Are You A Charlotte?They were trendsetters. Their style was bold, chic, and so in vogue.
The fashion truly was one of the stars of Sex and the City and it became iconic.
Costume Designer Molly Rogers lets us in on the secrets and stories of the clothes from the casual to the couture. The designers, the hits (and misses), from retail stores to the runway, go inside the Sex and the City closet!
Hi, I'm Kristin Davis, and I want to know, are you a Charlotte Mollie Mollie Rogers is here you guys? Yay. I have been dying to have Molly on since we began this podcast. Mollie is the most special person that you guys will meet, Okay, and she's been with us since the very very beginning. I mean, not the pilot. Scratch that the almost very beginning.
Right, the pilot someone else who went on to do the Sopranos.
No way, I didn't realize she went on to do the Sopranos.
They were on the same floor with us, right, second floor, silver.
Cup, right right, right, that's interesting. Well she did such a fantastic job on the Sopranos, and tell her opposite from the right, Well, that was meant to be then, that was meant to be for her, and she was lovely. She was lovely. It just wasn't exactly the right fit. Now, let's discuss. That's a good jumping off point to discuss. First of all, how did you come to be working with the illustrious Pat Field at the time? Tell us the background.
Okay, it's a kind of I can do it in a short way. Also, because I've told the story so many times and Pat herself loves to.
Watch me and listen to me tell it.
I was living in London after I graduated from Carolina, and I didn't know what I wanted to do. And then I decided I needed to get out of England because I wasn't really legal.
I can find York.
On Friday the thirteenth, nineteen eighty four, wow, and walked into Pat's store, famous store on Meat Street, and she was in there with a stylist, a French stylist named Mary Paul, and they were choosing rubber bracelets eighty four.
Wow for Madonna, Oh my god, which of course we all know Madonna's rubber blet bracelets exactly.
And I walked up to Pat and I was wearing a paper dress.
Oh my boy, George dreadlocks. Wow. I asked her for a.
Job, and that old we began our trek in styling and being friends and working in her store led to you know, that was huge. Eighty four was big TV videos. Sure, so we styled and that led to commercials and that led to TV. You know, and just have known her and been a friend of hers forever.
And did you work on the film that she did with Sir Jessica in Miami.
No, I was.
Down here at the same time doing a television show called Moon Over Miami, So I didn't get to work on that. And I was so jealous because I remember the day that they were shooting something on the beach with Naom Campbell.
Oh. I was like, that's working with super model.
I love it. So then, how how did you hear about the pilot? The show, not the pilot, I guess because I don't even think that we asked Pat to do the pilot. No, right, right?
I remember, uh, Pat throwing some script at me and saying, read this, I think it's really interesting.
No, I think did Candice have a book out?
Yeah, definitely the book Sex and the City.
Yeah, I think.
I think if that was at that time, I feel like Pat had read the paperback and was like, this is gonna be outrageous.
Wow, smart Pat.
And the first time we met, well, Pat went and talked.
Pat took a Dominatrix book that I had to her meeting with Darren Haa. I love show him pictures of serious high heel and things.
Wow.
And it was very s and m I was like, you're gonna scare him off.
But you didn't know Darren yet, right, So you didn't really know Darren. Darren, I don't think he's that scarable. But I mean, I also think that is such a good indication of kind of the interesting kind of mismatch of television and Pat, which actually really benefited the show obviously.
Absolutely, It's just so interesting because and when I often think about the influences in those early years where you know, we just had no money and we were working on Saturdays, and it was so crazy. I realized how much we drew from being out all the time we went out. We were downtown people, right, and we saw those characters and we were always big, high heeled, you know.
It just it was a natural inspiration from just being social.
Amazing, amazing. That's so interesting now, So to take me back to coming to New York with Pat to do the beginning of the series, when we got picked up for the first season.
Well, I don't know, I know you'll understand this, but the first time we met Sarah Jessica was at Pat's apartment, which was above the store on Eighth Street. It had rubber floors that after parties she would like kind of hose and that was sticky liquor or whatever.
I'm sure don't want to know more.
Let's show SJ just a few little ideas.
So we had won Rebecca and Pat and I Rebecca was Pat's girlfriend at the time, as you remember, Yes, I went to Aina, who had a consignment store in sohoh, yeah, and pulled a few things, which we.
