Blair Underwood is detailing why he opted to not join “Sex and the City” three seasons before his iconic turn as Dr. Robert Leeds.
Underwood told the A.V. Club that he first turned down a role earlier in the series that centered on Kim Cattrall dating a Black man. (While Underwood did not include the specific episode in the A.V. Club interview, he did confirm to Vulture in 2021 that it was in fact for the controversial Season 3, Episode 5 titled “No Ifs, Ands, or Butts.”)
Underwood was later cast as fan favorite sports medicine physician Dr. Robert Leeds, who becomes Miranda’s (Cynthia Nixon) boyfriend after moving into her building. The character appeared in multiple episodes of Season 6 in 2003.
“I actually did say ‘no’ the first time,” Underwood said. “The first time they had offered the role, to be honest with you, it was about how Samantha was fascinated by dating a Black man and wanted to know if, uh, all of the rumors were true about our anatomy! And I said, ‘Listen, I’m honored, thank you, but I just don’t want to play a character based on race, on curiosity about a Black man.’”
Years later, Underwood was contacted by the “Sex and the City” executive producers once more. He asked the team if the storyline would “be about race” this time too.
“They said, ‘No, no, no, we’re not even gonna mention race!’” Underwood said. “And I think it really did only come up maybe once. I did five episodes, and I think Samantha mentioned it once, saying something about ‘a Black doctor’ that Miranda was dating. And that’s really been a consistent thing in my career: not wanting to be boxed as ‘the Black guy.’ I’ve had that conversation with many producers along the way, and they were so great. They said, ‘No, he’s just a doctor who Miranda meets in the elevator, and they have a nice little fling.’ And it was amazing.”
He added of working with Nixon, “[She] could not have been sweeter, and when I was cast in the role, she and all the other girls were doing a scene on the set, apparently. I was in Los Angeles, they were in New York, and she called me. I’d never met her — I never knew any of them — but she said, ‘We just wanted to call you and tell you that we heard you got cast, we’re all so excited you’re joining the show, and we just wanted to say welcome to the show when you get here.’ She’s just such a sweetheart, and she’s always been that type of person.”
Underwood previously told Vulture in 2021 that he was “respectfully not interested in being the curiosity” of Cattrall’s character in the slated Season 3 episode.
“I said, ‘I’m going to have to say no, but I would love to come back at some point.’ I think that set the precedent later,” the “Longlegs” actor explained. “Two years later, they came back with the role of Robert Leeds. I asked if [the character] was about his race. Like, is it about being a curiosity, or can he just be a man? They said no, he’s a doctor that lives in Cynthia’s building and they fall for each other. And I said I would love to do that. If you look at those episodes, I think race is mentioned once, when Kim Cattrall says something about him being a Black doctor. I wasn’t interested in being a curiosity in the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s; I wanted to be a full-fledged, well-rounded character. Now in 2021 we’re more open to delve into the nuances of race relations and how we see each other.”
While Underwood admitted that the series is “definitely dated,” the HBO show “doesn’t offend me because that’s what it was.”
“It was the way of the world,” he added. “It’s like, how is it possible that Woody Allen movies are set in New York with no minorities? That’s one of the reasons why I loved the idea of being able to represent the humanity that fills the skin … being a character first that happens to be Black, as opposed to being ‘the Black guy.’ […] That’s why we have to remember those times so we can keep pushing the needle forward.”
The “Sex and the City” revival series “And Just Like That” has embraced a more racially diverse cast. Season 3 will also welcome new cast members Mehcad Brooks (“Law & Order”), Jonathan Cake (“The Affair,” “Desperate Housewives”), and Logan Marshall-Green (“Upgrade”) as love interests.
However, the controversial storylines have still plagued the franchise, including Sara Ramirez’s portrayal of comic Che Diaz. Original franchise actress Cattrall has mostly sat out the revival show, aside from a brief Season 2 cameo.
Cattrall previously told Variety in 2022 that her character Samantha’s slated storyline for the shelved third film would include a “heartbreaking” plot involving her receiving unwanted “dick pics” from Miranda’s son Brady, then 14 years old. Brady is a high school senior in revival series “And Just Like That.”
