start at the age of 8 as the titular “Little Match Girl” on NBC’s “Young People’s Specials.”

Parker relishes the opportunity “to be forced to look at the last 52 years and to appreciate forevermore the journeyman, in many ways, career that I’ve been able to have” — even if she’s a little bit daunted by the prospect.

In addition to receiving the Globes honor, Parker spent 2025 judging the Booker Prize, for which she read 153 books. She also has a production company, Pretty Matches, which produced “And Just Like That…” and the new “The Family Stone” sequel.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

It’s been a big year for you, with the final season of “And Just Like That…” and judging the Booker Prize. This must be a nice way to cap it off with the Carol Burnett Award.

It’s not a typical bookender, that’s for sure! I felt very content and grateful for the year. This is extraordinary and I’m deeply humbled. It’s a lovely and generous gesture from the Golden Globes.

Did you watch Carol Burnett growing up? Was she a big influence on you?

I did. We didn’t have a television for a lot of my younger years. I would invite myself over to a friend’s house who had a television and who would tune into CBS on Saturday nights for their lineup, which started with Carol Burnett. I would call my friend and ask if I could come over to watch Carol Burnett. She was a huge part of my childhood. She was kind of the gateway to exceptional comedy — physical comedy, intellectual comedy, and a wonderful absurdity but also quite often, in surprising ways, rather heartbreaking. She was and remains one of the great comedic persons.

My parents met in a production of “Once Upon a Mattress” and I went on and played that part on Broadway in the first revival after [Burnett’s] star-making 1967 turn as Winnifred. I grew up listening to the cast album. She’s been in my life in a lot of ways. She’s been an enormously influential person [to me] on- and off-screen for countless decades.

Have you met or worked with Carol before?

She came to see “Once Upon a Mattress” so I met her then, but other than that I have not had the opportunity to work with her. I’ve remained an admirer of her all these years like millions of others.

You already have six Golden Globes for your work on “Sex and the City.” What does it mean to you to be receiving this career achievement award for excellence in television?

I started in television. My first role was as the Little Match Girl when I was 8 years old for NBC. They used to do their “Young People’s Specials,” luckily for me, out of Cincinnati, Ohio. [Parker was born in Ohio.] This rather talented director named Tom Robertson wrote and directed these incredible “Young People’s Specials.” When I was 8 I stood in line with 500 other little girls at our local NBC affiliate in downtown Cincinnati and auditioned and got the role. That’s when I could understand this feeling that I possessed about being an actor. That was 52 years ago!

I feel I’ve had a very lucky, hard-fought-for, unimaginable career. I’ve had opportunities to work with some of the greats — actors, directors, writers — and some of the wonderful young talent that’s emerging; to play all sorts of different people from different places and leading different lives and having wonderfully different hopes and dreams. To ponder that in an attempt to try to communicate what this award means is momentarily mystifying; to be forced to look at the last 52 years and to appreciate forevermore the journeyman, in many ways, career that I’ve been able to have. I’ve found so much love and creative challenge in it and I’ve met so many singular people.

You really helped to pave the way for a lot of female-focused television we’ve seen in the years since “Sex and the City.” What does it mean to have played such an iconic character on such an iconic show?

It’s hard to find new words to describe the kind of gratitude and good fortune to play a role that was so colorful, so interesting to me and provided so many opportunities to do things I hadn’t done, and to work alongside the three other women for so long, who made the work better and so much more exciting, fun and important. To be shooting on the streets of New York — my hometown, a city that I love — and to shoot it in a way that painted it in much brighter colors but communicated an affection and romance that thus far hadn’t been portrayed in television. To work initially with Darren Star, and then spend the majority of the last 25 years with Michael Patrick King as my producing partner. To have HBO be our home and my professional family. All of it adds up to such riches. Most importantly of all, the goal of an actor is to share it, have people see it and have strong, passionate feelings about it — good and sometimes bad. To have connected with so many people for so many years is really your great hope as an actor.

Is it a bit bittersweet to be receiving this award right after we’ve said goodbye to Carrie Bradshaw?

It doesn’t feel bittersweet; it feels like a punctuation mark that feels appropriate. Not that I should be getting this, but it feels like this nice wrapping around this as a special second layer that I could never have predicted or dreamed of.