Still do for you. We still go there, all of it so much.
And we showed Sarah Jessica the fur coat.
Oh you had it right then, Yeah, the clutch purse which I believe she paired on the show with the fur coat, and some little mules uh huh that were plastic. And I remember, uh, you know, I always I've kept a diary all my life, and I remember writing in my diary that Pat and Sarah Jessica were so excited because they were going to not wear pantyhose.
Aha. That was a major major point.
I don't think people understand that.
No, I don't think people remember that. Number One, you always had to wear them previous, like like for me in melrose Land and just Los Angeles in general, like that was a normal thing. And obviously in South Carolina where I grew up. I mean, of course you wore pantyhose, right, which is what we called them back then. And then I remember Pat just like no, and she's being like, oh my god. And in the beginning when I'm rewatching, obviously I hadn't remembered a lot of this, but I've got hoson a couple times, and I'm like, Pat must have been so mad at me.
So funny.
I'm glad that you understand where that's coming from, because it was kind of like not a requirement, but women just wore it. And yeah, Pat, and so we just we're talking about bear legs, bare legs, yep.
Even Oh, I know, I remember those days. I remember those cold days, which actually this episode that we're watching, which we don't have to talk about right now, but it's one of those episodes where when you remember when we would come back to work in February and it would be like so cold, but we had to pretend it was spring because that was when the show would come on. And so we're in the Bare Legs and we've got the either the fur episode episode that Pat would try to get all of us in first, and then the Light Code episode and then like the Lighter Code episode, so you're watching it all unfold, and you know how we cross board, right, So like when I watched one oh five, there are leaves on the trees and I'm thinking, oh, thank god, it's finally spring. Then one o six there's no leaves on the trees, and we look like we are freezing, like freezing, like I feel like my teeth are chattering. Like one scene which I very much remember, but it was always just a tight rope walk and I remember pat like no nothing on your legs and you.
Just be like, no nothing, because it I remember something I remember when I watch those episodes as well. I see scenes on Madison Avenue or somewhere, and it just looks like such a bitter spring day, yes at seven am or something.
Yes, yes, But also I feel like, you know, do you remember the like was there? Did you all know the extent to which you were changing how costume was done on television? I mean we were on HBO, so that was a little different, But did you know the extent to which you were you know, paving new roads?
I mean, you know, I love telling that story. It's a good example of what you're asking. I loved telling there were little clues. I loved telling that story of when an HBO executive came into the wardrobe room to do a little rack review by themselves, Uh huh, looked at these genes that were from Japan for Carrie and she was like, no one is gonna understand these in Kansas.
Kicked her out.
Excellent, excellent. I mean also, like, were we making television for Kansas and I didn't know it like that. I don't know that we were trying to do that. But then also, who would have they ever expected us to have such wide success. We certainly did not expect that in the beginning.
True, And it wasn't until I want to say, the third season that people started warming to us in the fashion industry, because when you went into a showroom and said we're working on a show called Sex in the City, they were like, what is it?
Porno? I know they didn't know.
Right once he started watching it, you know, things started coming in right.
But for two whole seasons we didn't have that so much, right. So that's also interesting when I look back, because my clothes are just really just weird. Okay, the first season, I'm just thinking what on earth? Which I know some of it was that, you know, I didn't really understand Pat right, and I was confused how I was going to fit into Pat's vision. And I think Pat maybe was figuring out her vision for Charlotte and it took some time. But also you know that picture, it's one of my favorite pictures of us. It's from first season, which I didn't realize. We're on the street, I thought. I think Craig Blankethorn, our amazing stephatographer, took it. We're on the street. It's the middle of the night. We're on like sixth Avenue, and I've got a leather coat on. I think we've got like wool coats and turtlenecks, and we're looking off in the distance. All four of us look like we're in our own clothes in a way. You know, it's interesting. Oh my gosh, it's really interesting.
I want to see that picture. Let's to blooming Dell's because of our budget and Century twenty one amazing. I want to ask you something I've always wondered. If you remembered when all of you had your dressing rooms on the stage.
