In September last year, Sex And The City fans were devastated by the loss of Willie Garson, best known for playing Carrie Bradshaw's brilliant best friend, Stanford Blatch. Willie sadly passed away while And Just Like That was still being filmed, meaning that his original storyline had to be changed. And in the series, to explain his absence, Stanford left Carrie a note, explaining that he had decided to divorce from his partner -Anthony Marentino - and move to Japan.
But now, showrunner Michael Patrick King has revealed what was intended for Stanford, instead of moving across the world. 'Before I knew that Willie was sick and couldn’t complete it, Stanford was going to have a midlife crisis,' he revealed in an interview with Variety.
'Stanford’s character always had a borderline career as a [talent] manager, and we were like going to explore the fact that it wasn’t a real career,' he continued. 'It was going to be Carrie and him, feeling the shifts.'
Oh, and Stanford and Anthony - who most fans think were mismatched - would have broken up anyway. 'Anthony and him were probably going to have split anyway,' Michael added. 'Then we would keep both of them in, and everybody would be relieved that they were divorced because it was not pleasant for anybody,'
Michael continued, saying there were more fun scenes planned between Stanford and Carrie, due to Sarah Jessica Parker and Willie's real-life friendship. (After he died, SJP said his absence, after being friends for 30 years, would create a 'crater' in her life, which she'd fill with their memories.)
'There was a series of really fun, flirty, hilarious confidante scenes with Carrie that I loved,' he added. 'That old, old, very specific chemistry that Carrie and Stanford have, which is based totally on the uniqueness of Willie and Sarah Jessica’s history.'
The showrunner also explained the abrupt change to Stanford's storyline, via the note, calling it the most 'threadbare writing' he's had to do, as he 'didn’t want to even flirt narratively with cute business about where he is'. 'I knew the audience would never invest in it, because they knew he was never coming back,' he added.
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READ MORE: Willie Garson - Best Known For Playing Stanford In SATC - Sadly Dies Aged 57