Is there a chance Carrie Bradshaw could grace our screens again at some stage in the future?

I don’t have any reliable predictions about that. We pay attention to what intuition tells us — we’ll continue to listen to that.

It was just the 20th anniversary of “The Family Stone” and we unfortunately lost the incomparable Diane Keaton this past year, another groundbreaking comedian. What were your feelings when you heard the news?

Devastated. For her family, for the movies she was yet to make, for her general presence in our lives. Because of social media, we got to see more of her. It was such a massive loss that was deeply felt, because of her spectacular career in movies, but the way she looked at the world with curiosity and bemusement. She was a very special person — I always felt it, but when she passed was the opportunity to say so. I’ve worked with her more than once, but on “The Family Stone,” in particular, to watch her work, what mattered to her, that she cared and took it seriously but also found time to be silly and provocative and inquisitive and always create something very worthwhile on screen.

Is there anything you’re able to share about “The Family Stone” sequel?

We’re pretty far along. I loved working with [director] Tom Bezucha. The hardest part will be figuring out everybody’s schedules. And how to exist without Diane. Her presence will be felt in a very large way, no doubt.

Let’s talk about your literary imprint, SJP Lit. The books you’ve published over the past two and a half years are all so varied. How do you choose which books you’ll publish?

It’s a purely emotional response. You get a manuscript at 2 p.m. in the afternoon and you know you better read it fast so you can be part of the bidding. I feel compelled to compete when a book feels like a brand new voice, a story I’ve not heard, a place I’ve not been, people I don’t know, written oftentimes by debut authors who have such skill and you can just feel their careers 10 years from now and you just know they’re going to be one of the great American voices. Or a voice from another part of the world. Every book I’ve fallen in love with. Literary fiction is a particular interest of mine so I publish almost entirely literary fiction, but not exclusively.

Our most recent book, “I Am You,” was mentioned twice in the New York Times this week as “the most sumptuous fiction” and as a best book of the week. I got on the plane [to come to Los Angeles for the Golden Globes] and a woman stopped me to say she had “I Am You” to read on the flight! When you are experiencing readers feeling what you felt when you first read it, it’s such a thrill. When they’re meeting an author for the first time and become such devotees and stick with them and long for more. I look for all of that. I have to fight for it — I’m up against all the big publishing houses, so it’s very hard to compete. But I’ll always try.

And in case you weren’t busy enough this year, you also judged the Booker Prize. What was that experience like?

It was one of the gifts of a lifetime. It was thrilling and massively daunting. Every month was this parcel of books written by some of the most important names in fiction, and then all these new voices. I was deep inside really special storytelling. It was agonizing to have to let books go. To be having these deliberations with the other four judges — led by Gaby Wood, who is this dazzling, spectacular human being, who I came to know and love and respect and learn so much from — was one of the most exciting exercises I’ve ever done. Even if there were times when I thought I wasn’t going to make the deadline for deliberations, I always did — I couldn’t hide in the back of the class! To announce the winner on Nov. 10 and be in the room with all of the shortlisted nominees, all of whom had written such everlasting, perfectly unique stories, and to get to tell them so was one of the most exciting nights of my life.

Between the Booker Prize and SJP Lit, are you able to read for fun?

I never felt as if I wished I could be reading something else. If you’re a greedy reader, like all of us [who judged the Booker Prize] are, it’s a contract to say that you’re only allowed to do what you love best for the next 10 months. I experienced every one of those first pages as all optimism, all potential, all hope. Even if an author falls short, I don’t want that time back. It’s no burden.

Would you ever write a book yourself?

I don’t think I have that talent. I don’t have the discipline. I’m not able to be in a room alone for that long. I’m one of eight kids, so there was always chaos and activity around. I have three kids. I could never even brush my teeth alone. I always have to be with other people. I don’t know how [authors] do it. Judging the Booker, you can really appreciate how hard it is to write a great book.

Your “And Just Like That…” colleagues Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis are returning to the stage with “Marjorie Prime” and delving into the podcast world with “Are You a Charlotte?,” respectively. Will we see you back on stage or podcasting anytime soon?

I haven’t figured out the next year yet. There are a couple of movies that I’ve signed on to do so those will probably happen first. There’s a play that myself and my husband [Matthew Broderick] have been asked to do. Podcasts, I don’t know.