Yes, of course I remember that you remember that, okay, I always wondered if. Of course, that was for many many years, many many years at Silver Cup. What I also remember is when we were out in the city, we were in I feel I could be wrong, but I feel like we were in a triple banger, meaning Kim, myself and Cynthia were in little sections. It was either triple or double. And the reason I remember this is because all of our clothes didn't fit because there's no real proper closet and a double banger. So you know how in the morning you would bring in all of the outfits for the day and all the undergarments and everything, which was many pieces, and they would be hanging on my microwave and stuff. So you had this tiny little sofa and you'd be under your clothes that were hanging above you, like trying to, you know, peek out or whatever. And they also had our names on the door. And the reason that I remember that is because at one point I was sitting there, you know, waiting as it is, and some guy comes banging on my door and I open the door. I think it's an ad or whatever. It's just a person who wanted to know someone on the crew was someone on the crew there and I was like, I don't know what you're talking about, and he was all mad at me, and I was like, dude, this before we had security. Obviously, we had nothing. We were just hanging out there with our names on the door, you know, under our clothes.
What is on your door now?
I think our initials. Yeah, I think it's something slightly mysterious, but we have our security, so it doesn't really matter.
Right, that's a little safe, I know.
It's it's it's funny to think of kind of the naivete and the kind of innocence, you know, that we had back then At different times.
We were really under the radar.
Look at the crowds that watch you all now. It's really something. It's so special to have come along and grown up with it.
Yeah, I know, it's crazy to think about. That's part of the reason I wanted to do the podcast is that the journey has been incredible, and you know, we share it with the fans, right because that they're part. They're part of the journey, and I wanted to bring it all together and let them hear our experience of it because it's so much fun to think back for so long we've been together.
I feel like a lot in my I don't know, maybe I'm I'm not sure sure, but I feel like a lot of it is untold history. Like I saw your clip on Instagram. You and Cynthia were talking about auditioning. Yep, bitch, I found fascinating.
Thank you, thank you.
I don't know if you've shared those stories from that early with people.
I don't think so, I mean, what's funny for us too, because obviously every person I've had Michael Patrick and I've had sin On. Now I'm having you on, which is great. I'm gonna have a Sarah On. Everyone has told me things that I haven't known, which you know, We've spent a lot of time together and I still don't know everything. So it's kind of fun and funny, you know. So back to you. Let's get back to you. So you've come to New York. You've walked into Pat store. How incredibly smart of you. Number one? Number two? Now you Pat said like, look at the script or look at this book or whatever it is. And you're on the show and no one knows the show. You guys are asking to borrow clothes. People are like, what is it? You're going to Bloomingdale's. You're going to Century twenty one, which I remember. You guys kind of lived at Century twenty one.
Oh my god, people I worked there, I was there, so they would ask me where are the belts?
And I'm sure you knew where every single belt was?
I did.
I could have gone through that store blindfolded. I told Pat, I've spent more time in Century twenty one that I did in my entire life anywhere.
I bet, I bet, and thankfully so, because, oh my god, how could you have ever done what you guys did without having Century twenty one.
People do not realize what a treasure trove it was. You know that little Vivian Westwood mini that had the little white fluffle bottom behind.
Yes, some century incredible, incredible, How could it not be there?
We loved going, we do.
I know we did, and we in our minds we still do. Let me ask you this. So I remember just myself going to New York, you know, somewhat wide eyed, thinking wow, I don't know how to dress like this. And you know, these women that this is kind of based on are so incredibly fashionable, and they're in the magazines as the best dressed, and you know, thank goodness, sir Jessica knows about this, right and think good Sir Jessica had her relationships with designers that she had already been you know, engaged in before the show, and I remember just thinking, gosh, I've got to do what she does. So, you know, like if someone eventually would invite us somewhere, I would go and I would try to make relationships, especially with the people that fit me right, which wasn't everyone I mean now right, So like Michael Core's you know, the Ralph Lauren Oscar de Laurento, which took years, and I was always scared, like I don't want to be on Sergiska's turf, but you know, maybe could I possibly wear an Oscar? And I finally got to. But you know, those things for me were very much just following her lead, you know, in terms of how do you make a relationship. Remember how we were so good about returning things, Like we never asked, you know, not to return.
We were terrified to keep something.
Too long, right, we were terrified.
I mean that evolved into we were such hoarders.
In the end six it would I dare you to come and pry this.
From our.
And do you remember? This just came to my mind. Do you remember that time there was something? I mean, this is back when we really felt like we had to be like on the forefront. We had to get things like right off the runway, mostly for Sarah. I don't know if that was so true for Charlotte. But remember there was something that came off was at McQueen. I think something that came off the runway and you had sent an assistant to the show in London or Paris wherever it was, and they had to stand there waiting for it and fly back with it. Do you remember this? I do, I do, insane.
I don't remember what garment it was.
I feel like it was a butterfly looking kind of you know, calf tanny thing.
Yeah, that was from one of the movies where I accident sent something returned something to a Vogue shoot that was happening in Tuloom. And then I looked on the one liner and saw, oh my god, she's got to come out of the bathroom in that dress tomorrow.
Wow.
And Melfie said, stick a pa on a plane.
It's very cheap.
Go down to Tulum and steal that dress back because I don't want to change the schedule. So we sent them one and that little pa thought it was the most glamorous thing she had ever done in her life.
And she called me from the airport and said, I have the dress, may I? Because it was turn around, you know, like you went came back.
It was a rounding round, and she said, can I please order of Margarita?
I hope you said yes.
I said, please do, but stay in the airport.
That's adorable. Okay, So let's go back in time, back in time. What do you remember because when I'm so, I'm rewatching, right, and as I'm rewatching, I'm just seeing touches of what's coming fashion wise starting to enter the picture.
Right.
So, like Sarah in the episode before this one, she goes she she is going out with that French guy and he leaves her a thousand dollars after they've spent the night together. Do you remember this?
Oh?
Yeah, right, And she's got some good dresses and I'm like, oh, Pat and Molly are doing their magic, right, Like she has this beautiful silver dress and she's walking down Madison Avenue and she's talking about how she feels like she's floating and she she lifts up off the sidewalk. Do you remember this? No, literally, no one remembers this. I texted her. She doesn't remember it either. I don't know how we did it or why we did it exactly, but it's a great dress. And Cynthia remembered something that maybe you had to double that dress. Remember how it was always a bit of a drama for us to have to double something, which is very normal in film and TV. They didn't have to double her triple something, but for us because we had, you know, hopefully one of a kind from vintage or one of a kind fashion around. Like remember my product skirt. Pat told me that I couldn't wear it to meet Trey because we had to get five of them because I had to fall in the street. And I was like, we will wear it, we will wear it. She had to call, you know, all of Europe to find enough product skirt, lipstick skirts, you know, for me to wear it, and she did. God bless her.
That is so relatable to like the no pantyhose.
Like in television, you were supposed to be able, no problem stunts. You could triple, quadruple something, and that was the first kind of department. I think that came along and said, I'm sorry, Charlotte's in a vintage thing and you're gonna have to take do it once.
Right, like right.
This was unheard of.
It was unheard of, and sometimes people were very unhappy with us because of it. But we felt like it was very very important and I think we were right and you know right, And many people have asked me this over the years, and I kind of feel embarrassed that I'm going to ask you now, but I will go for it. People have said that the fashion was its own character. Do you feel that that's true?
You know, I always heard that coming along, there's a fourth character the clothing, and then it started becoming there's a fourth character the city, right, But I have to agree on both of those. Yeah, you know, there was a lot to dive into with the clothes. There was a lot to dive into with each of you, and there was a lot to experience in that setting, that location.
It's true, and that was I think part of the magic was that we were trying to be of the moment. We weren't trying to be all things for everyone at all times. Like the Kansas comment, from the HBO executive but we were trying to be specifically there, you know, and open to the influence of being there on the streets, which was so magical.
We did not ever shoot in a restaurant in Brooklyn, Okay, we were strictly of the moment Manhattan. They will I remember those locations. I was just like, Wow, this is so current. Most people haven't even gotten a table here yet. You know, it was a badge of honor to be shooting there.
Definitely.
Darren is someone who gave our department so much information, and I think that that helped set up the DNA of the clothing because he was like, Charlotte works, Charlotte doesn't work. Charlotte's addresses this, and that is just a lot of information that oftentimes you don't you don't get to go that deep.
That's true, That's so true. I mean this particular episode that I'm on now see her Charlotte in the gallery and I feel like it's the first time, and I'm like, oh, thank god, we're in the gallery. Because in the beginning, that was a big, big part of Charlotte. Like almost every storyline is at least tangentially related to her. Art, like you know very much that I pose for this dude who paints the kind of Georgia O'Keefe type paintings.
I was going to bring that up, and I was going to bring up you dressing like a man.
Oh I can't wait. I'm not there yet. But isn't that great? Isn't that so great that we did that? Back then?
I remember people stressing out about that.
Do you do you have? I did? I had a mustache. Judy Chin did it. And Judy who was doing makeup for Sir Jessica and I. She would flip back and forth. Do you remember she and Nikki and she had just done Freda. She had done salamahayak and Frieda and she knew how to make like fake eyebrows, so she did bigger eyebrows on me and the mustache so that it looked really real and wasn't like you know if you go to you know, costume the house and write a paste on. Yeah. It was very special and also like Charlotte was. So I did a lot of crazy stuff.
Oh boy, did you But what the Georgia O'Keefe that are you naked?
They don't show it, thank god. In heaven. Okay, but theoretically yes. And then and then I tell the girls that I did it right, and then they come to the gallery show and they're trying to guess which one I am how modifying? Okay, oh my gosh. But you know what, this is what I think when I watched I think so many things when I watch our young selves, but one thing I think is like we were all very game.
Absolutely.
I mean I remember being very nervous, right and concerned about like, what is this show and how are we telling these stories? And you know, is it from you know, the female perspective? Like I felt like it was very important that it be from our perspective and not for the male game or something you know, for men, but something that would you know, be ringing true for women watching or empowering women who were watching or something like that. And I feel like we came there, but in the beginning it wasn't clear, right, But I think in a lot of ways that was also your guys's influence. You know that Pat's already showing darren S and m you know, domination stuff because she's had such a strong point of view, and you guys were so incredibly integrated into the creative process.
And that is another thing about Darren so collaborative and Michael Patrick Keane. Lots of information to departments at least ours, right, and very open to hearing an alternative idea.
Right lot. That's important.
You work with are like no, I want this, which is fine, it's your show, but shows God were like open for me.
But I felt like we were just creating something that we felt like didn't exist, and I guess it did. I mean, it still doesn't. Right except for us, there's really nothing to compare it to, which is also so strange to me.
You know, it's really I mean, talk about the planets aligning and being in the right place at the right time.
I mean, that was incredible.
I don't even know how Darren hooked up with you know, Canda, I don't know any of that.
I don't know either. I think they just went out in New York.
You know, you had a relationship with Darren longer than any you know, I did.
But I didn't really know. You know, I was already sober, right, so I wasn't going out, you know what I'm saying. And Darren. I feel like Darren has said that he just knew Candice from going out, and he thought that she was smart and interesting and funny, and I think he read her column and you know, they were They were in that kind of very cool upper echelon of New York. Not upper echelon like a lot a lot of money, but more like super cool version of that. Yeah, but this is okay, many specifics I want to ask you about because I don't even know the answer to this, but okay, So what I remember meeting Sarah Jessica and her saying something about her Manolo's that she had collected already. And this is in nineteen ninety seven, right pilot time, and I was just so impressed. I was like, what you have? Like wow? Many? And they were all like so carefully, you know, in their dust bags in the boxes, like you know, beautifully beautifully stored. How did you remember the shoe trajectory of Carrie at least or the rest of us.
I will tell you what I remember and then SJ can correct me. I've romanticized it, but I remember Pat and SJ feeling like that label was kind of under the radar, so it was a good one to pluck, you know, and really go.
For I think that's true.
Yeah, it was it. I mean I feel like it was.
I don't think people downtown knew what a Manola.
Was, right, I don't think I did.
I don't.
It's yeah, yeah, George, the guy who was Manola's partner, I guess yep.
He was really also a.
Real collaborator and open for business and open for anything. Right, So that was a good company to, you know, get involved with.
Absolutely. Do you remember, I don't know if you will, but in the beginning, I'm wearing some low tint kind of heels, like very average, and I remember I am it took it took you guys a while to get me into high shoes. And I remember I had this pair of Manola pumps, black pumps that probably I don't think they were one hundred and five millimeter. I think they were probably like whatever eighties seven or something, and to me, they were really high and I had to really practice walking in them and whatnot. And there's an episode coming up. I had one pair, one pair, and we just rewore them a lot, and I had that episode. It hasn't happened yet, but when I'm with the Widow in the Graveyard and it was pouring rain, bitter cold, okay, bitter cold, and I'm wearing some kind of an almost vintage type dress. It might not have been vintage, I'm not sure. I think it was, was it? And I want to have a shawl on? But then I wasn't supposed to have a shawl on. I'm very cold, so I'm just desperate for anything to keep me warm, and I have to run up this hillside, this muddy hillside, and I basically ruined my Manolo's and I was so stressed about it. And they had to go to the shop and get like redone because they were just soaked through with mud from this graveyard, you know. And then at some you guys did a story with a Vogue I want to say about the fashion, which at that point we were desperate for any coverage for the show of fashion or anything in general. Do you remember we never said no to press in the beginning.
Okay, you don't remember this, no.
No, So Pat gives them my Minola's for some reason, and my little butterfly ruby necklace that I love so much. Do you remember my butterfly ruby necklace? Yes, Vintage loved that thing. She gave that to them. And it never came back, and one of my Manola's never came back.
Oh my gosh.
I know. I was like, pat Field, don't give my stuff away.
That's amazing that you only got one pair. That's really a sad story.
And now the worst part of it, we beg you to bring shoes from.
La to I know, I was just unpacking my box. I was just in packing my box. But it's okay, Mollie, It's okay. I don't mind because it gives more money for you to buy new things.
Right. I was like, we still don't buy your shoes, you still bring.
Them from No, no, No, It's all good because at this point I think I have every color Manolo pump that exists. I feel like I do. You don't need to keep buying them.
Did you have a favorite early, you know, season one through? Did you have a favorite outfit?
I mean in the beginning, right as I'm watching, I am really amazed at how completely normal my clothes are in first season, like so normal that it's shocking. Like I'm wearing these little suits and they're so funny and like young looking. I feel like, you know, not very structured. I remember, and you tell me if you remember this. I don't know who made it, but I had a black long dress that I wear. It hasn't happened yet. It's cut and pat Lent me her own Gucci shoes that had the heel made of metal.
Yeah.
Do you remember this? Yeah, and they've come back. But they are literally the most painful thing in the world. But I was gonna wear those things because that point I was like, I'm gonna do it. I'm going to try to live up to this vision that they have for the fashion and myself and everybody else. And yes, it's painful, but who cares, you know, Like people still talk to me like, you know, I don't know. I want to wear the heels but I don't know, And I'm like, yeah, I mean get ready, cause you will lose feeling in your feet at some point.
Right right, There is numbness involved.
There is numbness involved. I mean for me, at all times, my right foot is still numb. But you know what it's worth it, you guys, It was worth It was worth it. It was worth it.
I can watch an old older episode, a past episode and always watch Cynthia Nixon doing a walk and talk and I know if her feet are hurt.
It's true. It's true. I agree, And I could also tell with myself now every once in a while, like I had to do looping the other day and I was like, oh man, I should have taken those soakkates off. Why am I trying to wear the soakkate?
Oh? Ouch?
I know, okay, this is common knowledge. But when we recently shot on Fifth Avenue outside the jewelry store, yeah, I had that blue on. It's the blue Tarry Muglare Halter dress that you and Trey. Yeah, ifanian is one of my favorites. And when you recently are in blue again with Carrie, so I was like, wow, what a great side by side.
And I have both those dresses.
Yeah.
We tried to do kind of a modern breakfast at Tiffany's, like not too done because it was the middle of the day. But also do you remember, and I mean we're you know, I could talk to mom all about you know, twenty million things, you guys, but do you remember when we used to shoot with with people on the street, Like Charles McDougall directed that breakfast Attivany's the first time with Kyle, and he would send us down the street. You remember him?
Yeah? Oh, I definitely remember him.
Yeah. Can I tell you, guys, there's a director on this current episode that I'm rewatching that I have no memory of. What how could this be? His name is Michael Fielder? Fielder?
Is that the guy that came to set one time in a stretcher because he had back and he directed from a stretcher?
Do you remember that?
What?
Yeah, on the stage in a stretcher had back problems.
We'll have to look it up.
Michael Fields. I'm so sorry, Michael Fields. If you're out there, I don't remember you. And I don't know how it's possible, but this is a long time ago, but it was like random. When I look down at the episode, I thought to myself, I can't remember this person.
No memory of him. What would Charles dougle with?
Charles McDougall was very ambitious and usually what would happen is we would go over budget and Melfie would start to look very stressed, and Michael Hill from HBO would come and sit on the set and glare at us, you know, like you guys are over, you guys are over. And Charles McDougall did not care Okay, he was just doing his artistry, and his artistry involved many interesting things. And for the breakfast at Tiffany's, it involved having a long lens camera blocks away from us, blocks and blocks where Kyle and I couldn't even see the camera. And then they'd give us a general like try to walk by this scene in the sidewalk, and you know, we were just walking and ad living talking, right, and with regular people, Okay, regular New Yorkers walking down the street, walking down Fifth Avenue, not knowing. I mean maybe we had to get a release from them after the fact. I have no idea how that worked, right, But they're just doing their business and we're just trying to walk and hoping that we are on camera and having no idea. That's how amazingly ambitious he was. And it was so much fun. And then by the time we would get closer, we would be closer on camera, and then we would probably cut and do that shot where you can see us framed in the window. And then also my other really really great Charles McDougall, was in burgdor flipping the china over. You know, Kyle and I are flipping the china over, and I think Bunny comes, but we had I think we flipped the china like thirty six kind of times.
Wow, yeah, that would send you over budget. They wouldn't let you do that now, right, Oh.
I don't think so. Maybe they'd let Michael.
They wouldn't let They might not. You wouldn't do it, I would What are you saying?
What are you saying? I never say no, I.
Wouldn't think you would cut them off at like twelve or something.
I never have cut them off and ever ever, ever, because you know why, you always feel like you can do it more better. You know you can do a better take. I mean it depends, it depends what's happening that day. But I can't imagine saying like no, I won't do another take.
I can't.
I mean, look, there's sometimes like, for instance, my very very lengthy birthday party, which we won't go into any more detail other than to say that I have a birthday coming. Charlotte has a birthday coming. I should say on the show it is an epic birthday party, Okay, epic. And there were times where we would say to our lovely director, I knew who we loved so much. We'd be like, we think we got it, Like we just gently be like, we think we got that one, because they were just seen after seen, take after take, so many characters, so many characters.
You guys were trapped now about but let me ask you something and tell me if this is really none of my business, oh baby, asking you over and over again in a bedroom scene.
Well, I mean that's a different situation, for sure, for sure. Yeah, And I do remember definitely stressy, stressy times way back about about We had so many different directors, right, and so many different points of view about what it was we were supposed to be doing, and definitely I had some stress. And as you remember, we were often filming in the middle of the ever loved night right with like no one around to help you. We didn't have intimacyque coordinators back then, and if Michael Patrick wasn't there, you kind of had no or Darren for that matter, And often Darren might have gone back to La or he might have been writing, or everyone might have gone home because it was two am. It was two yeah, exactly, so you might just be by yourself. And I do remember, and we haven't gotten there yet, but there is a scene where I ended up feeling so uncomfortable that I went and locked myself in my dressing room and called my manager back in LA to get some advice on what to do, because I just didn't feel like the man director had the right idea for this particular sex scene. You know, I just remember there being a fair amount of anxiety about it all. Like do you remember that time where I have to try I'm trying to get Kyle's character to have sex with me. You know, we have this like troubled sex life in our marriage. Do you remember? And I had to wear that sheer nightgown and basically, you know, appeal to him to see me as a sexual being. God help me out. It makes me nervous just thinking about it. Okay, do you remember the stress about that? Yeah? I mean I'm trying to kind of emotionally and seductively appeal to him both, right, So it's kind of a difficult scene and that you have to be emotionally available as well as seductive, you know, not like fake seductive, you know what I'm saying. And I remember really stressing about whether I should wear underwear under that because I think Pat wanted me not to. I know, it's so embarrassing to think about, right, I know, but I think that was another call to my manager Dave, Like, Dave, Pat wants me not to wear any underwear and you can see right through this thing, and I don't know what to do. And he was like, you gotta wear some underwear. And I'm like, I do, right, I think I should wear some underwear. Right.
I'm remembering now why she right? Because you in real life would not have.
It's true, It's true. She wasn't wrong. She wasn't wrong. Yeah, she wasn't wrong, But I mean you were trying to find the balance between like can I live with this and you know, screenshots of this following me around or whatever? Right, But do you remember the time to when Pat wanted to direct. Oh yeah, she'd be like, you know, I would just take an ice cube and run it down your leg. She'd like some crazy ideas.
Yes she really, And I'll tell you that carried on through. Pat wanted to direct an ugly Betty episode. Wow, she wanted to you know, that visual mind of hers wanted to get out of the square box of the clothes.
Right, Well, did I mean the clothes for us at least? You know, really permeated everything, almost to the point in the films where you know, we had to try to get rid of the conversations about the clothes almost like it took center stage so so so much. And I feel like what people thought happened was that brands had come in and like imposed themselves on us, which was not, in fact the case. I didn't feel did you feel that way?
I have never ever, you know, felt like that's an inappropriate thing. Even though it's free, it doesn't suit the character and we're going to put it there now right.
No, it was us wanting these things and having to find a way to get them because we couldn't afford them on our budget because at a certain point our budget would have exceeded all budgets ever made if we'd paid for everything, like it was crazy.
And bags are frightening.
The prices on handbags are like beyond I know this is not popular, but the Abu Dhabi movie, yeah, the costume department, those are our famous costumes ever.
I know he loved everything.
That you guys wore, that strapless blue thing that I was sweating bullets to do this pin I was so afraid to pick and that on you.
You mean the the the like are talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We have seen it five in the morning.
Yeah, when we're so cold that we're we've turned blue. Yes, I remember that. It was beautiful.
Those things that those little things that stress you out. I had to call for the supervisor to come and help me. I wanted it to be in the right place.
I mean, that's the thing. You guys, with your attention to detail, you are unmatched.
Unmatched there as well.
Well thank you, but I mean, like if you think about you know, you and Pat and now you and Danny obviously on Ninjesla like that, and all of our dressers that we've ever had, and all of the supervisors and the attention to you know, how things are made and how things are put together and how a bow is tied. You guys don't even want to be around when a bow needs to be tied, okay, I mean the stress.
Careful, that's dangerous.
I know, I know. I won't go into any more detail, but there's many people who have strong feelings on how a bow must be tied, okay, And you don't even want to get involved, right, You're just like, yeah, sure, do whatever, you know you guys do whatever. But I think like when some people are they say things like, you know, I think maybe when people come to work on our show after having seen it, they're kind of amazed what all goes into just a scene or a walk and talk or whatever, because you when you're watching it, hopefully you're not thinking about that, right, but then we know like the levels and levels of levels of attention to detail that it takes to make it good.
Well, you know, you of all people, know what it's like to come for your fitting and you always block out an entire day of you lon, And what.
Is it like on other when you go to.
Us sad Molly, when you go to if you've been with us, right, and then you get a job, you know, when we're off, you're just like, oh god. I mean for me, I'm like, can I go home and get my clothes? I mean, because we're just spoiled rotten, okay. But the other thing that I think about when I think back, like we used to work, you know, as you know, almost all night as the week went on right till sun rose on Saturday morning, but also sometimes because there was no time for a fitting because all of us were working so much more. We didn't have as many days to do an episode, So even if it would seem like maybe one of us wasn't in that episode as much, we were probably in the other episode being filmed, right. And sometimes we had mobile units. Yeah, so the only time to do a fitting was when you wrapped at night. And I remember going to a fitting at like two am. Oh, this is insane.
Can you believe that?
No, but we did.
It seems unfathomable to me.
I remember that time that somebody, I think it was the supervisor Mark made up T shirts because we had four units going a ac Indeed, that would be illegal, now do.
You think it would be? I mean, it was the only way we did finish right, and we but that was when we were in Silver Cup and they had all those stages, so we had sopranos. Must have wrapped right, So we were just by ourselves and we would just run from stage to stage to stage, and we'd be like, what do we have to do now? Oh? Yeah, we got to do a phone call, our half of a phone call. So we'd run over to B unit and do that, and then we'd run over to C unit and do like an insert of our hand picking up a glass or whatever. It was like, oh my god, the insanity. But you know, we were young, we had the energy, right.
We were in it to win it. It was exciting.
We were we were in it to win it, and it was exciting and we loved it so much, as we still do.
It's still exciting and it's still coming back too.
And just like that, it was like back to summer camp.
I know, right, Yeah, it still is so much fun and so amazing that we even get to still play in the sandbox.
Oh my gosh, absolutely so grateful, Molly.
I could talk to you forever, as you know. So will you come back and do another episode? Can we make this into two?
Yeah?
Okay, good
